Sadly, today was another chapter in the 'Public transportation in the Philippines' story. I had purposely split up the long trip from Malapascua to Vietnam into two days - going back to Cebu today, and catching two flights to Manila and Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow, and my experience today proved that I had been right in doing so.
But I'll start from the beginning. At 9:30 in the morning, I arrived at the beach where the ferry back to Maya leaves. The ferry is supposed to run every thirty minutes. Guess when the next ferry left?
If anyone of you guessed 1pm, then you deserve an award. I surely didn't expect a 3+ hour wait at the beach, and I definitely would have freaked out if I had had to catch a flight in Cebu. As it was, I only had to get back to Cebu sometime today, so I could relax and read instead of freak out ;-)
Having arrived in Maya, I was thankful that the bus to Cebu left directly, without another long wait. However, it still took five hours to get back to Cebu, so when I arrived it was already dark and raining (the rain possibly an effect of the typhoon that had been incoming yesterday?).
On both journeys to and from Malapascua, I was the only foreigner on bus and ferry. I wonder how the other foreign tourists I saw on the island got there? I'm guessing that most of them had private transportation arranged by their resorts, and that could maybe explain the sloppy ferry service - more money can be made with tourists buying private transportation, and if they are stimulated to do so by the randomness of public transportation, then there's no need to improve it, right?
All in all, I have to say that this is the most annoying country so far where public transport is concerned. In all of South and Central America, I was pleasantly surprised by pretty much everything connected to public transport: especially its punctuality, comfort, speed and frequency. The Philippines, in contrast, fulfill every single warning that I had had in mind for the Americas. Transportation is slow and infrequent, there are no timetables, seats on both buses and ferries are uncomfortable, and so on and so forth.
Another thing I've noticed is that there doesn't seem to be much awareness of environmental issues in the Philippines. I've seen people throw garbage out of bus windows, and the amount of litter on the roadsides indicates that they can't have been the only ones. Apart from the effects of random chemicals leaking into the ground - I understand that this may not be obvious to everybody - shouldn't the smell and optical clutter be an indicator that it might not be the best idea to dispose of garbage just about everywhere? Or am I just being a German here?
