Manila and Melancholy

Last weekend, I met Yuliana and Sveta, a lovely Russian couple who were staying in Manila for a few days, before heading to the beaches like any sane foreigner should. I met Yuliana through couchsurfing.org, told her I'd be more than happy to drive them around the city although I would not be able to host them at home . On their first night here, my friend, Dianna and I, took Yuliana and her girl friend, Sveta, to Mesa for dinner, followed by music and drinks in Saguijo. I figured watching a live band would be a good way to break the ice, seeing as we've never met before and as there was a bit of language barrier.

Yuliana and Sveta were very interesting. Yuliana had only started to learn English, but our conversations were nevertheless lively. Both of them are poets and are fond of traveling. They do not drink often, but they do indulge once in awhile. They were very adventurous, and were willing to sample Filipino delicacies (except maybe balut). Yuliana even tried (and loved) dinuguan.  I love their disposition. I think, if I were Russian, or if I lived in Russia, they would be the type of people I'd be friends with. It's a tragedy that we had a bit of a language barrier and that we only had a few days together because I honestly wanted to get to know them more. Had we spoken the same language, I imagine the four of us would have had long conversations about life, or philosophy, or art, or poetry or music, instead of just truncated sentences and exaggerated hand gestures. 

The following day was pretty random. Dianna had a photoshoot in Tali Beach in Nasugbu so we tagged along. I wasn't sure if Yuliana and Sveta would appreciate the long drive and the lollygagging by the beach (which is pretty much all that we did). We literally just sat by the beach to watch the sunset and see the stars rise, listening to music. I probably drove a total of ten hours that day, but I'd take a ten-hour drive to the beach over a two-hour drive to Makati any day.

On the third day, which was my last day with them, we drove around Manila to places even I had never been to. Upon their request, we went to Manila North Cemetery where people lived in mausoleums, and slept beside crypts. After that, we went to Intramuros. Dianna and I were like tourists in our own country.

I grew up idealizing the provincial life. Having grown up in this city, all I could see in between sunsets were the awful things about Manila that confront me daily so I always dreamt of living in the province. I despised the noise, the pollution, the traffic and the squalor of Manila. I hated how disconnected it is with its history, and how I cannot quite tell what it's culture really is. But recently, I've had the privilege of looking at Manila from the eyes of a tourist and saw how beautiful my city is and isn't. I feel like my city got stuck and is slowly wasting away between its past and its imagined future. You can almost see its struggle to become a modern city just by looking at the river banks of Pasig River.

I feel a pain for my city and the people living in it. I remember how Rizal wrote about the Pasig River and the magnificent view of Manila's elite astride the steamer Tabo as the river meets Laguna Lake in El Filibusterismo:

“The steamer was just then entering the lake and the view was really magnificent. Everyone was impressed. The beautiful lake, ringed by green banks and blue mountains, stretched out before them like an immense mirror in a frame of emeralds and  sapphires where Heaven might look at itself.  To the right a series of bays made graceful curves in the low shore, with farther on, half-blurred, the hook of Sugay; ahead, as a background, was Mount Makiling, majestic, imposing, crowned with light clouds; to the left, the island of Talim and the Susong Dalaga,  ‘the Maiden’s Breasts,’ with the soft undulations which had given its name.”

How unfortunate it is to never be able to see what Rizal saw before.

Sea of Strangers

Just before 2013 ended, I booked a flight to Palawan. It was December 28, and for the first time in a long time, I had absolutely nothing planned for the weekend and was not hurrying through the morning. I took the time to read the papers while drinking coffee and having breakfast with my dad and found an Air Asia seat sale ad. Without even thinking about it, I got my tablet and booked a flight which cost me a total of P1,300, including baggage allowance for the flight back. It was only a week later when I realized that the flight I booked was on valentine's weekend, which was ironic.

I didn't have much planned. I decided I would spend my weekend in El Nido instead of Puerto Princesa. I also decided to stay in a lodge just a few minutes away from the town proper, because it had a lovely view of the sunrise.

I arrived in Puerto Princesa at 7:00 p.m., was sweet talked into checking into a cheap hotel a few minutes away, where, I was told, I could get picked-up by the van that would take me to El Nido the following morning.

The following morning, I had a breakfast of instant coffee, orange marmalade and Puerto Princesa's amazing french bread. As promised, I was picked up by the van that would take me to El Nido, at half past seven.

The terrain heading to El Nido was mostly paved, with a few short stretches of unpaved rough roads. If you are used to travelling by land, on buses or vans, it wouldn't take long before you get bored by the view. The lush greenery, interrupted by stretches of barrios... these are common sights in the Philippines. By noon, we stopped for a break at a roadside pit stop where you can buy lunch for about P100. I wasn't hungry yet and was saving my appetite for lunch by the seaside with my first bottle of red horse to mark my El Nido vacation so I just bought a bag of chips to nibble on the road. After about thirty minutes, we were back on the road. By 2:00 p.m., we were at El Nido's public transport terminal.

I took a tricycle to the beach for P50, which should have been P20 but I was not in the mood to argue. I got dropped off just outside the town proper, and made my way to my lodge a ten minute walk away. I guess, one thing you should know about El Nido, which I didn't know before I got there, is that its main beach, the one where you will be staying, is not for swimming. There is just far too many boats docked and rocks. The water, nevertheless, is turquoise and clear and picturesque so sitting by the shore wasn't so bad.

I spent my first day in El Nido just walking around, lounging by the beach, drinking beer and reading Jose Saramago's Death with Interruptions. El Nido is an expensive touristy place. Food generally costs about P150-P400, and beer at restaurants about P60. I didn't mind as I was not really on a tight budget for this trip, but because there are no atms and hardly any credit card terminals in El Nido, I had to watch my spending a bit. I had dinner by the shore, in what seemed like a Thai restaurant. The food wasn't good, and very expensive, but the place offered the best al fresco dining, and was located beside Publiko where there was live music, so I stayed there anyway. The beauty of El Nido is that people are just happy sitting around, by their lonesome or with friends. There was no mad rush to get somewhere, or to take selfies, or post pictures online. People were just there, being there. It was exactly what I needed, at that time. To find a place to just sit, and stare, and drink beer and not be anything to anyone.

To get to the nice beaches in El Nido, the ones you see in pictures, you have to either book an overnight stay in an extremely expensive private island or go on an island hopping tour. I did the latter the following day. I had breakfast at Alternative Cafe, where they have seats perched on their roof, overlooking Bacuit bay. From there I watched as  boatmen and tour operators started setting up their boats for the day's tours.

I was never good at talking to strangers so I was a bit worried about joining strangers on the tour. I grew up preferring to keep to myself, when I am not surrounded by old friends. Fortunately, just before our tour started, Eva waved hello to me, asked me if we will be on the same tour.  Eva Wolf is from Munich, Germany and is touring the Philippines for six weeks. I gave her tips for her tour, about places I've been to in the Philippines and things to do there. Right now, she is touring Dumaguete, I think, or is probably in transit to some other island I've never been to. We had drinks after our tour, so we got to talk more about German and Philippine politics, education and a lot of other random things. We also swapped books, which is something I decided I should always do. The book I got out of the swap, Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, was very entertaining. I was glad we swapped because I was pretty sure I wouldn't have known of the author otherwise. As of today, I've read four other books by the same author.

When we hopped on our tour boat, we met this other lovely family of Dina Moreira, whose son and daughter were studying in Australia as exchange students. Again, being unaccustomed to (uncomfortable with is more like it) talking to strangers, I was fortunate because Dina Moreira's family, like Eva, was easy to feel comfortable with, and very fluent in English. It was fun being in a boat with them, as they weren't uncomfortable asking questions and sharing stories.

 Unfortunately, I didn't take a lot of pictures of the islands because to get to them, you have to swim, and my supposedly waterproof sony Xperia wouldn't work with wet hands. Then again, I didn't mind, because sometimes its okay not to be able to capture moments and just be in them.

So there I was, with a group of strangers, finding myself comfortable being myself. It's hard to describe El Nido in terms of its beauty because we Filipinos are accustomed to stretches of pristine white beaches and turquoise waters. For me, El Nido is a place for getting lost, in a sea of strangers, in the chatter, the sound of waves crashing against the shore and boatsides. I didn't take a lot of pictures because a picture wouldn't have captured that feeling of being utterly comfortable.

In our tour, we went to this big lagoon. I went into the water and just kept swimming until I was right in the middle of the lagoon. I had no idea how deep it was and was not worried even though I had no life vest. When I finally turned around and looked up, I saw the bluest sky I've seen, framed by the fringes of the rocky mountain tops and tree tops. I just stayed afloat, right there, in the middle of the lagoon, wondering if others have see that exact picture before.Up 'til now, I close my eyes and I picture that. That was my El Nido, that very moment, that very scene, which was interrupted by the boatman calling me back to shore because I was apparently already dangerously far.

After the tour, Eva and I hung out at Publiko where this guy who sounded like Damien Rice (and sometimes, Eddie Vedder) was playing. We stayed there as the water went high, and until it receded, talking about random things, and meaningful things. At around 3 a.m., we decided to go our separate ways. At day break, I got up, packed my bag and headed for the terminal to get to Puerto Princesa, in time for my flight.

And then I returned to familiar things--the noise of the city, the mindless chatter of people, the mad rush to get to work, the traffic, smog, and impatient drivers, the clock winding down, ticking to the rhythm of boring routines. Since then, all I can think of and hope for was to get lost again.

Bums

This isn't meant to be prose. I'm writing so I can remember where I've been because in my head I see pictures of the places, I can recall sensations, I can remember laughter, but I always have a hard time of remembering the finer details, the chronology, exactly how everything falls in place. So this is more of an exercise for me than it is a reference for an audience. One day, my memory might fail me and this will help me recall how I felt, whenever I found myself in a new place. That's the purpose of this exercise.

The first thing I did after the bar exams was to sleep as late as I could. Then, the morning after, I took a shower, sat in front of the TV, and watched all the six seasons of the Sopranos in less than a week, with just food and sleep as interruptions. After The Sopranos, I set-up the laptop in my room and watched the extended version of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy; all eleven hours in one go.

Soon after I've had my fill of sitting in front of the TV,  I packed a bag and headed to the airport with a couple of law school friends, all new members of the unemployed, to catch a plane to Cebu City. By then I had already been to Cebu four times. But in those four times, I never really got to  see what the island had to offer, and I knew it did have a lot to offer. The plan was to take the earliest commuter van, head off to the northern part of Cebu, to the ferry that would take us to the beautiful island of Bantayan.

We landed in Mactan Airport just before the sun rose, had coffee and a bit of breakfast in a carenderia at the transport terminal, where we were to catch a commuter van for the port.  Instead of taking a commuter van, though, we ended up renting an Avanza for P1500. It was slightly more expensive but it meant that we could leave at the earliest possible time, and that we had the van to ourselves. On reaching the port, we caught the first ferry to Bantayan. The ferry ride to Bantayan was fairly short. About an hour or so. We got seats in an air-conditioned room where the seats had a comfortable legroom and enough space for our backpacks, so that most of us who had early flights were able to rest.

Prior to the trip, I already booked a family room at the Yooneek Beach Resort. I'm not quite sure if Yooneek survived the recent supertyphoon Yolanda. The basic structure was cement, and seemed solid enough, but based on an aerial view picture after the typhoon, the island had been flattened, save for the terminal.It's a pity as the resort was nice, and there weren't that many beach front resorts that were as inexpensive.We initially mocked the name because, well, let's face it, it's a ridiculous name. But the place was real value for money  as it was huge, had internet, had a sala, dining area, closets and a balcony with a view of the sea.

 And the sea. Oh, the sea. It was perfectly calm. Unbelievably still. The sand was powdery white, the shore, wide enough for tossing around a frisbee. It was serene, it was beautiful, it was quiet, it was perfect for a couple of bums who had no agenda other than to sit and stare and forget about the impending bar results.

We had no real plans. The following day, we went island hopping. We went to an island right across our shore, where we had lunch. One of the caretakers of the resort offered to prepare lunch for us, which we gamely accepted. Lunch was a feast of grilled seafood and grilled pork and a whole lot of scallops.

For dinner, we walked around the area, and found a small eatery serving native chicken inasal. Then we looked for a videoke place (because that's how we roll). We decided to bike to the town proper the following day. We were told that the route was 15km, one way. By our estimation we thought it wouldn't be a problem but, with the hilly terrain, it turned out to be, well, tiring.

Tiring but fun, just to be clear. Before heading to the town proper, we stopped to check out a famous underground cave which was not really worth the trouble. After taking a dip in the pool (because we paid for an entrance), we left for the town proper. One of our friends who didn't know how to ride a bike rented a pedicab for P150, including the driver. When we reached a steep incline, the driver asked our friend to alight as he couldn't bike up the incline anymore. It was awfully tiring and hot, so we stopped for drinks at a sari-sari store that served chocnut shake, which was refreshing and interesting. An hour or so after, we finally rolled into Bantayan's town proper. It is pretty much like other provincial towns in the Philippines.It had and old church, standing beside the town hall, post office, and other government offices. There was a plaza lined with street vendors selling street food. Nothing of note, but still worth the 30km bike ride there and back, if only for the experience.

We didn't really do much in Bantayan, after that, other than just sit and swim and watch the sunset. You would think that after five months of reviewing for an exam we'd want to move around a bit more but with a sea as still as ice, in an island where everything slowed down just a little, why would we?

Here and there

I graduated in April 2010 but didn't really break free from the shackles that was law school until October 2010, when my bar examinations ended. I knew that the review would be long and tedious, as I had to read through, and commit to memory, four years worth of law subjects in just four months. So just before I buckled down to study, I went on a five-day road trip to the south with a good friend.

Bagasbas, Camarines Norte

We didn't have an itinerary. All that we had decided was to head for Bagasbas in Camarines Norte. From our research, we expected the ride to take ten hours but it was longer than we had expected. It took us about eleven hours to reach Daet and another hour just to get to Bagasbas.

Bagasbas is a surf spot. There were a few lodges lining the shore of Bagasbas, just behind the barricade, most of which rented out surf boards and offered surfing lessons.

The sand is not pristine, not white, but it was fine enough that you'd want to walk barefoot. The coast was long, barricaded by a sea wall, about fifty meters from the shore.

We stayed at the cheapest lodging we could find. It was a fan room with two beds. It was not clean, not comfortable, not airy. But it was cheap and we were on student budgets then. The caretaker informed us that the area fronting the property was for campers, which they rented out for three hundred pesos, usually during surf season. We found a place to eat, ordered bicol express (the best I've had) and relaxed a little. After our late lunch, we headed back to our room to rest. So tired from the long ride, we ended up sleeping at 6:00 pm and waking up at 8:00 a.m.

The following morning, I went for a quick swim. The waves were punishing so I decided to get out immediately. When we got back to the resort, we were told by the caretaker that there was a lagoon of sorts just a five-minute walk away. We went there so we can relax and swim a little. As it turned out, behind our resort was a huge farm lot with sheep. Real sheep.

We reached the so-called lagoon soon enough. It was not a blue lagoon. In fact, I wouldn't really call it a lagoon to be perfectly honest. It was what looked like an estuary, where the river and sea converges. The sand was really soft and the water, lukewarm, but it was secluded, quiet and beautiful.

Staying there until we got son-burnt, we realized something. There wasn't really much too see or do in Bagasbas if you weren't a surfer. The beach there isn't for people who just wanted to lie on the sand and sleep and maybe swim a little. I wish I tried surfing, then and I don't even remember why we didn't. Because we didn't have any other plans, we decided to head to Camarines Sur and find an island or a beach where we could stay. The drive to Camarines Sur took about three hours. There were no establishments along the way, no places to eat, and we soon regretted our decision not to eat breakfast. It was 2 p.m. when we found an eatery beside a gas station, at the junction where the road from Manila, Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur meets.

We drove around the area, asking for directions to the nearest beach. Any beach, we told them. They directed us to a beach an hour away from Pili. I can't remember where it was exactly, or what it was called. I only remember that it was near a port, and that there weren't many tourists willing to drive there.We found the cheapest, and saddest accommodations I've ever seen in that area. A 2x4 room, with just a mattress and a light bulb inside.

We were told we could rent a boat to take us to a "virgin island" with white sand. We gladly took the offer, just so we could have our fill of beach bumming. It was, as unenthusiastically described by the resort owner, "maganda." It was, really. The best part was that we had it all to ourselves. The worst part is that there was literally no food there and we were lucky we brought two bottles of Red Horse, some chips, gatorade, and vienna sausage.

There is just so much world to see and it was unfortunate for me that on my return from that fairly random and unplanned trip to that beautiful island, I had to go back to studying for the bar exams and waste away for five months. But there were other things I needed and wanted to do, like become a lawyer, for instance, so buckle down I did.

 I've never forgotten that view, though I've forgotten the name of the island. During my review, I'd close my eyes and see, that blue sky and blue sea, the soft waves crashing towards the white sand and I'd tell myself it won't be long before I'd sit in front of that majesty again. I didn't need the pictures. I remembered them well but did not want to go back. I wanted to go elsewhere, everywhere. I wanted to be here and there, as often as I could.

So in the last four years since the exams (which I passed, by the way) ended, I've done a lot of being here and there. I have friends who have traveled more than I have, but, considering the circumstances, I think I've done well.

So let me tell you more about that--being here and there, in the last four years.