Doing the Luzon-Visayas Loop: a Masochist’s trip
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This is the 2nd of 16 installments of the Luzon - Visayas - Luzon Loop series. Click the image on the right to check out the rest of the posts.
Call it madness, call it a masochist’s trip but, after much ruminations, I finally made it: The Luzon - Visayas - Luzon Loop. Of all the days of 2007, I picked the end of the year holiday rush to head for home in Cebu from Makati and back (after 3 weeks) by land and sea. I intentionally didn’t book any plane tickets so that I will be forced to take the land route.
No doubt about it, the trip itself is a bit brutal, taxing, draining and not for the faint of heart as I had to endure almost 30 hours of no sleep negotiating the Bicol - Eastern Visayas leg and partly clinging my butt on an improvised wooden seat without cushion inside a crowded van just so that I can at least make it to Ormoc on time. But despite all these hardships, it was an experience!
Just imagine:
- 2,600 kilometers
- 63 hours of total travel time
- 3 taxis, 2 cars, 5 vans, 5 buses, 3 jeepneys, 4 tricycles, 2 pedicabs, 3 fastcrafts, 3 barges and 2 pumpboats
- P4,700 total expenses for fare, terminal fee and a dorm type accommodation, and
- 16 provinces
The loop actually traced the following: Makati City - Laguna - Batangas - Quezon - Camarines Sur - Albay - Sorsogon - Northern Samar - Western Samar - Leyte - Cebu - Negros Occidental - Iloilo - Capiz - Aklan - Oriental Mindoro - Batangas - Makati City.
Ready… set… go! Me and my gear.
I did not travel light. Maybe this was one major mistake considering the breadth and duration of the trip. I was lugging my full camera gear crammed inside a convertible LowePro bag, a mid-sized 5 year old backpack filled with stuff and things and my aluminum, heavy duty tripod that really saw little action, except for a church visit in Cabatuan, Iloilo, that I was regretting bringing it. The planned Cebu church interior photography didn’t materialize. When I got to Iloilo, my shoulders were already aching especially when I was changing vehicles frequently.
Also because of this heavy load coupled with uncertain schedules, I totally skipped Tacloban - Maasin via Sogod in Southern Leyte, Ubay in Bohol and Dumaguete in Negros Oriental.
Guide book, notebook, pen and receipts.
My main reference for the routes, trips and other information was my two month old and ever reliable Lonely Planet (9th Edition) guide book. I took lots and lots of notes like travel time, expenses, routes and stops and observations on a cheap spiral notebook where I crammed all my tickets and terminal fee receipts.
The LVL Loop is not easy to negotiate. One has to prepare for it. But frankly, I should confess that I didn’t have all information ready like the travel times and fares that I have to discover it en route or at the stop itself. I’m not regretting this part, though, as the uncertainties add up to the sense of adventure, discovery and fun.
Will I do this again? Sure! And when that time comes, I’ll take my time, include as much provinces and routes as I can and enjoy again this masochist’s trip.
NOTE: This is the start of a series. The rest can be read at theLOOP.
Map by Eugene Villar’s Lakbayan
![Alamy](<a href="http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/4F1C9933-45B9-4D58-899E-97A4300FCCB1/Stanley+Cabigas.html" ><img src="http://www.alamy.com/images/Logos/alamy-LM-25.gif" alt="Stock photography by Stanley+Cabigas at Alamy" title="Stock photography by Estan Cabigas at Alamy" border="0"></a>){kind=link}
Sidney
14 February 2008 20:53Looks like a nice trip… warn me if you need someone to carry your bags/tripod next time…
Lonely Planet is still the best guidebook around. A bit surprising that no Pinoy traveler (like you) never wrote a better guidebook.
Being a lot older than you, I already stopped traveling on a hurry to visit as much places as I can. I learned that you need time to discover the soul of a place. You can’t just go to a place, take pictures and move to the next place. Sometimes less is more…
This doesn’t mean that I am not jealous of your trip… I would do it any time if I had the opportunity.
Sidney
14 February 2008 20:59By the way, P4,700 for 21 days is amazingly cheap. That is less than 225 pesos a day!
I guess your food allowance is not included.
nina
14 February 2008 22:25WOW. Bilib talaga ako sayo, Estan!
The Lonely Planet book is really something else. I’ve put off buying it for a long time (because I’m cheap that way haha), but I finally bought it last December. It really does get you fired up to travel! Are you doing the Luzon-Mindanao overland trip next time?
Ferdz
15 February 2008 16:09Idol talaga! I think you can do a book similar to Carlos Libosado’s 28 days around the Philippines.
estan
16 February 2008 11:04Sidney, Nina, I’ve always thought of doing this trip. Not only this one but around the country: Manila to Ilocos then Cagayan Valley - Bicol - Samar - Leyte - Mindanao entering Surigao and exiting Dapitan but not before rounding Zamboanga then the western part before exiting Mindoro. While this needs much preparation, I’ve done the Luzon route before and would like to do it again but this time with documentation.
I think Lonely Planet has already done a good job and other writers who would want to make a guidebook should focus on those not readily found at LP.
Getting the sense of place is important Sidney. It’s what makes the journey more meaningful. This journey was more on getting the experience of feeling and doing the loop.
Sidney
17 February 2008 10:55Doing the “entire Philippines loop” is definitely on my “Bucket List”. I hope I will not need to be terminal ill before I have the guts to actually do it!
Enjoy your travels my friend!
acey
17 February 2008 15:03estan, you’re really a fighter huh.
i wish you well! take care. 
iloilo onfoot
17 February 2008 17:06come again Estan…
lagal[og]
18 February 2008 10:10wanted to do something like this but never got the long vacation. but this is really one interesting trip. nakita ko yung gear mo and i wondered how you managed
anyway, imho, jens peters guide to the philippines is a thousand times better than the lonely travel guide.
hahaha, natawa ako sa sinulat ni sidney na bucket list. it is is mine, too, and i, too, hope i won’t be so old when i finally have the time and resources to do it, maybe, just maybe, i’ll include mindanao na rin in the loop.
lawstude
22 February 2008 15:51i never had the guts to travel alone so i really admire you for what you have just accomplished.
the most of what i have done is a road trip around luzon and also a road trip of few places in mindanao late last year… but never alone.
this post kept me thinking… can i do that?
i still don’t have the answer.
estan
22 February 2008 16:13lawstude, you should try it. in this way, you will discover more of yourself, your limits, your capabilities. yun nga lang its kind of lonely but i often do this to clear my head, to think, or just to experience a place.
SUPERPASYAL
7 March 2008 20:44OMG! This is such an amazing project! It must be a hell of tour if it ever was organized for a slightly larger group (logistical nightmare, to say the least) but I salute you for the courage and thank you for the inspiration. This is one reason why I have always loved your site.
Padayon, bai!
estan
10 March 2008 14:55Thanx superpasyal
cedsaid
12 March 2008 21:51Wow! The whole loop at P4,700? Amazing!
I’d love to do something like this soon. But I think I’ll leave my tripod behind. Oh wait. Sayang naman, I’ll bring it nalang.
estan
14 March 2008 14:22yep. but that is not including the food. Accommodation was only dorm type and just one night as I was sleeping at a friend’s.
tutubi
15 March 2008 14:31ang galing. i suggested sometime ago to fellow travellers and bloggers to come upwith a philippine travel bookmade by filipino travelers but nobody took the challenge
a friend
3 April 2008 13:44Hi Estan,
this is my first time to read your nice project. Its great and continue your work. Now, i have another place to visit with.
End of the Luzon-Visayas-Luzon loop » langyaw
17 April 2008 11:13[...] the end of the road for my first Luzon - Visayas - Luzon roadtrip or what I fondly call, theLOOP. Its been really an arduous but enjoyable adventure across many provinces, thousands of kilometers [...]
spanx!
17 April 2008 12:20estan,
you’re a bit nuts (in a good way),
but…
you’re now my favorite Amazing Racer!
more power to you, bro!!!
estan
17 April 2008 12:39thanx pre
Jhong
11 July 2008 15:30Sir nakaka amazed yung mga pictures na kuha mo. Hope makapunta ka dito sa Subic dami rin magagandang mga places here. I can tour you pag pumunta ka. See you and congrats
estan
11 July 2008 20:03thanx jhong for the offer