Road trip to the Rice City

Family and friends thought I was crazy for even considering to drive my excuse for a car to Nueva Ecija. In addition to the very little off-road experience of my Chery QQ 308 (or in the city for that matter), I haven’t practiced my “driving skill?” in a while (say 3 months??), oh! And I recently had a slip and slide moment that left me with badly bruised toes, making it difficult to step on the accelerator. Needless to say, not a lot of people are confident to allow me to venture the long unfamiliar roads of NLEX and SCTEX.

It was my office buddy’s wedding and it never crossed my mind that I shouldn’t go because of the travel time. Two days before his big day, I was toying with the idea of just taking the bus, never mind that I don’t know how to get there, I figured I’d just Google. Well it wasn’t the easiest route to search, apparently Nueva Ecija is not exactly your top tourist destination, and there are very few blogs that shared their own experience, except that they stayed with family, they took the bus, or it was a long drive. Not much help for me. At this point, it was decided, just take the car and drive at the minimum allowed speed --- 80 kph (gasp!)  

a fellow 80kph-er in SCTEX =)

So there I was, morning of April, armed with just the itsy map that came with the wedding invite as the Google search for recommended most scenic and action packed route came back hopeless.  I also don’t have GPS so my fiancé and I started the trip with our usual “bahala na” attitude. We figured we’ll just have fun and make a weekend out of it.


The hardest part, of all places, is venturing EDSA! I hate this highway, but since I don’t want to get lost, and it just requires me to go straight (technically) I braved the EDSA traffic. There were buses changing lanes as if they were thin bicycles, motorcycles weaving in and out selfishly assuming that you’ll stop for them, AND the quality of the road… hay naku! It was such a relief to get to the smooth road of NLEX, and since I’m from the south I am actually excited to stop at their gas stations,  Maiba lang! LOL! As much as I can, I stayed loyal to the 80 kph, even maintained it when we were cruising along SCTEX. In fact, sa bagal namin, we apparently stayed too long in the bare highway, thus, the sunburned faces, hehe!)  

our itsy map

endless road

hep! hep! wag muna ma-excite, isang oras pa to Palayan City

I was already restless when we got to the Tarlac Exit and at this point I want to believe the mini map that Nueva Ecija is just an inch away… but nooooo… in fact the next turn that we need to make is a good 20 minutes more of cruising. Needless to say, it took us quite a while to get to Palayan City. Aside from the place really being far, the roads are narrow and we need to respect the locals when it come to speed limit and avoiding the urge to overtake every tryc and carabao. 

Finally!

Overall, it was  good driving practice. Drove through 3 express ways and EDSA (and back again the following day!), if that’s not the perfect avenue to learn defensive driving then I don’t know what will do it for me.