RoRo to Iloilo

by - Sunday, May 06, 2018



Music: Valesco - Cloud 9
Owned by: Trap Nation


Hey everyone! How's your summer?

We just got back from a short vacation in Iloilo!!! Yes! An annual trip to the city of love, the hometown of my dad where the most "malalambing" Filipinos can be found.

We had sneaked out a few trips within the town and I had here some pictures I took while we are traveling via RoRo (Roll on Roll off) way.

This clip is about the road trip to Iloilo. Yeah! It's more about the trip and this is the first video clip I edited using a free video editing software, VSDC. I warn you I am no expert in editing but I tried my best so please give me your five minutes and watch it.

So, we decided to have our 6th trip to Iloilo via the RoRo (Roll-on, roll off) way of traveling with the big help of our L300 and my uncle's car. We are 14 pax during the twenty seven (27) hour trip. Oo, matagal ang byahe but it's worth the hassle because you get to appreciate more the cities you passed by, mother nature and the bonding that we had while travelling. Plus the unexpected "pagka ligaw" made our trip more fun and exciting. Traveling through RoRo with your own car is a combination of land and water travel. 

We traveled by land from our house to Batangas Port around 5 am and it took us about 3 hours to reach the port. And then when we got to the port (around 8:30am), surprisingly there is already a long queue of cars. It took us until 11:30am to finally reach the cashier and pay for the arastre, terminal fee, passenger's ticket and the vehicle fee. We finally boarded a Starlight barge at 12:15 in the afternoon. The waiting time ruined our trip.

Batangas Port has never been accommodating. Guards at the port always shouts and never give clear instructions to drivers and passengers. This has been our dilemma every time we travel to Iloilo because there's no improvement with their system ever since. I'm sorry but I think the guards on-duty really lack customer service skills. I know their priority is safety and security but they must at least respect passengers that are at lost while inside the port and give polite and clear instructions as to where they have to queue their cars or where to park or where to pay tickets. If they do not want to be asked by passengers because they are busy (busy texting, busy chatting with one another or busy looking for shady areas to avoid the sun) at the post, the management should have at least put signages or public instructions or hire ushers to assist their customers. Another problem that day is that they only have one collecting agent to collect payments that is why the line took us about 4 hours which is really disappointing. Because if you are traveling through Roro you have to be concerned with your travel time, to make sure that you can ride the next ship/barge at the next port immediately or else you would wait for the next trip.

I hope Batangas Port management would be concerned with the customer service of their employees in the future. 

Ok so much for that! So, we had our first water travel. From Batangas Port to Calapan Port it took us about 2-3 hours. Calapan is part of Mindoro already and most of the time the waves on this part of your travel are not to bumpy so this is the perfect timing to take your selfies while sailing.  

After 2 hours we successfully crossed the sea to the province of Mindoro. We then traveled via land again for 4-5 hours to reach the other end of Mindoro, the Port of Roxas City. 

The Port of Roxas City is another challenge because of the long waiting hours. I am not sure but ships that will cross to Aklan arrives every 3-4 hours I think. You are lucky if you arrived when the ship is still loading passengers. But most of the time passengers really have to wait for 3-4 hrs before they can sail to the next island. We arrived there around 7 pm and ate our packed dinner. If you do not packed your dinner don't worry because Roxas Port has a lot of food stalls. There is also Andok's which offers dine-in and there are small hotels you can stay if you want to sleep while waiting. The next ship will arrive at 12:00 midnight but the vehicle reservation is already full so we have to wait for the next one at 2 am. 

Rain started pouring around 11:45pm. So we got worried that waves will be high but luckily it lightens around 12 midnight. The 12 midnight ship arrived. God is gracious that there are still room for 5 more vehicles, so our cars were called to board.

From  Roxas it is about 5-6 hours sailing to Panay Island. We again boarded a Starlight ship at around 12:30am and we left Roxas Port around 1:30 am. There's not much to mention during the trip because we are all so sleepy. 

We woke up at around 5am and Panay Island is within reach. We arrived at Caticlan Port at around 6:30am. We now crossed the province of Aklan. We ate Aklan Mami and pansit for breakfast and resume our trip. 

From Aklan, we have to cross the province of Capiz before we reach Iloilo. This is the last road trip so be prepared because this is a 5-6 hours drive. But you can ask the help of your GPS apps or Google Maps to find the shortcut. 

Here's a tip: if you plan to follow your GPS, stick to it. Do not ask locals. Because GPS road labeling and local terms are not the same. You might be even more confused if you ask locals for directions. 

Another tip: Be very careful when asking or choosing persons to ask. Remember you will be crossing provincial areas. 

After several turns and a few turn arounds, we finally reach Iloilo!!!

It took us about 27 hours in total from Batangas Port to the municipality of Ajuy, Iloilo. Of course, it still depends on your driving speed and the schedule of the ships at the Port. Estimated average travel time is from 22-25 hours. 

I hope you got an idea on how to travel the RoRo way and you get to see a glimpse of how our travel went. 

I might upload another video about how our vacation went but I need to study more VSDC. If you have edited videos before please share the app or the program you are using. Hopefully it's free or if you paid for it please let me know how much it is. 

Thanks for watching!












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