Date: May 15th 2014

I had to wake up really early to board a bus going to Lucena. I boarded one from near Araneta Center and made up for lost sleep for much of the journey. At around 8am, I woke up when the bus was moving very slowly along the highway.

We reached Lucena Grand terminal and from there, boarded a jeepney going to Lucban, where the Pahiyas Festival was on in all its colourful glory.

The jeepney stopped a bit far out from the Lucban village/town. We were asked to get down and to get to Lucban proper, where the Pahiyas festivities were taking place, we had to take tricycle taxis! So a third ride later, again, we were dropped outside the village/town. Now we had to walk.

Here’s a brief video I took while walking around:

I boarded a jeepney and made my way to the next stop — Kamay ni Hesus (“hesus” is Jesus, pronounced in Spanish).

And that was it. My day at Lucban was over. I boarded a jeepney going back to Lucena Grand terminal. I had picked up lunch from a Jollibee at the bus depot before boarding the bus back to Manila. It was a long journey, getting stuck in traffic towards Manila and finally arriving back at the hostel only past sunset. I was tired and lacking sleep, but I guess it’s a good thing I forced myself to get out of bed early. Pahiyas Festival was a bit of a cultural experience that was sorely missing in all my travels across the Philippines, so it was good that I chose to visit Lucban.

This is also the second last post in this series. Kind of makes me sad to know there is just one final post left to write about in this Philippines series 🙁

Previous post(s) in this series:

Philippines 2014: Manila Chinese Cemetery

Philippines 2014: Corregidor Island tour

Philippines 2014: Bargain shopping in Manila; Paseo de Santa Rosa & Solenad

Philippines 2014: Japanese tunnel; leaving Davao for Manila

Philippines 2014: Scuba diving for the first time, at Samal Island (Davao)

Philippines 2014: Philippine Eagle Center, Davao

Philippines 2014: Attractions at Eden Nature Park… and getting lost

Philippines 2014: Sky Cycle at Eden Nature Park, Davao

Philippines 2014: Leaving Cebu for Davao; Davao City sights

Philippines 2014: Tumalog Falls; Oslob church, Cuartel

Philippines 2014: Oslob – Swimming with whale sharks

Philippines 2014: Trek to Mount Pinatubo crater lake

Philippines 2014: The itinerary this time around; UP Diliman and Maginhawa

My Philippines journeys: 2011 series | 2013 series