The Tabuelan Adventure

[Mike S]

Yup it was quite an adventure to say the least ...... I would post pros and cons but I'm afraid there would be very little pros .... other than some nice locals we met while resting along side the road ...... but a bit later on that

The road sucks big time from Sogod to Tabuelan ..... so many potholes and repair work being done it is actually ridicules ..... and a few places where they just pile dirt on one lane with no warning what so ever of the hazard ..... so many curves it would break a snakes back ..... when they did have flagmen for road work they looked so sleepy I was almost scared to move even when waved on .... the road is a mixture of concrete .... asphalt and patched many places with some type of dirt or maybe clay ..... patching holes there is a lost art if there ever was an art to it ..... :mocking: (a Filipino friend told me before we left that some friends of his said the roads were a lot better sense they fixed them) .... dear god if that is the case they must have used a goat path up the side of the mountains before ..... oh did I mention mountains ..... yup .... but at least most of the ciff-sides are rock or at least appear to be rock ..... the other side is a shear drop off ...

I suppose the scenery could be considered rather nice if it hadn't been raining all day .... couldn't even take any pictures or video because of it ..... but did manage to take some video and a few pictures on the way back before the rain set in .... I use a tripod on the dash for the video cam and took the pictures from out the window of the 10 wheeler truck ..... did I say 10 wheeler truck ..... yes I did but more on that later ....

Anyway we made it to Tabuelan and it was a good thing my asawa fixed us a lunch and snacks to take with us because we didn't even see a Jollibee let alone a Macdoo ..... also saw no place to spend the night should you have to .... stopped at the farmers market to ask where the pier was and told to just keep going straight down this little bitty road and sure enough there it was ..... now I'm not sure why they call this a pier because there is absolutely nothing there except a couple of buildings and 10,000 10 wheeler trucks all waiting to cross to the other side .... no place to eat or anything like that ....

We talked (or rather my asawa did) to one of the drivers about the port and why so many trucks .... he said they only have one actual scheduled ferry which only runs 3 times a day and a few other companies that will show up when thy have enough trucks there ..... from what I saw it would take 10 ferries to haul that many trucks .... wish i ad taken some pictures of them all waiting along side the road ....

So we road back to the farmers market to eat our lunch .... market is quite large and not to shabby ..... looks like thay are trying to make some improvements as we saw what looked like comfort rooms being built across the field from the building ..... while we were there a provential bus dropped about zillion people off to enjoy the market ..... my god they kept coming out of that bus kinda like the ol' clown car episodes ..... :hystery:

So we begin the long trip back .... took us just a little over 3 1/2 hours including lunch ..... about 2/4 of an hour outside Tabuelan it happened ..... I noticed a popping noise in the driver side front wheel and a bit of a problem with the steering .... as luck would have it there as a place to pull over and get the car off the road ..... to make a long story short the auto-locking hub on the driver's side 4x4 broke .... yup ... broke ... now a stroke of luck continued we were right in front of a house and still on the upward climb so the car came to a slow halt (I hate to think what would have happened if we were going down hill ....

The day before we left we had called a couple of tow truck services here i Cebu City just as a precaution .... only one A Plus will travel out of town .... the other is strictly local ..... so there we set in the rain along side the road between 2 S curves waiting for 3 hours for the truck .... he arrived loaded up the SUV on the rollback and we were off again .... when we got to Consolation we found out that there is a truck ban from 5:00pm till 7:00pm so we found a little bake shop with 2 stools and some good cookies and we waited .....

I had called the car repair service we use and he said just brink it to the shop and the guard would let us in .... so no biggy we arrived at about 8:00pm dropped off the car ... got a taxi and headed home for the end of our great adventure ......

A Plus's telephone number is 261-5050 & 261-2316 ..... cost from Cebu City to outside ofTabuelan and back was p6800 ..... the driver was very courteous and an excellent driver .... we gave him 100p for his snack and he kept refusing it but finally did take it ..... now I understand there is an outfit called Wheelers Club International that has branches all over the Philippines and for a yearly fee (I believe it is about p700) they offer towing service locally ..... long distance is more ....

More to follow but that is enough for now ..... have to go pick up our car ..... :cheersty:

[Dave Hounddriver]

After reading that I had to Chuckle at your signature:

To Me the Worst Day in the Philippines ....... is Better Than the Best Day Some Place Else

[Mike S]

Yup ...... it is kinda ironic isn't it ..... :hystery: :hystery: ...... but then how much worst could it have been if I hadn't gotten the tow truck number .... or we had been going down hill instead of up ...... or we had been in a valley where the cell signal is none existent ..... or the wheel had come off (it did when they jacked the car up at the garage) or possibly a great number of other things ...... and the big thing is we weren't hurt ..... so I guess all in all outside of a few pesos I can still say ....... To Me the Worst Day in the Philippines ....... is Better Than the Best Day Some Place Else ........ :hystery: :hystery: :thumbsup: :cheersty:

[Jake]

Yup ...... it is kinda ironic isn't it ..... :hystery: :hystery: ...... but then how much worst could it have been if I hadn't gotten the tow truck number .... or we had been going down hill instead of up ...... or we had been in a valley where the cell signal is none existent ..... or the wheel had come off (it did when they jacked the car up at the garage) or possibly a great number of other things ...... and the big thing is we weren't hurt ..... so I guess all in all outside of a few pesos I can still say ....... To Me the Worst Day in the Philippines ....... is Better Than the Best Day Some Place Else ........ :hystery: :hystery: :thumbsup: :cheersty:

Well done Marine.....your overall outlook on life shows your character and I like that. However, I must tell

you now you are cursed for life because you were caught shackin' up with that white lady......he, he.

What you need now is to have someone bless your vehicle. Next weekend I'm free to give that service

freely. My golden flow service has received many testimonies from satisfied customers.

Just ask Jack P about my favorite wall of his new home.....he, he.

[samatm]

Thanks for sharing your trip report. Sounds really exhausting! Glad you made it back Safe and Sound. I just drove up to Daanbantayan and actually had thought about taking that crossover for a Scenic Route. So Glad we ran out of time and stayed on the main the Highway.

Where were you heading ? from your report it sounds like you were just out for a day trip. Where were you planning on staying?

I would guess the potholes ate up your SUV. Do remember the probable jarring blow that most likely did in your service?

Thanks for the Tow truck numbers .. i got em in my phone now. You never know.

[Mike S]

Where were you heading ? from your report it sounds like you were just out for a day trip. Where were you planning on staying?

We were actually just going to look at the port in Tabuelan as they have roro service to Negros and we wanted to look at another option besides Tolado ..... but no thanks ..... it ain't an option now ..... :mocking: ..... we had planned to be back home about 1:30 or 2pm ..... but that wasn't to be ..... oh .. by the way we found NO PLACE to stay around Tabuelan ..... but they do have some resorts around Sogod ....... all in all it sure broke the monotony ..... :hystery: :hystery:

[Mike S]

What you need now is to have someone bless your vehicle. Next weekend I'm free to give that service freely. My golden flow service has received many testimonies from satisfied customers.

Sir Jake ..... I must respectfully decline your kind offer to bless my vehicle I fear way to many San Magoo's in you for it to be a blessed event ... :mocking: ..... and besides as I have no visible rust anywhere and you being a Filipino and liking salt ..... I'll just leave it at that ..... but you get the picture ..... salt ... rust ..... :hystery: :hystery:

[Panserhansen]

oh .. by the way we found NO PLACE to stay around Tabuelan ..... but they do have some resorts around Sogod ....... all in all it sure broke the monotony ..... :hystery: :hystery:

There is a beach resort just north of Tabuelan, La Familia. Just stopped by, looked ok.