The Ceres Lines Busses are pretty comfortable, at least if you take the aircon busses, they are cheap and run all over Negros, so you can get everywhere basically with the Ceres Lines Bus I probably would not use the evening and night busses though, cause they drive like maniacs and it is just too bloody scary for me to sit in a bus knowing we are close to mach 1 and its dark and we are on a mountain side... But all in all I like the Ceres Lines bus and use them regularly for traveling around here. Sample destinations from the Ceres Lines Bus terminal in Dumaguete would be Bais, Bocolod, Cebu and well yeah basically every other place you would wanna go on Negros
Ceres Can you tell me what is the road like these days up to Mabinay, last time i went in 1994 (!) it was very rough but I think by now it must be a good road all the way?? but you never know!
The road via Bais- Mabinay – Kabankalan is already good PhilT.Infact that’s the best route to take when heading for Bacolod from Dumaguete or from other towns the opposite direction,it’s cutting more the traveling time . In 1999 we tried taking the route just to see … destination Boracay. That must be our 3rd time in boracay over the yrs but we always took diff routes.We started 4:00 am driving via mabinay-kabakalan-Bacolod.The road is good apart from the long winding roads following mountain contours; you need plastic bags and handy tissues just incase anybody feel sick on the journey. Our only disappointment was the 1.5 hour waiting time in the Bacolod port crossing to Ilo-ilo, because of the documents. Goodness,I was loosing but holding my temper at that time esp bearing up the heat during the waiting period. It was like crossing to another country,when in fact it’s crossing just for the next island of Ilo-ilo.You can cross to Calais France from Dover port or the Channel tunnel easy peasy without such hassles . In bacolod port ,they can’t get the documents quicker because it needs few signatures from couple of port personnels whos gone missing. Anyway we were able to pull through,crossing ilo ilo by ferry with car with us,then head on to Boracay,did have few stops for meals and stretching our bodies . We reach Caticlan around 5:00 pm got boat connection to the island at 6:00 pm already dark when we reach Boracay. It was an experience, we wont do that anymore . In 2003 went by car from Bacolod via Canlaon to Bais.d*mn the road had lot of pot holes and we nearly had an accident as the car was stock in bit of big gap of the road due to landslide land slide and it was pitch dark .T’was hell scary at that time .I thought it was stupid to take that unfamiliar route at night. In 2004 when we hit boracay again we hired a car fetching us for Bacolod ,stayed over night in Ilo-ilo then hired another van the nxt day to continue the journey . I think this year we might do again the Mabinay- Kabakalan route for few days in Sipalay,it’ll be our first time. Any experience in Sipalay,please share your views.
Sipalay...Sipalay..that brings back memories! 1994, Ok not one to blow my trumpet, but I reckon I am the only white guy to do Dgte to Sipalay on a TMX155 with the wife on the back. it started when a freind I know lived in sipalay so i asked my Bro in laws what the route was like, they said not much other than it might be a bit bumpy...hmm okay we take it as it comes. Started off okay had a full tank of fuel, and I remember topping up at Bayawan a little bit, so everything was okay, except the Santa catalina bridge had subsidence and I did the whole length of that sucker on the width of 2 planks I could not put my feet down as there was nothing to put them down on I could see water! the whole bridge was buckled to hell! Ok so the roads were okay until Basay when they simply vanished! rubble, and then worse rubble, okay the roads appeared along the coast and some pesky kid fired a bloody catapult at me, while I was looking down at the edge of the cliff, a lot of water flooding here and there, and as i did not know how deep the wife walked across after i tested it...very slowly! got to hinoba-an....that is the most lawless place I have ever been to! a rough tough mining town, and everyone looks menacing! my wife told me not to stop anywhere there! just outside of the d*mn town some idiot stopped his pedicab right in front of me sort of about 5mts in front! I hit him and we came off, so the last part of the trip I rode that machine with slightly bent handlebars and a burnt leg. NOW look on the map.. hinoba-an to sipalay looks close?...no its not!! the roads got so rough, water pouring out of the sides of the road, the roads go up and down, up and down so steep and when wet they are like ice! a few times I told my wife to walk down as i did not trust the bike to stay upright. up hill on wet rubble I was struggling with that bike, in first gear as i did not want to flip it over. All the time worrying on meeting a ceres bus who do not slow up for you and usually drive in the middle, round corners and expect you to get out of the way. or sugar cane lorries that looked overloaded, or jeepneys with people hanging on the outside. we got to Sipalay after riding all day, my mate had nearly a heart attack to see me as he did not know i was coming. we stayed in his house overnight, and rode back next day as he said if it rains bad I will not make it out of there!! On the way back....it rained so bad I had to wrap my throttle hand in cloth to make it turn the throttle, we sheltered once or twice but it rained the whole time we rode back, at times I could not see anything much, as i had to take my Specs off! the rain stopped at siaton, and when I got back to Dgte I could hardly peel my hands off the handlebars. My bro in laws were waiting for me and laughed, I told them okay, my street cred has gone up now as I have done something you can never do! they shut up. Thats was sipalay 1994, whats it like now? I do not know, but it could not be worse...could it? LOL My wife told me several days later that she was saying her prayers all the way! I told her ....so was I.
