RORO Experience

RORO Experience
18 August 2006

Nothing beats the excitement and adventures that we all go through everytime we go home to Bacolod. The weekend that passed is no exception with added treats from new experiences.

17^th August

8:00pm. Home after some shopping stint at SM Delgado, brought some food stuff and treated Boz to Jollibee. Bumped into Notchka and learned some truths about Ellen and Ian (they broke up!). Sad news, but then I guess, life must go on.

9:30pm. Was all ready for sleep. I had to if I want to be up by 3am. Boz was still jumping around the room.

10:00pm. Finally dozed off. Boz, still jumping around and Miki still on the PC.

18^th August.

2:30am. Alarm clock rings. Miki was up before I was (or did he even sleep?) Toilet habits. Sipped my Quaker Oats Honey with Hazelnut. Tried to wake up Boz without getting him all squirmy. Managed to do so (Thank God!).

3:15am. Walking the streets of Mapa and Peralta to get to the pier. Didn’t have to worry about carrying Boz. In his excitement, he had the energy for walking. On the way, we saw the moon (got him pretty excited there too), dogs and he pointed on some trucks and cars parking by the road. When we reached the pier, there were already people falling in line to buy their tickets. The counter guy was still sleepy. At some point, he might have dozed off while serving a client, hehehehehhe.

3:45am. Already on board the Montenegro Shipping Lines. Miki saw some former Lantech clients also patronizing the early morning trip. Bruce Lee was on the tube. We were seated on the 2^nd floor while the cars were down below. There were benches for everyone. Since there was not really many passengers, others had the luxury of having a whole bench to themselves to sleep on. At the back portion of the boat was a small canteen serving hot beverages including some of these Japanese tea concoctions which I have never heard of before. There was also a Videoke machine which I guess, they operate during day trips.

4:00am. Boat left for Bacolod. Dozed off.

5:30am. I was awakened by the pain in my back. Bad sleeping position - sitting with Boz sleeping while sitting on my lap. Unfortunately, my movement caused him to stir and he wasn’t in the mood for some more sleep. Miki ventured into some sight seeing on the starboardside but Boz was just not up to it. He was more interested on the two ladies (the Lantech clients) seated two rows behind us who were still deep in their sleep.

After a while, he decided to go out of the bench area and see how things were doing outside. But first, we had to secure his get up. Hood on and jacket zipped to the neck. Then off we go.

I pointed to him a coconut floating in the water, the island of Guimaras, where we were heading and where Bacolod was. He pointed out to the sun, happy that is was already out. We looked at the foamy white bubbles formed by the boat’s moving on water. Clever little guy, said they were soap suds. Had to explain that they were caused by the breaking of the body of the boat into the water .

We moved to the aft straight to the canteen. There were also passengers there. One guy was busy listening to his iPod, another sipping his coffee. There was also this gang of three ladies - a mother, her daughter and a nanny or some sort. The little girl's name was Karen. Turns out she was also two. At first, Boz was shy, hesitant to come near her. But when Karen showed him her Barbie watch, the bonding occured. Karen was talking to Boz in some incomprehensible language even her mother could not understand. But Boz listened intently. He examined Karen's watch, pointed at the star figure next to Barbie. Then blurted with excitement "Estrellas! Dora hambal estrellas!" (Stars! Dora said those are stars!) Now my son speaks Spanish too!

He told Karen about the coconut that we saw earlier. But Karen was not interested. She still wanted to about her watch and so Boz grabbed my hand and led me back to our seats. He was up to something. As a mother, I already had an idea what the rush was all about. We were heading back to get his watch. He made me put his watch on his wrist and head back to where Karen was. Then, their bonding moment continued.

I couldn’t let the moment pass without taking pictures of them together. It's good that her mother did not protest. I mean, well, I was practically a stranger. I didn't really like to volunteer information about myself so I just tried to answer her query about where I lived. She then proceeded to sharing info about an older son whom they are coming to visit in Bacolod. And the nanny, was not actually a nanny but a niece who she took from her folks in Cebu to have her properly treated of her hypothyroidism and at the same time help her out in her taking care of Karen. Despite the exchange of bits and information about our lives, I didn’t stop to get her name or even her last name. Rude eh? I think not. Sometimes, it's just nice to maintain your anonymity amidst familiar faces.

6:30am. The boat docked early, I guess. And so we had to wait for Tito Em to bring the car to the pier. It was quite a while before they arrived. Then we went home.

Positives:

1. Saved money

2. A first for all of us

3. Boz enjoyed the whole trip

Negatives:

1. Had to sleep early, wake up early

2. Good choice if you don’t mind the 2 and a half hour trip

3. We had to sleep the whole morning to regain our energy drained from waking up so early

4. Had to deal with Boz’s upset stomach. Everything that comes in goes out. Had to deal with mess and the fuss that went with it.

5. My tummy did some rumbling too.