Writing Assignment Three: Anywhere, A Destination

You ever get that feeling of being alone even when you're not? Of being so far from someone even when they are only inches away? 

..

We sat on a bumpy bus. Our fingers were intertwined .. but were we even paying attention to the touching of our skin? 

I believe we had been riding for at least twenty minutes in silence before one of us spoke up.

"It's fucking beautiful here," she said, still not looking at me. Still gazing out the window. Talking at me but not to me.

"It is," I replied to the back of her head. I conversed with her short silky stark black hair. There were split ends. The cut was old and growing out funny. But, damn, she still looked gorgeous.

"Sometimes I can't understand why I ever go back," she mused. Her eyes soaked in every inch of the outside world. Absorbed each stalk of sugar cane. Drunk in each pebble of the dirt road we traversed. 

"You really wouldn't go back ever?" I asked the one strand of shocking white hair that usually nestled hidden amongst the full thick black. It was poking out at this moment and its appearance made me smile.

"There's so much to see," she sighed. Her exhale hinted at the rest of the sentence she meant to add, but never would. Her breath long and slow, she must have been dreaming of adventures she'd never have. People she'd never meet. 

"But what about family?" I adjusted my butt. Only one hour into this bus ride and it was already sore. "What about friends?" I began to think that there most likely was never going to be a spot that was comfortable. "Wouldn't you miss them?"

"Family. Yeah..." She trailed off. I watched a bead of sweat form just under the nape of her neck. It had gathered big enough that now gravity was aching to pull it closer. It started to roll. It fell, slowly and solely, down her chocolate kissed skin.

"I feel like it's been ages since I've seen Mali," I reminisced with the clean bright path the sweat bead left through the layer of dust that had formed on her neck during this long, open-aired bus ride through the dry dusty roads of Palawan. "I miss even hearing her voice. Getting to tease her face to face. Rile her up just to watch her get worked into a frenzy. Listen to that kind of awkward, braying laugh she makes when something is just ridiculously funny." Just picturing the way my sister practically hiccuped when she laughed this hard made me almost chuckle aloud.

"But think about all the things you haven't done yet," she ached. "That person you are still destined to meet that will take you somewhere you haven't yet imagined." The bus slowed sharply and we turned. The passengers abruptly gravitated left. 

"And I heard Matt and Genevieve are pregnant!" The shift left me sitting in a position where a sharp spring wanted to permanently wedge itself up into my buttbone. "Do you think she'll be showing by the time we get back? When does that even happen? How far along do you have to be for that?"

"They're building a home base." It was like we were trying to conduct two different conversations, but occasionally meet in the middle. Her head shifted but she still didn't turn to face me. "They're setting up camp and settling into the home they'll live in 'til their kids go off to college. Forming a nice beautiful family unit. Something to come back to."

"Somewhere for them to feel at home," I added. Her other hand reached back to wipe the perspiration from her neck. "Somewhere to belong."

We were silent for a while, the bumping of the bus rhythmic and enchanting.

I reached my other hand up to place it on her right shoulder. Her skin was warm to the touch. She turned to face me.

"Somewhere to belong," she echoed my words as she looked deep into my eyes. 

I nodded and squeezed her hand.

"That's not really a thing for me," she admitted, her deep brown eyes seeming almost as lost as she did. Her already young face appeared younger at this moment. I wanted to hug her. But there was a distance between us. So I didn't.

She dropped my hand from hers and looked away again.

I wanted to make her a thousand reassurances. Tell her that she always had a home with me. That she would always belong. That I would always be there for her.

The bus veered sharply again. My body slammed hard against hers but she still faced out the window, transfixed.

I opened my mouth to say all the things I wanted to say to her. 

Her form was statuesque. Posture posed in perfection. She was a fleeting angel that was mine for a second. But I knew that my time with her would never be permanent.

I closed my lips and found myself just content to again just stare. 

I had at least these next three hours to El Nido. The next month in this tropical paradise.

I at least had this.

Foreigner in Your Own Land.

(Day 25: Something Someone Told You About Yourself That You'll Never Forget - Good or Bad)

Mine was more of a question.

So.. to set the stage: We were in the Philippines. Josh and I were both four years younger than we are today. We were both unemployed. Both devoid of possessions. Both halfway around the world from "home."

We had been traveling in Southeast Asia for the past three or so months. We were getting weary. We were getting tired.

This particular morning, we were on the island of Guimaras and we were in search of a waterfall. Directions were scarce and confusing and we found ourselves miles in the wrong direction. Exhausted and defeated, we caught a trike back to town. The trike was already occupied by the principal of the local school and we shared the ride with her.

As we rode, the inevitable question of my heritage came up. I explained the tried-and-true story: born in Manila, adopted at four days old, moved to the States when I was two and bunny-hopped around the U.S. all throughout childhood. She asked about our visit to my homeland and I described my desire to at least see, to explore, to feel the land where I was born. I relayed how this was my first "true" visit back. 

"So you're a foreigner in your own land?" she inquired.

And that phrase has stuck with me forever. I feel like it describes me to a T. Somehow part and not part of a place I call "home."

A foreigner in my own land.

donsol!

the last part of our trip involved a 13 hour bus ride down the coast of luzon, dropping us off in the small town of legaspi in the dark at 3 in the morning. cold and tired, we waited half-sleeping in a jeepney for the first run of the day while the driver dozed across the front seat of the vehicle. at 4 or 5 (who knows, really? time was a blur at that point) we took off and ended up in donsol. the main attraction of donsol is the migration of the whale shark (wiki entry) through their waters. these huge animals travel through the ocean near donsol to eat the plankton that is plentiful there. and, because we are so lucky, we get to swim alongside the gentle giants!

i don't have pictures of our actual swim (these were procured from google images), but we got to swim literally feet from 4 different sharks that day.. some appearing out of nowhere in the dark waters just to come swimming right at me! as the day wore on, i got cold and cranky but when our boatman called out at the sight of a whale dorsol, we all jumped in eagerly. it just so happened that the sky opened and rays of light poured into the water just in time for us to swim alongside the whaleshark and the crisp clearness of the amazing animal leaves me at a loss for words.




thusly, however, our journey through the philippine islands comes to an end. today, we are back in manila, doing the internet thing and watching movies. we took a trip to see the very first house i lived in as a child so that was kind of neat.


in two days, we fly back to the cold of madison and then get ready for our new adventure: hiking the appalachian!! :)

island hopping through the visayas.. .

from puerto princesa, josh and i caught a flight over to the visayas and deplaned in dumaguete -- the main port on the island of negros. we spent quite a few days there, relaxing, reading, surfing the net -- things we long to indulgde in. :) we also got around to the surrounding areas to check out the sights of negros.

one day, we went up to the national park to do some trekking. to get there, we had to ride this habal habal (a motorcycle with an attached uncomfortable seat on the rear for extra seating) on a long gravel road that had me terrified the whole ride up and back down the mountain. once we reached the park, we found that due to high waters, trekking wasn't possible so instead we kayaked around the twin lakes and hung out and enjoyed the scenary.


as another side adventure, we went caving in mabinay! we met our caving guide, jeffrey early in the morning and he prepared us for the experience. although i had brought a swimsuit and extra clothes, we had been apparently misinformed that flip flops would be sufficient for caving. jeffrey frowned at our choice of footwear but took us to a cave called baliw which was listed in the "difficult" category on our list of caves from the tourist agency. the cave itself was so much fun. we squeezed through small crevices, sunk in mud and guano, belly crawled through parts impassable otherwise, and in the end had to take off our helmets to swim through the small slit leading us out of the cave.





after dumaguete, we took a LONG few bus rides to the other side of the island and stayed on a beautiful secluded beach called sugar beach (or, langub beach). we met a lot of nice people at the neighboring driftwood resort and hung out there and went snorkeling at the marine reserve. we again saw a lot of cool marine life and corals -- but still nothing compares to the colors and expanse of coral we saw at port barton.





after saying goodbye to our pseudo family at driftwood (they stood waving on the shoreline and shouting goodbyes as our boat sailed away), we bused and boated to ilo ilo in hopes of being about to do some rock climbing at the national park. however, once we arrived, the climbing gym we were supposed to seek information at was closed (the owner had moved to the u.s. apparently) and the park was off limits due to the rebel inhabitants.

instead of climbing, we took a trip to guimeras where we checked out a waterfall where local kids went to swim and a mango research farm (which wasn't as cool as it was made out to be). bummed out, we bought some mangoes and prepared to go back to manila and to donsol, our last stop before going home.

back to the beach..

and, happily, it was back to the beach.

josh and i caught a plane to puerto princesa on the island of palawan and settled there for a night. the next day, we took a jeepney up to sabang, the home of the famous underground river (a navigable river that flows through a cave formation). aside from the long wait and the 2-hour hike to get there (we opted for the 20-min boat ride on the way back), the tour itself were really nice. the actual boat ride seemed a little short in comparison to the wait.. but it was okay. the town of sabang was a small beach town with waterfalls and charm. plus, our hostel had a water buffalo-drawn cart!



next, we headed up to the town of port barton and ended up at a wonderful friendly place called elsa's (josh met a guy that worked there on top of the jeepney that took us there). we were seaside with breathtaking sunsets and our own personal beach. we took a bangka boat out one day with a belgian couple and went snorkeling (the coral! wow!) and island hopping.





from there, we went to el nido, the top tip of palawan. another nice town perfect for hopping between the small white sand beach islands. we stayed there a few nights (among the barking puppies in the middle of the night and the chorus of roosters crowing to wake us up) and did more island hopping with an amiable guide named kalui and his friend (whose name we never got). we got to see a both big and small lagoons as well as "secret" lagoon, which was accessible only by crawling through a small crevice. we did a bunch more snorkeling (here the coral was less impressive, and a lot of it was dead) and swimming. they even made a nice fish lunch on the beach!






we spent the last of our time on palawan eating comfort food and vegging out (josh hurt his neck on the bus one day) in puerto before heading off to cebu.

in the mountains.

once we came back from southern luzon, it was time to head up north. we got off a bus in manila, settled down at a hostel and soon learned that the buses to banaue left at 10PM. we quickly bundled up our stuff again and boarded another bus for a 10 hour ride to banaue. sick and tired, the bumpy bus ride was not extremely pleasant, but when we disembarked early in the morning to the view of the mountains through the morning fog, it was quite worth it.

the next day, we did the long hike to batad, a small town with magnificent rice terraces housed in the valley of the mountains and only accessable by hiking. it was a hard hot hike for me, but we made it and it was definitely worth it.



we left for sagada (another mountain town) a day or so later to see the hanging coffins of the ifugao tribe and the caves. we arrived in the midst of the town's annual fiesta and were treated to a parade of the different zones of sagada, complete with traditional music and costume. one night, we even got to see the town's beauty pageant (which was, if nothing else, extremely long -- starting at 9PM and lasting 'til past midnight).

we went caving one day and it was one of the highlights of my trip so far (minus the complete submersion in cold cave water while wearing blue jeans). it was so much fun squeezing into tiny crevices, holding on to the sides of dropoffs and, sometimes, being plunged into complete darkness when our guide's lantern would go ahead a little too far. :) we got to see a bunch of fun formations, including a dinousaur's footprint!! hehe


another day, we took a short hike to echo valley and saw some hanging coffins up close. we met some funny tourists there that thought the chairs hung along with the coffins were for people to meditate on.



from there, we headed back to manila to plan our trip to the island of palawan!

returning home. ..

on the 21st, josh and i flew out of thailand, spent a night in malaysia and landed in the philippines -- the first time my feet have been on the soil of my birthland since i was 12 years old. we spent a relaxing night in malate and randomly looked up an old friend of the family, tita patis (famous for her fashion designs: patistesoro.com), who whisked us away to southern luzon for the long weekend. we stayed in her lovely home near the town of san pablo, sleeping in the open air bamboo house and being treated to traditional filipino cuisine (conveniently, her downstairs has been converted into a restaurant!).

on day one, we took a long drive to see an 100-year old house she purchased, passing through small towns and a national park. it was refreshing to be out of the city and in the provinces, away from fast food and buildings and modern american-icities.



the next day we visited an old botanical gardens. we got to explore the place which must have been beautiful when it was upkept and bustling. even now, it was amazing to see -- wonderfully organized, beautifully arranged and housing exquisite plants. there was even a playground -- now old and kind of creepy -- that had giraffe and elephant slides!








finally, we took a trip to this new land that patis and a bunch of other people are cooperatively developing. they are working on planning a road and are currently in the middle of constructing a bridge. we hiked up the mountain on the top of the land and the view was breathtaking. we saw a few of the villages, a lake and the sacred mount banahaw.




we are now back in manila and are headed up to northern luzon (hopefully) tomorrow. i am excited to see the rice terraces!

miss you all!