Travelling in a Wi-Fi Bus

Travelling by bus for 10 to 12 hours going to our hometown of Polangui some 500 kilometers south of Manila used to be so boring. But now after some years of not being home, I finally found something interesting in the buses that ply the Bicol-Manila and vice versa route. You know what it is? Wi-Fi. The buses that carried me to Bicol and back to Manila are both equipped with free Wifi on board. So from Cubao, Quezon City to the land of the Mayon Volcano in Albay, I browsed the Internet, sent some emails and endlessly chatted on Facebook till I felt dizzy of looking down into my laptop while the bus negotiated the bumps, twists and turns of the highway to Bicolandia.

The Wi-Fi service is a very welcome addition to the usual Video on Board amenity which used to be the primary source of entertainment while in transit from the big city to the province. It's nice to note also the improvement in the audio and video equipment of the buses having been transformed from the humongous CRT television sets to the modern LCD ones. That alone however cannot sway most people to ride a particular bus because to some, the choice of movie by the conductor and the driver becomes an annoyance to other people, and most of all, the passengers have no control over the type of movie to be played.

With Wi-Fi, the passengers with laptops and Wi-Fi enabled gadgets have endless possibilities for entertaining themselves and keeping them busy while traveling 500 kilometers and more. The Wi-Fi in the bus does not come without some hiccups though. As the source of the Internet access is via 3G cellular connection, we  have had some, in fact lots of disconnections due to the lack of cellular signal in some points along the way. I just hope that the Philippines' telcos will increase their signal coverage in the vast stretch of the Maharlika highway linking the various provinces of the country.

There is a very small number of buses that have Wi-Fi at the moment and the one the I rode on in transit to Bicol is the Antonina line. At six hundred fifty pesos fare from Cubao to Polangui with a latest model bus and very cold aircon system, surely it's a steal for me, with the more prominent buses charging up to almost a thousand pesos without Wi-Fi. On the way back to Manila it is the DLTB line. Though it is a hundred pesos cheaper than Antonina, i wouldn't recommend this one for you because their Wi-Fi sucks. It's so hard to connect and at one point some angry passengers suggested to the conductor to remove the Wi-Fi sticker displayed at the door of the bus because it is props only. For the 10 hour trip we never made any stable connection all the way. And by the way, their seats are also too darn straight verticaly so if you want to take some sleep instead because you cannot update and chat at Facebook, forget it because there is no way you can tilt your seat for even a little bit

Polangui Parish Church Visited

This is my second week on my old little home town  of Polangui and the places I visit always brings back memories of the olden days. The featured picture in this post is our old Sts. Peter and Paul parish church, built by the Spanish during their 300 year occupation of the Philippines.

Much of the old stone finishes of the church is now gone and it is replaced by concrete and paint. I wonder if it must have been very difficult to replicate the finish of the old stone walls because whoever decided the renovation of the church’s façade let it finished with cement plaster and paint.

I can still remember the moss laden stone walls of the church’s bell tower but I am sad to see it replaced with concrete and painted grey. They should have at the very least tried to retain the original material and fill up the gaps or whatever but having it painted tends to lessen its historical value and aesthetic quality.

In fairness to the Parish Pastoral Council and the people who helped restore the place, they have done a very good job in beautifying the patio and the “Cristorey”. The patio’s new look is a complete reversal from its sad state the last that I saw it more than 10 years ago.

As I walk the place, I recall my childhood, the first communion, the annual fiesta, Sundays and the holy week and it feels good to be back.