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
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