When the journey becomes the destination

It was already 3 AM and my patience was running thin. Cat naps in between mosquito bite curses and asking, waiting for news of a bus going to Kalibo or direct to Iloilo and the feeling of helplessness, of waiting for nothing. What am I doing here? Why am I inflicting this on myself? I wasn’t part of an Amazing Race episode but, I was on a trip to home. Taking the plane to Cebu from Manila was the best option. But there I was, stranded in Caticlan, with her population still deep in slumber and no transportation available.

It was a good seventeen hours, yes, 1-7, more than half a day, since I last boarded the bus in Makati bound for Batangas City, then a fastcraft to Calapan in Mindoro, a vhire to Roxas, Mindoro Oriental.

A six hour ferry ride to Caticlan and from there, should be another bus to Iloilo, a fastcraft to Bacolod, then another bus to San Carlos at the other side of Negros to board the last ferry bound for Toledo City in Cebu. Dizzying, don’t you agree? But to reach Talisay City in Cebu, my home, I still have to take one, last and final bus ride. And a tricycle.

Am I a masochist? A person who takes pleasure in pain? A disciple of the Marquis de Sade? No, I’m just an ordinary traveler who takes pleasure in doing it the hard and long way.

My first taste of such kind of trip was way back in college, second year to be exact and my classmate Ian, who hails from Ormoc, invited me to take the bus with him via Bicol. That time, I’ve already have travels of my own but a day or two on the bus? That was wicked! And memorable as the one we took broke down in Atimonan, Quezon, at a remote barangay that we have to spend six hours waiting for the replacement parts.

But oh, boy, the sight of Mt. Mayon before the break of dawn when we arrived in Bicol was just mesmerizing that even until now, I can still picture it at the back of my head, two decades later.

I’ve been to far more longer trips: Manila – Laoag – Cagayan – Manila, Manila – Bicol – Samar – Leyte – Cebu – Negros, Panay – Mindoro – Batangas – Manila, Manila – Negros, Iloilo – Cuyo – Coron – Manila, Davao – Cagayan de Oro – Ozamiz – Dipolog – Siocon and back, Manila – Bangkok – Malaysia – Singapore – Manila… and I can just rattle off more places and destinations.

It’s addicting. I’m addicted. Nevermind if I am having difficulty at times, lugging a backpack, camera and laptop. Of experiencing disappointments, meeting people, enjoying the scenery and food. But most important of all, these long trips afford me to think deeper, to plan or just staring out into the distance as the world just passes by.

Travel is not all about reaching the destination but making the journey the destination itself!

This is my entry to this month’s edition of the Pinoy Travel Bloggers’s Blog Carnival hosted by Kara Santos with the theme Travel is the destination.