Friday night, I got to stay in the office for an hour later than my intended going home time; I wanted to shadow my officemate debugging on a problematic code that I should be working on. If I insisted to stay a few more hours longer, I’ll be so tired to wake up early for my commute to Puerto Galera the next morning and who knows what could have happened?

Have you heard about this –> 12 dead in Batangas sea mishap ?

M/V Commandos was my preferred ride from Batangas Pier to Puerto Galera. I’ve read in a few blogs that their boats were new and are well-maintained. I’ve researched as much as what bus and boat to ride. All the rest, I’ve left it to my quirky whim; I was still undecided to which beach I would head to – White Beach or Talipanan – up until the boat reached the shores of White Beach. The boat’s next stop is Talipanan but I let my feet take me to White Beach instead.

I slept a little past 10PM on Friday night, forced myself to wake up by 3AM. I even pondered for a bit if I could just leave by 8 or 9 AM but decided I’ll have to start moving or else I might change my mind on leaving. That is the best perk of traveling alone, time is in your hands. So I left my dear abode by 4AM, waited for a LRT Leveriza bus in front of Mercury Drug Crossing, got off at LRT Gil Puyat station (P20 from Crossing to LRT Gil Puyat), crossed the pedestrian over pass to the otherside of the road and rode an RRCG bus in front of 711 to Batangas Pier (P167). How detailed can I get? When I got there, I was kind of lost as to which terminal to head to but of course you’ll just have to follow the throng of people heading for the same direction. I quickly spotted the M/V Commandos ticket booth and bought a round trip ticket for P450, and paid for an environmental fee of P50 and a terminal fee of P10.

The boat ride to White Beach was fairly smooth. We even spotted a swarm of dolphins swimming near our boat when we left the Batangas port and a yellow butterfly was fluttering near the outrigger on the side I was sitting on while we were nearing White Beach. The sky was blue, the sun was shining bright; it promised me a very beautiful Saturday. Perfect!

Only abycruz knew of my real destination. I only disclosed my real whereabouts to 3 more of my friends after my massage by the beach because I was wondering if they could recall the name of the masseuse we hired 2 years ago on that same beach.

Imagine my shock when I watched the Breaking News on tv that night. They reported first on the boat headed for Puerto Galera with engine failure; nothing’s really tragic about that, everyone got back to shore safe. Immediately after that was the report on the M/V Commandos boat that sunk. There were casualties.

12 died. [let's pause for a few moments to pray for their souls]

It happened early Saturday afternoon on a good weather. It is so morbid to think what if I were the 13th casualty; this crazy girl checked in on room 12 should have been the 13th tragic death of that sea mishap, with only 1 dear friend knowing of her whereabouts. I only told 3 other friends where I was around 5:30-6PM after my massage. I’ve heard it on the evening’s breaking news around 10PM; Kat called right away after the news finished.

I wondered… what if, what if…

I’m not yet really sure what to think of it. I’m wondering if it were a wake up call on at least letting my family know where I truly am when I am on such trips. Or if I shouldn’t really be going out of town alone.

Still, a lot of people are doing this all the time, haven’t they? I mean, look at Dora the Explorer, does she really still go home to tell her parents that they’ll be going to the Toy Maker’s house to bring Robot back home? Oh, yeah, at least she has Boots for a companion. Still, how old is she? And a monkey for a companion?

Even if the trip was a bit of a fail (staying in an accomodation in direct plain view of a place that I should have stayed clear off), I would love to do it again. When and where, I’m not yet sure. Any suggestions?