On the road to the motorcycle convention

We're now in the middle of our annual big bike trek to attend the 12th Annual Convention of the National Federation of Motorcycle Clubs, which will be held in Vigan and Laoag on April 28-30. This is a special ride trip for most of us as it is the first time that all of us we'll be going through the "Strong Republic Nautical Highway", one of the pet programs of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA).

Last Saturday we rode the Transcentral Highway to Toledo to take the M/V Danilo of Lite Ferry to San Carlos City. We checked out Toledo's public market and surprisingly, it was very clean, even their comfort rooms.

However Toledo City ought to get rid of the irritating noise pollution; not by the exhaust of tricycles, but by the barkers of the Lite Shipping and EB Aznar who carry portable megaphones shouting out to potential passengers who disembark from the buses that arrive at the port. Toledo City officials ought to silence these barkers, as there is no need for them to add irritating noise to the hustle and bustle of the Port of Toledo.

As we were arriving in San Carlos City one could see the hundreds of hectares of sugar waiting for harvest season. I met a friend from La Carlota, Sam Munsayac and I told him that we are looking at the future of our nation's fuel source - sugar plantations - where ethanol comes from. With the world prices of crude hitting the roof at US$75 per barrel, alternative fuels are already discussed in the Oval Office in the White House, not as an alternative fuel source, but a main fuel to compete with oil. This is what we've been harping in the past few columns. We can only hope that our political leaders, including our mindless gov't bureaucrats realize that we've been sounding the alarm bells on this for too long already.

In San Carlos City, our friend Philip Garcia of Bacolod's Thunderbugs hosted a luncheon and escorted us to Bacolod City via their counterpart to our Transcentral Highway via the mountain town of Salvador Benedicto. We stopped to see that nature's wonder, the Malatan-og Falls midway between San Carlos and Bacolod. This road is a shortcut to Bacolod as it is only 80 km from San Carlos City. Taking the old route takes 145 km.

From Bacolod, we took the Montenegro Lines Ro-Ro vessel, the M/V Ma. Sophia. I overheard our fellow rider, Cheling Sala asking his wife Susan, if they are related to the owners of that vessel. Alas, they are not. Another complaint is unabated noise pollution, this time on board the vessel in the non-aircon second class section where a loud karaoke TV was on full blast! The poor passengers had no choice but to listen to singers with bad voices who wouldn't release the microphone! In short, they turned the whole section into a karaoke bar. The loud noise even crept inside the first class section. I say, there ought to be a law!

We arrived in Iloilo City and stayed at a new hotel, the Iloilo Grand Hotel, which was (at P550 for a single room with cable TV) quite inexpensive for a new hotel. We ate in the hotel's restaurant, which we found surprisingly good. It turned out that the cook, (including their waiter Bert, who recognized me) came from Lumpia House. In short, we went to Iloilo to taste Cebu food!

The next morning, we rode our bikes to Kalibo, passing through the towns of Pototan and Passi in the Province of Capiz. So far, this was the roughest stretch of the trip as the cemented roads are so broken up, though some are being repaired with new cement. This is black mark for our good friend, Sen. Mar Roxas who ought to whip the DPWH to fix his home province. We ended up staying in Kalibo instead of Boracay, as the hotels at this time are still full and their room rates for foreign tourists only!

The road from Kalibo to Caticlan was one of the best we've seen as compared to the bad roads we saw from Passi to Kalibo. That's because many tourists pass through Kalibo to go to Boracay. But what about us domestic tourists? Shouldn't they fix their roads for our behalf? Last Monday, our back-up vehicle figured in an accident when a beat up pickup-with-no-name driven by a drunk shirtless Canadian named Middlebrook C. Lavern tried to overtake our backup vehicle and ran him off the road. I recognized this Canadian as I earlier also had difficulty overtaking him as he was weaving his vehicle as he was drunk. Luckily the Police Chief of Bongabong, Mindoro Insp. Arturo Divino was patrolling and assured us that the drunken man would pay for the damage. Well, we've already contacted our good friend Canadian Honorary Consul Robert Lim to check out the background of this Canadian. Who knows, this man may just be wanted for something. Alas, we always get the bad foreigners to come to this country! By next column, we'll already be in Baguio. Stay tuned!

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