UBE EXPRESS

(photo courtesy of MB.com.ph)

Arriving in the Philippines should not be a confusing experience anymore.  Unlike in the past wherein tourists are pointless upon arriving. How to reach their hotel from the airport is a mind blowing experience.  With the offering of Ube Express, it would be a breeze of sorts for a traveller to reach the comforts of their homes or hotels in style.

Bus rides costs Php150 (as of this writing).  Upon exiting the doors of Terminal 3 in my experience, simply look for their station.  Don't bother asking the security guards for it as I was told there were no more ube express buses that made me scratch my head literally.  Upon arriving wait, finding should be the word, upon finding their booth right side from the exit, I paid the ticket.  (as a comparison to other modes of transport - Grab costs P197 going to MOA, airport taxi would be around Php500, Uber I haven't tried yet but most likely it would be roughly the same as Grab).

After payment of the ticket, I was pointed to the bus itself. Not shabby looking.  Great comfort I should add.  Air conditioning is excellent.  Lots of space in the middle for the passengers luggages.

Ride was decent, coasting away to your destination, you get the experience the traffic of EDSA.  So going to MOA from NAIA Terminal 3 was a regular 45 minutes.  Would be faster with other modes of transport, but with the price point and the traffic, the bus would be just a tad slower.

Now being my first time to ride this service, I could consider myself like a regular tourist in his first time in Manila.  So here are my thoughts.

Its still confusing.  Having 5 routes in their map doesn't help that much.  Considering they only have one bus in the terminal.  That made me wonder if I am hopping in the right bus route.  No one was kind enough to explain this when we first boarded the bus.  I had to ask the dispatcher, the ticket lady and the driver if this was the right bus to Mall of Asia.  Only when we arrived at the Victory Liner terminal in EDSA that the driver told us that passengers can have a bus transfer to the other routes.  One tourist, an american I presumed, kept on asking the driver we were going that he stood (yes, stood) beside the driver and didn't take his seat.  Imagine what was going in the mind of that tourist, first time in the country, might have heard of different bad things happening in the country, so its a normal thing that he would be agitated.  He was more concerned when our bus went inside a dark driveway of Victory Liner.  I was thinking if I was to make a bus transfer when it arrived in the terminal.

I hope that UBE EXPRESS would make the experience enoyable.  They are among the first people the tourist sees upon arriving in the Philippines.  We the passengers are not mere ordinary passengers on a regular commute.  Although they smile a lot which is a good thing, but they have to make the service a little bit better, considering people pay for a premium service.