"Panic Mode" Somewhere Along SLEX : Between Coordinates

It was indeed a series of unfortunate events when I was in Manila – not to mention my “killer heels” situation in Pasay City, or being totally drenched in Quezon City while hailing a fully loaded Public Utility Bus going to Paranaque City, or the part where I was chased by an unchained Dalmatian Dog… Then this! We got lost in the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) in the middle of the night all because of a single missed turn.

You see, we have this “personality development training” in Tagaytay City, Cavite. Our starting point was in Sucat, Paranaque City and we have to leave by 10pm. We were driving a private van and of course, I was seated in front. We were instructed to follow the first car so that it will be easy for us to navigate (all of us were from Iloilo, BTW)… Ok. So that’s two cars, Ilonggo drivers, and a huge highway – it sounded so easy!

This was the route that we were carefully briefed to take…

I was buckled down to my seat and I watched the beautiful city lights twinkle. The wind blowing through my hair made me say “Ahh. It’s fantastic to be here!” All of a sudden, that first car that we were following took the right lane… Great! So at that point, we were on the other side of the lane. After a while, I got a call that we should make a right at the Sta. Rosa Exit – we leaned on to find that glowing sign but with no luck, we went on at a regular speed.

Crap! We’re lost. 15 annoying calls later and some palpitations, we reached the nearest toll gate to ask for directions… then we reached Sto. Tomas — which is already part of the neighboring province of BATANGAS! Everybody was pissed. We took a right turn then we reached the Police Station and asked for help. It was 1:30am then. Minutes later, we found ourselves asking people along the road: a man appearing to be drunk, some boys, a mother and a child, an old man – everyone! I was losing it…

This is the route we took… Oooops!

Slowly, and thankfully, we were back on the highway. We decided to trace back our route and we need to find the Sta. Rosa Exit sign. Several sighs and arguments went, we now found ourselves back to where we lost that first car we were following. Lo! We found the exit. It was in the wee hours of the morning: everybody tired, everybody sleepy, and everybody pissed. LOL! Now, we were really headed to Tagaytay.