Boarding Gate 101

Bound for Caramoan in Camarines Sur, me and my friends decided to try the train service between Manila and Naga City (then Naga to Caramoan via bus and boat) since it was recently reopened by the Philippine National Railways. Bicol Express, as the service is called, has a rich history that goes back all the way to 1875.  PNR was called Ferrocarilles de Manila-Dagupan then, and it first served the Manila to Dagupan route to the north. A line going south to Bicol region was later established, in 1931. I was excited because it would be my first train ride in the Philippines (not including the mass rail transit systems in the metropolis), and the first that would take more than an hour. According to the website, the trip to Naga would take about 10 hours: from 6pm to 4am the next day.  The hardest part of our journey using the Bicol Express was actually the one with the shortest leg: the trip from the LRT 2 Station in Recto going to the PNR station in Tutu...

A passenger looks out the window of Bicol Express , a train service that connects Manila to the Bicol region in the Philippines, just as the train is leaving the station.