“Awesome packing!”

said the lady behind the check-in counter at the Wellington International Airport. I nearly said “Glad somebody finally noticed!” but my sister beat me to it, saying “That’s the best compliment you can give her!”

She was referring to my mom, whose packing skills are considered legendary, at least to the people she travels with (mostly us). I guess traveling a lot, you pick up these kinds of skills that you can later turn into an expertise — packing a lot that your luggage just hits the mark of your baggage weight limit. Ours, for this particular flight, was 23kg. And one piece of luggage, I kid you not, was weighed at 22.9kg. The other two were 22.6 and 22.7. Honestly, I think the airport personnel was secretly hoping to see one luggage be overweight. I guess she didn’t count on us having a friend who has a weighing scale in her house, specifically for the purpose of weighing luggage.

It really is a skill, I think. I have an aunt who lives in New York, who is an expert at packing Balikbayan Boxes. Honestly, she can look at a pile of stuff and tell you which ones would fit but would make the box too heavy, which one can still be broken despite padding it with towels, and which ones you can force in the little spaces so the box wouldn’t get all deformed when they’re being handled at the airport.

I guess we acquire these skills because situations call for it. It’s really not that easy to travel, as I’m sure you know. And one of the most difficult parts of it, in my opinion, is packing. And I think it’s a bit harder for us Filipinos because we have the pasalubong custom, which is the practice of bringing back a souvenir for almost everyone you know. You know that everyone’s expecting something and will be disappointed if you don’t bring back even small trinkets for them, so you’ll have to find a way to make everything fit into the limit you’re given. And in the case of my mom, she’ll move heaven and earth to be able to do it.

image courtesy of my sister

Packing is underrated. I have seen and read a lot of travel books and magazines, but very few of them ever discuss packing. For that matter, for all the times that our luggage weight has almost just missed the mark, the woman at Wellington airport was the first one to notice it. I guess that’s why we were all very pleased when she did, because it’s always been a big deal to us when we’re packing. We even include it in our itineraries. It felt really nice to have it acknowledged.

If Only I Had All the Time and Money in the World…

I would do this every weekend:

1. Get on a bus (or any mode of transportation).
2. Spend the day somewhere I don’t usually go to, doing something fun,  and preferably with good company.

Last Saturday was one of the days I got to do that, and I enjoyed it immensely. We didn’t have any plans that went beyond the date and the place — August 15, Saturday; UPLB (University of the Philippines, Los Baños). And guess what, it was all we needed.

So we had a little bit of difficulty finding out how to get there. For me, the easiest option was to take a bus from Alabang. But I found out that the buses that you could take from the terminal in Alabang were all non-airconditioned. Normally there’s nothing wrong with that, but if the trip would take at least two hours, I think it doesn’t make me hoity toity if I say that I would rather take an airconditioned bus. I was told that I could take a bus that passes Edsa, but to be safe, we decided to take the bus from the official bus terminal at Taft Ave. We had to ask around to find out exactly where the buses were, that went to Los Baños, but as soon as we found it, it was pretty easy.

We took a Green Star bus that was going to Sta. Cruz. We paid Php99.00 each, and then we got off in front of Olivares Plaza. We took a jeepney with a label “UP College” from there. We got off just before the college’s entrance, but didn’t go in yet, because first, we needed to buy some cake.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: MerNel’s Chocolate Cake is the best choclate cake in the world. And yes, the main reason I wanted to go to Los Baños was to get to eat that cake. We just walked to where it was, it’s pretty near the campus, and after buying one, and having my friend’s name written on it, we went and bought more food from the establishments that were just outside the campus–Bugong Roasted Chicken and some drinks and chips from the Mini Stop convenient store. And after we were all set with our supplies, we went off in search of the park where we would be having our “picnic”*.

*And I put “picnic” in quotation marks because we didn’t exactly have picnic food with us.

None of us were familiar with the campus grounds. We didn’t go there for college, and weren’t close to anyone who did. We had been walking for quite some time when we decided to ask a random passerby directions. He was nice enough to give us correct ones, and pretty soon, we were placing our mat, yes, we actually brought a mat, under a pretty large tree. We sat down, played some music via my cellphone, and started eating.

That’s pretty much all there was to it. We didn’t go anywhere else inside the campus, nor around the town. But actually, just sitting there, we were already able to see a lot. Oh sure, nothing really dramatic happened; there were no fights that broke out or people making big scenes, but it was interesting to see what people did on a Saturday afternoon.

A lot of people were there walking their dogs. Some were playing games like tug-of-war. Some were jogging. And there were some people (mostly couples) who were out for a walk. We saw one man who sat underneath the same tree, on the other side, and he was sketching. It was such a great break from the usual boring malls with blaring music and big crowds. I mean, I love living in the city, but I really wouldn’t mind having a place like that to retreat to whenever things got too busy. And best of all, staying there was free. I mean, we only had to pay for transportation and the food. And that was great.

I really wish I could spend more days like that. Just hanging out with friends, feeling a cool breeze, chatting about non-important fun stuff, watching a nice view, listening to happy music… If only I had all the time and money in the world…

The Journeys, Not the Destinations

I don’t know about you but when I was a kid and we would go on a school trip, what I always looked forward to the most were the bus rides that field trips involved. Because seriously, when you’re 7 years old, I doubt that you’re genuinely interested to know how pencils are made, or how a girl falls in love with a nutcracker. When I was 7, I was more interested in eating snacks and talking about our favorite parts in the latest episode of Captain Planet. Hence, I was more excited about chattering with my friends in the bus than having to line up with everyone else and keeping quiet and not being allowed to touch anything in some museum.

Fast forward to several years later, and by this time, I’ve already developed a love for travel. Of course, I look forward to seeing all the destinations that my friends and I plan to go to. Someone told me that beaches look the same everywhere, but I’ve found that all the beaches I’ve been to in my life (and I’ve been to a lot, considering I live in an archipelago), always have something different about them, whether it’s the view of the sunset, or the color of the sand, or even the people that you’d meet while you’re there. Still, though I’ve also gotten interested in the destinations, the kid in me, has never lost interest in the bus rides, or any kind of transportation, really. Although I’m always in a car or a jeepney or a bus every day (going to the office and going back home), and even though I’ve ridden on an airplane several times, I still enjoy the part of the trip where you’re just on your way to get to where you want to go.

Just these past few days I experienced a couple of road trips as I went to several places, all by land (or, okay, I rode a raft and a boat, too), and with friends both old and new.

Lost in Laguna

I don’t blame my co-worker for getting the names of the lakes confused and asking for directions to the wrong lake. San Pablo Laguna is after all, “The City of Seven Lakes” and with seven lakes in just one city, it’s understandable to get the wrong directions, and end up in the wrong lake. Plus there’s something good about getting lost once in a while — you find out something people don’t normally know, and you experience something new and different.

Pandin Lake, San Pablo Laguna

We had to follow a tricycle just to get to Pandin Lake because no one would give us directions clear enough to follow. And we had to pay the tricycle too (Boo to people who want to make profit from the misfortune of others). But I guess it was better than going around in circles and not getting any nearer our destination. Eventually we found out that the reason that the lake was so hard to find was because it was within one of the smaller districts of the city, where only a few houses were around, and there were hardly any road signs.

This is probably a good time to write a rant about how the tourism industry of the Philippines is so poor in the sense that there are no signs to get to anywhere and even the roads are confusing as to whether they are actual roads or sidewalks or just paths made by people who frequently walked in that area. But I’m not going to do that because I want to keep this as positive as possible. Besides, when we got to the lake, it was all worth it. The raft ride around the lake was reminiscent of the Loboc River tour in Bohol (only with buko juice instead of buffet lunch), but also a bit different because it was more peaceful. We were the only ones there and the view was amazing.

Eventually we met someone who was from around the area and he said to us that getting lost was a part of the San Pablo Laguna experience. So it’s all good. That makes our journey complete.

Public Transport in the Province

Last Monday, I went to Morong in Bataan with some new friends. Actually, it was an old friend’s summer outing with officemates and I tagged along. Mostly because I’d never been to Morong before, and wanted to see what the beaches were like there. The sand was black, but I’m not very particular about sand color anyway. I’d rather have black sand on a clean beach than white sand on a polluted beach. The place we went to was, somewhere in between clean and polluted. But like I said, I’m not writing this to complain. And the beach isn’t even what I want to write about. I want to write about what happened when my friend and I left the beach and took the public transportation in the province to get to Olongapo.

My friend had to meet with someone in Olongapo, so we left the beach for a while and took a tricycle to the jeepney station, which wasn’t really a station because there was only one jeepney there, and guess what, it had a door. Right, so jeepneys usually made with doors. But you don’t find those in Manila. The only jeepneys with doors are the ones privately owned. So this one was different– it was a public jeepney, and it had a door. And here’s something else it had that Manila jeepneys don’t have– it had a conductor. Seriously, there was a man there, who wasn’t the driver, who collected payment from the passengers, and he folded bills and inserted them in between his fingers too the way a bus conductor does.

On our way to Olongapo, there were only a few of us. Maybe 4 or 5 people at a time, which was perfect, because no one was blocking the windows, and I could really enjoy the view. I’ve been to mountains before and have seen forests and cliffs and seashores from moving vehicles, but what I liked about it this time, was because I was on a jeepney, then the windows weren’t closed and there was no artificial airconditioning. I could smell the grass of the fields and feel the wind in my hair.

When we got off the jeepney, we walked to a local grocery to buy some more snacks. I think I mentioned it before, but I really love walking in provincial towns. It’s just because it’s so different from the towns in Metro Manila — there are less people, less garbage, and everything is just naturally slower. So sometimes it’s annoying because when you’re in a hurry it’s not helpful when the people around you are moving so slowly, but when you’re on vacation, and time doesn’t matter all that much, it feels really wonderful to just walk around town, taking in everything that you hear and see.

Going back to the beach, we had to take a jeepney again, and this time, it was at a real terminal, and the jeepney was full. It was actually even overloaded because there were some people (two) who had to sit on the floor (you’d think I’m kidding, but I’m really not). There was a conductor again and after giving him our payment, we were off. If only the jeepney wasn’t so crowded, I think I would’ve enjoyed the ride back even more. Why? Because it was 5:30 PM when we were on our way back, and just in time for sunset.

It took some effort for me to angle my head in such a way that I could look out the window and to the rice fields outside, but it was all worth it, despite the neck pain, and the awkward position of my legs. I got to watch the sun set over a rice field. I’ve seen many sunsets in my life, but most of them are when I’m on the beach, so this wasn’t a usual sight for me. I’d thought that the way the light would touch parts of the ocean was beautiful, but this was beautiful as well — the light would touch the water on the plants, making the entire field glow. And the nipa huts have more color, and the stars would slowly peek out from the purplish pink sky.

When we arrived back at the beach I realized that I wasn’t able to take pictures of our side trip. But I think that means that I was able to enjoy the moments to their fullest.

Road Between the Rice Fields

Farmer and Carabao in Nueva Ecija

Before going back to Manila, we took another side trip, this time to Nueva Ecija, where one of us would be spending the rest of the week. She invited the group over for lunch at her parent’s house, although when we got there it was already around 4PM so we I guess we had merienda instead. But the food was so good, I don’t think anyone minded that the trip took so long. And also, the road trip, again, was a really good experience, in my opinion.

Further and further from civilization we went as the van went off-road a couple of times and there was nothing around us but rice fields and farmers. Honestly, it felt like traveling inside a post card. There were mountains, there were carabaos, there were kids running around with mud on their feet. At one point I wanted to just leave the van and walk the rest of the way so the view, no the atmosphere, wouldn’t be fleeting by so quickly. But of course I couldn’t, given that we were already running late, and it was several hours more to get back to Manila.

Despite everything bad that’s being said about our country (and I know that we deserve some of those negative comments), I can’t help but still love it a lot. So maybe we have our problems and the economy sucks and the government is corrupt and whatever, but when I see places like the ones I just saw, it’s hard not to say that I think that I live in a beautiful country.

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So maybe the places I went to — San Pablo, Laguna and Morong, Bataan, have their share of difficulties. But I can say that I enjoyed both trips immensely. If not for the destinations that have redeeming points like the delicious food and great views, then definitely for the fun and interesting road trips that they involved.

* The Pandin Lake Tour is Php180 per person. Includes raft ride and fresh buko. Arrangements are made through Mandy Mariño at this number: 0917-5016694