Inside the bus
My road trip across Occ Mindoro continued, with a four hour trip (another 90 km) to Mamburao. The road condition was slightly better than the road from San Jose to Mamburao. The difference this time was that I was taking bus to get there. The truck driven by my friend has left ahead of us to deliver some products in Batangas and has to catch some schedule to pick some fertilizers in Manila. It's pretty obvious that my province is heavily agricultural. My trip has opened my eyes with the different products this province produces.
From San Jose up to Sablayan, the major product is palay.
Corn field and the blue mountain
I remember one time when the Central Luzon was devastated by Mt Pinatubo eruption; our province fed the whole country with rice for that year. I myself is a son of a rice farmer. We used to have a parcel of land before that we planted it with palay (rice), and since our government is so efficient, we got no irrigation and has to depend for the water supply of the farm from heaven. If farming is your only salt-mine here, your life depends on nothing but pure luck. I remember when I was I kid, I prayed so hard for the rain to come. A failure to produce good amount of rice in a year means poverty for the entire year. For us, farming was not everything we got, our saving grace was my Mom's dental clinic. As early as 7, I knew I should not place all my eggs in one basket. I would stay with my Mom helping around the clinic; it was my bro who was assigned in the farm. However, a week or two in a year, I was obliged to stay in the farm, some sort of immersion I think.
Some River
That was where I learned to tame the water buffalo, to chase chickens. It was a bliss. Our food there was as plain as kangkong and rice. I never thought that that was poverty; it was one of the happiest days of my life except during the night. Being the youngest, I was normally the object of prank. My bro, sis and other cousins would play scary games just to taunt me. I hated darkness and the sound of nocturnal animals then. I remembered having nightmares during my stay there. Such a sissy. hahahaha
This trip from Sablayan to Mamburao, I saw a lot of corn fields, instead of rice. I never had any inclination that my province produces corn; I thought only the Visayan provinces like Cebu produce corn. See, I still learn something new. :)
Reaching Mamburao, we where already hungry.
We ate at the terminal and we were served with noodles with plain water for soup. Worst food ever, I swear. It was a short tricycle ride to my friend's place from the terminal. My friend introduced me to his wife and his new born daughter. Since my friend got fracture in his right foot, we decided just to stay in his place. We initially plan of going to some beaches but he was limping when we were there. That's why I didn't see any beaches which they are famous for. Maybe on my next visit, but for this visit, we waited for the night to come to start our session of Red Horse again! I love this beer!!!!
