Road Trip

Yesterday, I did something that I haven't done in a long, long time. (In Manila, at least.) I went on a long bus trip!

At around 7:30 in the morning, I hied off to the Victory Liner bus terminal to catch a bus going to Olongapo. With Ivy's wedding coming up in less than 2 months, we had to go to Subic Bay Yacht Club to meet the florist and familiarize ourselves with the venues. It's been 3 years since I last went to on a road trip like this, so it was one big field trip for me.

The trip alone was a great experience. While the bus was traversing the much-improved NLEX through Bulacan, I remembered our weekly trips to Marilao for Vitarich's "V-Day" and our Pigrolac presentations in their plant that smelled like piggy poop. When we passed by San Fernando, memories of our frequent plant visits to the San Miguel Brewery in that town also came flooding back.

Olongapo and Subic have changed a lot since my last visit there. Hotels have sprouted all over SBMA, and it looks like developments of that sort will continue the next few years. There are also more restaurants, which is great. But there are less Duty Free stores, which is a damper. Good thing the usual suspects are still there: Royal Subic Duty Free, Freeport Duty Free and the Brands for Less store. Despite all that temptation around me, I didn't shop! (I deserve a medal for that! Harharhar.)

SBMA always brings back a lot of memories. The earliest being our visits there as kids when Dad was assigned in that area. Then there's the first Ad Congress that I attended. And our Rotary events. And the Adformatix outing where Xtine and I bonded with Ira. And our Duty Free shopping sprees with Xtine, Fiesta, Shash and the rest of the Zambales team. I'm glad that even if Subic has changed, the places where memories were built haven't.

Road trips are one thing I miss about living in Manila. I remember how I'd just hop on a bus to go to Baguio, Vigan and La Union on a whim. The familiar feeling of passing through the Philippine countryside and see the sights that inspired Amorsolo and Francisco. How we'd always make these stopovers at these pseudo-restaurants selling overpriced meals and where you pay P1 if you're going to pee and P2 if you're going to poop. Ah yes, the joys of bus travel.

Yesterday's road trip actually inspired me to start planning for this Christmas holiday. Maybe i'll use my vacation time to hop on buses and familiarize myself with North Luzon all over again. Go back to vigan and eat empanada by the town square in front of the cathedral. Go up to Baguio and look for another Marc Jacobs at the Ukay Ukay. Pass by Subic and check out the Zoofari and Ocean Adventure. With Victory Liner's help, I'm sure I can cover all these in a matter of days.

That would be one awesome trip!