Last Thrusday, my mom texted me that I need to go home for the blessing of my uncle’s house (whose family I stayed with for almost a year when I was in Junior college). So on Friday, I decided to go an early shift (with the blessing of my boss – thanks mami! :)) so that I can leave Manila by 5PM. Unfortunately (and for reasons I don’t know), many people are still going up to Baguio so I was only able to board the 6 PM trip. I was assigned to seat # 2, just behind the driver’s seat. It looks like the bus is new. Its interiors are different from the old Victory buses. It has a small flatscreen TV.

When we were along NLEX, there was a sudden long sound (like that of a siren) from the bus. It lasted for about 2 minutes and it only stopped when the driver decided to pull over. After a few minutes of checking, we resumed the trip. The driver did not give us any reasons for that.

When we were in Tarlac for the first stop over, the driver did not park in the usual parking lot. We were in a different area which I could not locate. But beside us is another bus which was being repaired. I’m not sure whether the driver had the bus checked as well.

Moving on to I guess Taloy, when the road is already uphill and zigzag, we heard the siren sound again. Weh! Good thing we were near one small stopover for other buses so that’s where the driver pulled over for the 2nd time that night. This time, they asked us to get down and board another bus – at 12:30 AM. Scary waaaa!!! Three Victory Liner buses passed by and most of the passengers boarded those buses. I opted to just wait for other buses rather than competing with all the other passengers for a seat. I was already sleepy and I didn’t want to be standing for the rest of the trip. Besides, I just heard about the Puerto Galera incident and its cause was overloading. My praning self imagined that with a lot of my co-passengers wanting to get to their destinations already, they will all board those buses no matter how uncomfortable it will be for them and then the bus might be overloaded wehehehe.

Anyway, after 15 minutes, the driver told us that it’s already ok to board. Since there were only a few of us passengers left, and since none of the other passengers opted to wait for other buses and just get back in our bus, I followed suit. When everybody were settled and the driver was about to start the engine, the condoctor said, “alalay na lang pare”. Waaaaa. Scarier! Right then and there, I wished I could have just boarded one of the other buses earlier. The trip was slower this time because of it, and then it was foggy and it was already drizzling. What a combination.

Based on the driver and conductor’s conversations which I was able to eavesdrop (hehehe), the bus overheated and the siren sound was a warning. And according to them, it was a good thing that the bus had the siren, otherwise they would not have known that the bus already overheated. I don’t want to imagine what could have happened then.

After 30 gruelling minutes, we finally reached Junction Marcos Highway, where my uncle and brother were waiting for me. After a few more minutes, home sweet home in one piece :). Whew!