Bukidnon: Braving the Long and Winding Road

Malaybalay, Valencia & Maramag, BUKIDNON

Date: MAR 15-16, 2015

At 10,498.59 km², Bukidnon is known as the third largest province in the Philippines. Because of how huge this province is, the journey tonight might be long and tiring. Good thing that the bus was comfortable enough for me to sleep (thanks to its cool airconditioning system), and there were TV sets and reclining seats as well. Hopefully, I won’t get bored.

DAY 1

It was 6:15 in the evening when we left Agora Bus Terminal, and it was already dark that time. Traffic was minimal and the bus ran fast, and we managed to get to the border between Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental in a short period of time. We just got into Bukidnon’s territory, but there were already lots of zigzags, and I can feel from inside the bus that we were gradually ascending the mountainous terrain of the province.

The empty Maramag Public Transport Terminal

Even though it was dark, I still managed to take a glimpse of what was going on outside. You could see the glittering lights from several homes located at the foot of the mountain, and as we got higher, the temperature was becoming way cooler. I slept for a while and when I woke up, I checked out where we are, and then I saw this welcome arch saying “Welcome to Malaybalay”. We’ve reached Bukidnon’s capital city, and right after passing through the city center, we had a stop over at the Malaybalay Public Transport Terminal.

There were many vendors at the terminal, selling different products to passengers. The stop over was not that long; after the Malaybalay bound passengers managed to get off the bus, we immediately left. After almost an hour, we reached the city of Valencia and there was another stop-over. But just like the stop-over at Malaybalay, it didn’t take too long.

A local government building in Bukidnon

After driving through several mountainous terrains, we managed to reach the town of Maramag, and we had our final stop-over. My legs were already tired and crammed up, that was why I decided to get off the bus just to take a short walk around the terminal. The bus conductor told me that this time, the stop-over would be longer than the previous two, because it would be the last. The bus door opened, and I managed to step on my 39th province – and looked for a place to eat. However, because it was already late at night, only snack bars remained open, and eateries were already closed. I just went back to the bus and waited for it to leave.

DAY 2

Yellow Bus Line bound for General Santos

I was in a deep sleep, not realizing that I was already in Davao City. The bus conductor woke me up, telling me that we have reached the Ecoland Bus Terminal. I was still sleepy when I picked up my bag and got off the bus, and then I walked towards the gate of the bus terminal. It was 01:55 in the morning, and even though it was dark outside, I felt safe because I was on world’s fourth safest city. I was so happy because I made it on my 40th province – Davao del Sur!

What I did next was to look for a bus bound for General Santos, and I found was this ordinary Yellow Bus Line that was scheduled to leave at 03:00 AM. I had to wait for an hour inside the bus, and at 2:55 AM, the bus left for General Santos; and from here, I will be heading to the southernmost province on the main island of Mindanao – Sarangani.

This post is part of my Mindanao and Mount Apo Adventure (with Trail Insanity) that took place between March 15 – March 21, 2015. Read the first entry here. Read the post about the previous destination here. Proceed to the next destination here.