Throwback Thursday: Adventures in the Philippines

Travel by Tricycle Philippines
These ‘tricycles’ were one of my favorite ways to travel in the Philippines.

Traveling in the Philippines in 2000

I felt like royalty traveling through the Philippines. Every thing we did seemed to be blessed. Not easy, maybe, but blessed. My friend C and I met in Manila. She was working for the Peace Corps, I was single and ready to travel. Nearly 13 years ago, I flew to Manila and met C for two weeks of adventure, exploring the mountains and cities of Luzon. We traveled by bus, jeepney and other public transportation. We mostly slept in hostels or pensions where there were often more cockroaches than guests. It was magnificent.

Once I arrived in Manila we took a 12-hour bus ride out of Manila to explore more rural areas. We spent our first night in a pension that was fine…except for the cockroaches. Where I grew up there were no cockroaches. While I can handle lots of creepy crawly things giant cockroaches and their antennae were not one of those things. There was no avoiding them traveling on just a few dollars a day. I grew to tolerate them. 

Exploring the main island of Luzon with only backpacks on our backs was an experience I’ll never forget, but the details are starting to fade after more than a decade. Yesterday I dug out my travel diaries to jog my memories. What follows is a journal entry about one of our first pension stays written shortly after our trip. 

Pretty decent view from our room1
We had a pretty decent view from our window.

Morning in a Filipino Pension

Early morning heavy with heat, sunlight and humidity, standing over the shower drain in the moist, hot bathroom, watching cockroach antennae wiggle through the floor drain. Making every effort to make an entrance. Me with all the power of a giant standing, ready to kill. Poised to kill with my bucket of water raised above my head. To release the flood, to at least discourage the thing while I showered. 

A rooster crowed again and again as I doused myself with cold water from a bucket, shivering, eyes closed, trying to ignore the image of the little lizards that attached themselves to the pension’s walls, the too big bugs that attached themselves to the outside of the nearly transparent curtains, silhouetted in the sunlight. Trying not to think about the hundreds of ants that had made themselves at home in and among my q-tips. But mostly squinting my eyes shut against the rather alarmingly big antennae lurking in the drain.

 ~

I survived that shower (by bucket with cold water from a spigot in the shower wall) and several more like it. While it was hard to get used to ignoring the unfamiliar creepy crawlies, it became clear that I wasn’t going to let them ruin my amazing trip through a beautiful country filled with the friendliest people I’d ever met. Paging through my journal, I’m amazed at how lucky we were to travel unencumbered and carefree. Today I try to recapture that feeling, that sense of adventure, when we travel (near and far) with our son and all the limitations, extra planning and accessories that comes with him. We may not travel like royalty these days, but we still travel with that sense of wonder.

Ready for another hot and humid day of adventure!
Ready for another hot and humid day of adventure!

8 Comments

  1. Great post about travel in another “world”. My husband was in Phillipines a couple of years ago for about a month on business. He truly took the opportunities as his colleagues did not to explore the area and its beauty. I am glad to hear that the cockroaches did not stand in your way 🙂

  2. We were stationed in the PI and also loved the experience. We had to leave (sadly) when Mt. Pinatubo reared its ugly head but I have many fond memories of the people and beautiful lands. Thanks for the beautiful memory!

  3. I remember when you traveled there and other trips too. Do you think if Paolo was around then you would have had to try to smuggle back collections of bugs?

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