Trip scheduled to leave at 8pm.
We got to the meeting spot (mcdonalds) 2 hours early at 6pm. About 6:20pm a group sits next to us with bags also. The guy asks if we are on the same tour as him at 8pm, I said yes then moments later I got in line to order an ice blended mocha. The same guy jumps infront of me ordering his ice blended double choco drink, I let it go without a second thought.
So the van arrives ontime and the wife and I jumped in the first row jumping infront of him. He complained for 15 minutes of the hour we sat there even lying to say he arrived at 5pm for this seat. If the guy did not cut me off in the line at mcnasties I would have given up the seat but I live by the golden rule & if I treat someone like an asshole I would not want them being nice to me so... His complaining was so bad one of the tour staff kept trying to tell me I would have more room in the back row. 🖕I said no thank you, no birds were flown or flipped.
Everyone we talked to said 3.5-4 hour drive, let me take you on a journey so you can see why the tour company when just now asked told us 8 hours...
So far we left an hour late (9pm) and stopped 15 minutes later for gas.
Now 45 more minutes have passed (10pm) and finally the staff is done eating their stinky dinner and we are stopping for gas again and bathroom break at 1 hour into the trip...🖕 (someone please shoot me)
This is the staff taking us... (Yes she is digging at her ass while talking to the other passengers, good thing she finished eating)
Apparently there are 3 vans of us packed 14 per van. I am really trying to stay positive so by writing this review may help some of you decide to utilize any other company so I can save a few future headaches is all the positivity I could muster. Here is the rest of the staff...
Now 15 minutes later we are on the road again.
If I had to guess our average speed is 10 mph with traffic and road conditions.
Security check was fast and armed with a machine gun, glad he did not mind me snapping his blurry picture. (no time to get a good shot apologies)
The roads are better & more lanes opened so we are moving finally.
Too bad this driver flashes his brights really fast around 20 times and brakes hard when passing any vehicle in a lane over from us. He also likes to drive in 2 lanes like the truck in this video
He also likes passing cars around turns in the oncoming lane and utilises the shoulder on straight aways..???😲
Ok it has been another 45 minutes (11pm) so we are stopping to eat, yes seriously I'm not joking (do I have to keep asking one of you to shoot me? Just aim for the big bald head pictured here)
It has been just over 30 minutes(11:35pm) & we are back on the road. The driver keeps rolling his window down with the ac on. I only notice 2 new mosquito bites so far. (scratching)
He is also flashing his brights at all oncoming traffic for no reason and the staff lady is laughing when drivers flash bright high beams back. 😲
Now that we are on a very curvy road the driver is texting... Maybe you can save a bullet afterall friend.
Amazing we just stopped for gas at 1:30am making it nearly 2 hours without stopping.
Its now 3am and we stopped to eat again. Who eats at 11pm & 3am? This stop lasted an hour, its 4am and were back on the road. 6am and we stopped to eat again. At 6:30 we started our tours lasting all day, I could not believe they did not provide an itinerary so we would know the torcher would last 22+ hours with them as we just finished at 6:30pm. They were surprised to hear we are not joining them tomorrow for our land tour even though I kept asking questions all day, my wife does not speak visaya so we had no chance to understand anything unless we asked. Every tour I have taken, which is very many all over the Philippines they translated everything, gave itineraries and did not hold us hostage stuck with them 22+ hours ever. I am now looking for bus tickets to go back to Davao as I donot want to go through the trip with that crazy driver and annoying staff.
Mosquito bites added up to 5 from the van ride.
Look for part 2 of this tour showing the actual great places we visited today.