My Watering Hole: 2Go, Off Peak and Changing Bunks

I dropped the ball arranging a boat ride to Boracay. Ticket sellers for 2go at SM Manila had answered me that the Tourist Class was a room of 8. My biggest mistake was thinking that a mass of bunk beds was the only cheapest section of a passenger ferry like this one, and anything higher in price would automatically be a room.

It wasn’t a room. There the open air type and the type with air-conditioners, the Tourist Class was fortunately the latter. Only a confluence of long weekends that November 2017 saved the trip from being a nightmare.

2Go to Boracay

While there passenger boats loading in Manila’s North Harbor, 2Go’s Boracay-bound boat is in Batangas City. It is a very short list of options going to Boracay by sea so my colleague and I took it.

We gave more lead time than it would have needed had it been a Manila port by getting on a DLTB bus bound for Batangas City at 2:30 pm at its Taft Avenue terminal. 2go wants a check-in time of 6 pm, boat leaves at 9 pm. We arrived close to 5 pm.

Unfortunately the boat, St. Ignatius of Loyola, was not prompt as we were. It was not a weather related delay but suffice to say we boarded on what our ticket stated as the departure time.

During the 3 hours waiting, my colleague and I were holed up at the Batangas Pier sitting at a ground floor concessionaire selling home cooked meals. Other people who preferred easy to eat munchies at the 7-11 next door.

The place had good seats and tables and there was no onrush of new patrons so we didn’t leave even after we ate. I went up because of boredom at around the 3^rd hour of waiting and found out that the second floor was wider than the ground. Many boats had already left before us so I don’t know how filled up the building was.

Tourist Class – I dropped the Ball

I dropped the ball in getting a room. The ticket seller had assured me Tourist was a room of 8 and believing her I even arranged to have top bunk over my colleague to avoid the awkwardness of having strangers on top of each other.

Tourist Class was not a room but an air-conditioned general area. Before this I thought there was only one kind of economy class as it were, but apparently there’s a lesser one where you bunk in with the air of the sea and the hum of the engines. What’s worse is that we didn’t even get the bunks on top of each other.

The entire Tourist Class is composed of 3 compartments; each could have approximately 100 beds. Compartment 1 is near the tail end of the ship where passengers board and get off, compartment 3 is closest to the front of the ship and it has the rest rooms. Compartment 1 was full and our bunks were almost in the middle of it.

We were a little in shock having pictured in our minds a manageable little room. I was embarrassed since I had to answer for my colleague’s comfort as well.

It was loud. Everyone was up and about trying to settle in, get meals, and pillows and blankets. What made our spot worse was that we were surrounded by people who knew each other. They were expectedly having conversations to pass the time; unfortunately me lying down meant I was in the middle of the exchange.

Not a total loss

My colleague coming from rest room noticed compartment 3 was not as full and suggested that we may be able to change bunks. I took a piss myself and checked – he was right.

This was an off-peak trip, not filled to the rim so to speak. It was 28^th of November and two long weekend holidays have already passed which meant people’s vacation expenses may have already exceeded. Early bird passengers ended up in compartment 1 and they were less and less in succeeding compartments. Number 3 had space alright.

Now I didn’t look from bunk to bunk, not wanting to give the impression that I was lost or worse looking for a bag to steal. I stuck to the walkway like everyone else and from there it was clear that the bunks closest to the wall were the quietest. A walkway separated those wall sets from the majority of bunks in the middle increasing its isolation.

I settled on the bunks just by the door that connects compartment 2 and 3 after, surprisingly, looking at more than one occupied corner. It seems I was not alone in thinking of strategic corners. I can’t prove it but there’s something how the room was filled that gave me the impression these corner tenants moved it after the boat had launched. If I am wrong and it is possible that 2go ticketing has a bunk chart, get the corners.

Staying beside the door is not as bad as it looks. While it is true people pass by every so often on the way to go to the rest room, it is night and those passing by will be less and less. Plus being a door they’ll always be moving rather than hang and talk unlike for example being in the middle of all those bunks.

That door bunk was 55B (I’m only guessing since the top bunk which I only noted was 55A) was mine and my colleague settled on the bottom bunk beside me. As far as noise level goes we were home free.

Sleep Quality

Instead of wrapping myself in the blanket (or was it a bed sheet?) I inserted it one side of it under the cushion of the top bunk effectively making a wall for me at the bottom. Doing so prevented cold air from rushing in as if I was sealed in a room just enough for my height and it blocked off the light.

The only thorn in my sleep was that I played it safe with my gym bag and placed it inside the bunk, hidden as I am from passers-by. Without the bag I would have been able to lie stretched out flat and comfortable.

The air was dead and un-moving as far the blanket can prevent it. In the times I wake in the night I would notice it but it was not uncomfortable. I would stand to take a piss or go out the observation deck if ever quick sleep eluded me.

My mind was playing tricks lying there feeling the ship move along the ocean waves. We felt the ship move when it launched. Throughout the night we always felt it move which makes for an interesting time taking aim at the toilet bowl when I piss.

Days and weeks prior to this trip my colleagues and I were always looking at the weather reports with interest, hoping no bad ones pass by during our trip. Was a weather disturbance meeting us in the middle of the ocean?

I managed to look out at the open ocean around midnight just to get answers; the brightness of the moon reflected a straight line at the ocean – it was a peaceful night.

Lying flat was the best position because the body would sway along the movement. Lying on my side was the worst – and still happens on reflex – because the movement was more pronounced, waking me up. When it does I lie flat again and repeat the cycle.

Food and the Observation Deck

Tourist Class accommodations come with packed dinner which we never claimed in our stress with the bunks and having eaten at Batangas Pier. By morning we still saw some packs at the observation deck but the staff was practically warning us off because it was last night’s food. I would have tried had I been in safer places and more familiar toilets in case he wasn't exaggerating.

It was a little before 6:00 am when the Ignatius of Loyola docked at Odiongan Port, Romblon. Even with less than perfect sleep my body clock was already on wake time so I kept moving from bed to observation deck, sometimes hanging on the deck for prolonged periods, to pass the time before Caticlan.

By this time half the observation deck closed, the staff was starting to clean. I can sympathize with their schedules but I don’t like that they did this. People were starting to get up and half the deck was cramped. Caticlan is around 2 hours after Romblon.

Understandably people all stuck to the left of the boat which had view of the oncoming islands, still it would have been nice to just have a quiet seat and watch even just the peaceful wide open sea.

My First boat to Boracay

The first boat I ever took in my very first trip to Boracay was from MBRS. It boarded in Manila and had the same stop in Romblon till finally Caticlan. Going home though needed a nearly 2 hour travel by van south of Caticlan to reach a Pier.

That probably meant that Caticlan was not built for heavy ships back then – no airports too – because at the time the boat stopped in between Boracay and the mainland of Panay. Smaller boats which were then still dedicated to individual stations 1, 2, and 3 met us at the middle.

It was a cleaner more peaceful Boracay considering there still was a station 1, 2, and 3. The island has a Pier now so that the onslaught of people that came in through the airport and subsequent boats won’t interfere with swimmers had they still be landing on the beach.

At the time I was looking for a boat to this year’s trip to Boracay I didn’t see MBRS. I never considered it a loss because all chatter kept mentioning 2Go. If I think about it what kind of passenger line doesn’t have an online presence? There is an assumption of comfort and safety if numerous tourists are using it.

In writing this blog I tried again, trying more permutations in my search parameters, this time actually putting in MBRS. Websites that I saw just gave the name and number of the shipping line, mentions that it loads at North Harbour and that it had two ships plying the route. There were no opinions posted at least for the first 2 search pages that I checked. For a route as popular as Boracay why is there no opinion on it?