Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’

Today was a travel day. I found that I have travel days and I have enjoy days. I don’t really tend to split them up, which is fine, but I didn’t do much today because it was a travel day.

I left Iligan around 11 am, stopped off at Mercury Drug to get some water and some snacks, picked up some rambotans and bananas, bought some banana bread, ate some beef and rice, and then started on the road. It was around 12 pm when I was really leaving. It seemed that Iligan has a high Muslim concentration, which makes sense because from Iligan you can go inland to where they have centuries-old roots in the region. I saw a bunch of mosques and they were full – makes sense, it’s Friday. I drove through the mosque district of town or whatever and saw a bunch of guys in white robes with white hats, maybe Imams, sitting in tricicads (a bicycle with a sidecar). It was a scene I’d never seen before in the Philippines.

Once on the road I drove quickly, I hate HATE driving during dusk and beyond so I really wanted to make Dipolog by 5 or 6pm. The first leg of the drive was smooth but a little confusing, there were a lot of weird turns that were difficult to follow.

Once past that, the second leg was a little crazy with a LOT of gravel. Many times I would find my front or rear tire sliding and miraculously I didn’t go down.

I made better time than I expected and made it into Dipolog before sunset. I found my pension house of choice, grabbed their cheapest room (₱200), took a nap, went to dinner, met a couple drunk Germans who couldn’t speak English, returned to my room, and typed up this blog. It’s fiesta starting tomorrow in Dipolog. I might stay an extra day to check it out if there’s anything interesting going on.

This is an entry in my Philippines 2010 travel log. Thanks for reading!