I miss my bed, Mama misses her pet, and so, even if the original plan was to stay here until 6, we decided to travel back home because of our petty reasons. Staying in Lipa with my little brother is fun, of course, but there's really no place like home because no matter how beautiful the City of Lipa is, it can't give us the tranquility, the darkness of my room, and the untroubled feels ours has. My house is my base, and my room is my safe haven. It's perfect for a shy person like me. Hehe
January 4 is one busy day for me and Mama. I am so glad that my bag is not that heavy because if it were, my tiredness would have doubled. Even when I'm just sitting the whole duration of our travel, it is still too tiring. Why is that? We decided to leave a bit late this time because we thought we wouldn't experience any delay and we'd still arrive in Bansud on time. But how wrong we were.
We asked my little brother to accompany us in SM Lipa Grand Transport Terminal. We're still afraid to travel without my brother, so we asked him. Of course he said yes to our request, but he is just too slow making her make up, and all that we ended up leaving his home at 10:30 am. The plan was to leave home at 9 or 9:30, not 10:30. And this is not the only problem we encountered. My brother chose the vehicle that would take us to Batangas Port. By the way, I didn't really check the minibus because I just wanted to get inside the bus and secure a seat. I want a seat near the window, and I got it.
We didn't put this into consideration, the waiting time we had to endure at the terminal and the waiting time for the minibus to be filled with passengers. We get inside the minibus at 10:42 am, and we leave at 11:16 am, like it's so tagal of waiting, huhu. So to ease my boredom, I just had food trips inside the minibus. I had VCut chips and these egg cracklets with Mama. Good thing I had food packed in my bag. And see that bus ticket there? It is clearly stated that it is only from SM Lipa to Batangas City Terminal. But sadly, I didn't notice that. And so, we encountered another problem. We had to spend 200 pesos on renting a tricycle, which took us to the Batangas Port. Oh my poor wallet, huhu.
After arriving at the port, we went to the ticketing booth and got our ticket. We actually want to go to the Montenegro Ferry, but as you can see, there's a long line in there. While the Starlite has just a few people lining up in there. We don't really want to wait longer, so we chose the Starlite Ferry, then with a 1:00 pm leaving time. Only after onboarding the Starlite Ferry did I understand why those people lining up here want to go on the Montenegro Ferry.
Anyways, after getting the ticket for the Starlite Ferry, we had to get another ticket for the terminal, and it cost 30 pesos each. It's like a ticket to be able to pass and to get inside the terminal near the gates. This is also the part where our luggage will be checked or scanned.
And finally! Here's our ticket. It's already 12:33 pm, so we don't have to wait that long to board the ferry. Lucky, lucky! But look at all those passengers here. There are a lot of them. But I also heard that there are a lot of people too in Calapan Pier, which is our destination. I guess they are also like us, their vacation in Mindoro is done, and it's finally time to go home and get busy again at work.
And it's 1 pm exactly, all the passengers of Starlite bound to Calapan were called. And so here we are, walking faster to board the Starlite Ferry. And when I saw the sea and how rough its waves are, I checked on Mama because that's her weakness. As for me, I am not really afraid. I experienced the worst before when I traveled alone from Calapan Pier to Batangas, and I was onboarded in the smallest ferry. It's Ocean Jet or the FastCat, can't remember, but it's one of the two. The Starlite is bigger, but Montenegro is bigger than Starlite. This is when I realized why there's a long line in the ticketing booth in front of Montenegro. It is because of the not-so-good sea situation.
People started climbing up the ferry, and we are in a good spot again. We settled here near the flat-screen TV and where we can see the sea. I'm not sure, though, if Mama likes it here because we can see how the wave made an impact on the screen outside, and there's water dripping inside. Lol.
The travel from Batangas Port to Calapan Pier took 3 longggggg hours. It's really slow, my goodness. While in the smallest ferries I think it can only take one hour or two. But still, it doesn't matter if it's slow, as long as we can arrive home safely.
We arrive home at 7:32 pm, the waiting time in the terminal took a lot of time, 55 minutes to be exact, the delay I mean. Because they really waited for the minibus to be filled with passengers. We're really annoyed still, we get home safe, so it's okay.
We were welcomed by our dogs at the gate, and they are crying like they are complaining about why we are gone for so long, especially Creamy White. While the cats, they didn't react much, I think they are in fact mad because we disturb their sleep, lol.
Lead Image Edited in Canva.