October 27, 2010, I was going home to Siquijor to spend my Halloween with my family. I woke up early at around 5:00 am. Traveling time from Iloilo to Siquijor is approximately 10 hours. A grueling, exhausting, and boring travel unless you have the luxury to have an attractive seatmate ( wink, wink) whom you can talk with along the way.. added points if your seatmate is attractive. ;-) In my case, I was traveling alone since my brother went home ahead of me and my cousins were still taking care of their unfinished enrollment business.
I just came back to Iloilo from a field trip in Manila for our MBA Operations Management subject. I was carrying two bags. On one I put my business clothes and other formal shirts. I put my soiled clothes on the other bag and a basketball as my younger brother begged me to do so so that we can play 1 on 1 basketball back home. I did not complain though it added the burden of me carrying extra stuffs because I badly needed exercise. I'm getting fat nowadays and seldom do I have the chance to exercise due to my busy schedule.
So off I go.. not expecting that the best is yet to come.
I boarded Weesam Express from Iloilo going to Bacolod. It is about 45 minutes travel. I arrived at the port at around 6:25 am. and the first trip is around 6:30. I seemed to be lucky today. (That's what I thought.)
Back to my bags.. The bags I was carrying were from Pfizer where I had a training a year ago and the other one where I put my soiled clothes and the basketball is from the travel agency which ushered our class during the field trip. It has the label "Maynilad Tours" (hmmm, this appears like free a publicity ;-))
I left my bags near the doorway along with the bags of the other passengers since it was somewhat inconvenient to put the bags in my lap while I was seating.
I have this sea sickness which I really dont like and I have this practice to force myself into sleeping everytime I'm travel via sea so that I won't feely dizzy.
Okay.. so I'm in Bacolod now. I waited for several passengers to leave the vessel so that it would be convenient on my part to carry my baggage. I first lifted my "Pfizer" bag and was about to lift my other bag when I noticed that it seemed like someone moved it. I found it far accross the other side of the vessel. Quite strange I thought but I did not mind.
So, I boarded Ceres bus going to Dumaguete. this would be a 6-7 hour travel depending on the mood of the driver or let us say mood swing as what I would like to call it. If the driver is looking for adrenaline rush, our bus will fly once in a while. (you got the point. You know what I mean. :-) )
Alright. There's this pretty girl I noticed. she was alone yet I didn't have the courage to sit beside her. It will be obvious. The bus wasn't full yet and there were a lot of vacant seats.. too bad. I decided to sat behind her in order to be close.
It seemed like there's something wrong though. I'm not at ease. I noticed that my bag seemed to lose it's bulk (I'm referring to the travel agency's bag) and it seemed like it looks old. I opened the bag, and lo and behold! the first thing that I saw were bunch of siopaos. This isn't my bag!I panicked.
I initially blamed it to the bag. Who would expect that there's someone who has the same bag. I just got it yesterday and I was not expecting that someone would also carry the very same bag at the very same day at very same time. "Is this destiny?", I thought.
I checked for other stuffs and found photo albums as well as a stethoscope. I checked if there's a name written on the album but there was none,. Luckily there's a sticker at the side of the Bag which says, "Bryan Joseph Lim. University of San Agustin. BSN." I honestly thought that it would be good enough if the owner of the bag is a girl. well, it's okay. At least now, I have a lead.
I called my mother and I reported the incident. I was upset. My mom calm as she was told me not to panic and instructed me to call Weesam's office. I told her that it wouldn't do much help since their list of passengers did not include phone numbers. Besides I am already an hour away from Bacolod's port. It's exhausting to go back with unsure result. Nonetheless she told me that she will instruct Rachel, one my cousins to go to Weesam's office to seek help. Okay, okay I said.
Then I realized I had my USB on that bag where I saved my report. i was planning to finish that report at home. too bad.
I texted one my dormates who is also studying in San Agustin,Kenneth and asked for the number of another dormate, Dave who is a nursing student. the number was forwarde and I asked Dave if he knows someone by the name of Bryan Joseph Lim. I thought that there's a good possibility that Dave might have known Bryan since they are both from San agustin, they have the same course and they is the Red Cross president in school so he has a wide array of contacts. But I also know that there are hundreds of nursing students in San Agustin. I told Dave about what happened. I received a sad reply. Dave doesn't know Bryan. "it's okay, by the way thanks.", I texted.
Then I came up with this brilliant idea. I thought of facebook and even friendster. I texted my ever reliable friend Mr. Arwin Earl Ocreto.
Now, Mr Arwin Earl is working in Makati. He's big time. They have internet access in their office. He has his own computer station to do his work.
I instructed Arwin to try to search for "Bryan Joseph Lim" on facebook or even in friendster and try to look for a contact number. My good friend did what I told him to do and found Bryan's page in facebook but no contact number was saved on the information.
Hmmm, think, think, think. so, I told Arwin to leave a short message and explained to Bryan that I have his bag and possibilty is he's carrying my bag. I also instructed my good friend to leave my contact number for Bryan to reach me. All was followed. Arwin is the best.
After approximately 10 minutes, I received a call from a stranger. However I don't have the luxury to clearly hear what he was saying because of poor reception since I was on the move. But I catch his name. He said it was Bryan. The call was cut. I immediately texted mom to call Bryan's number.
I specifically told mom that it was somewhat Bryan's fault since he took my bag first. His bag was on the other side of the vessel but he grabbed my bag and his bag has a sticker on it with his name. he did not manage to check whether he was carrying the right bag. I guess he was in such a hurry. We have this mentality to blame our mistakes to others. But I also admit that I have some lapses. I should have put a name also on my bag or better yet carried it on my seat.
Okay.. so mom explained everything to Bryan and Bryan texted me back. We agreed to meet as soon as I return to Iloilo and exchange bags. (seems like a ransom or exchange gift scenario. hehe)
Then Bryan told me that I can eat those siopaos he had on his bag because it would be such a waste if they will just be spoiled. I didn't hesitate. I am doing him a favor afterall. Who would want to have ants inside his bag right and bad odor coming from spoiled food? (hehehe)
so everything was solved..
Moral of the story: Bring siopao when you travel. ;-)
Kidding aside, the said experience made realized the power of Social Networking sites to connect to people we would like to get in touch with.. :-)
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