IMHO

The (Travel) Company You Keep

"Never go on trips with anyone you do not love." Sage advice from a great traveler whose footsteps I've quite accidentally managed to follow over the years: Ernest Hemingway. I've lived in Paris, and Illinois; taken the same Midwest train ride from Chicago to Kansas City; kept the company of creative creatures who also happen to be raging alcoholics...errrr, ok.

But I learned this basic travel truth the hard way: on a Northern Exposure class outing sometime in 1992, when a big bunch of us decided to forget about learning the law and slowly made our way through the Ilocos and Cordillera region. Baguio, Abra, Ilocos Sur: Paoay, Vigan, Sarrat, Ilocos Norte: Laoag, Pagudpud. Had we not just gone through the various periods of incarceration attendant to certain crimes against persons, each of us would have committed all sorts of serious physical injuries, mutilation, homicide, murder, against some other travel companion. Whew. I used to call it my 4-day rule; you have to pick your travel companions WELL...otherwise, you'll end up physically hurting some poor friend very badly on the fourth day.

I've managed to survive almost two decades of trips with Ney and Miles, two of my best friends, which is probably why they ARE my best friends. Miles is somewhat like a little kid - she gets very impatient on long-haul trips and absolutely cranky when sleepy or sick. Personally, she's never given me grief (she saves it for David or Ney or whoever else may be in the way). He he, hope she doesn't read this - loveya mare!

My G-9 friends (who I love veryveryvery much) have managed to prove themselves some of the best travel companions ever - even though we're a huge group, we all seem to get along pretty well (we also did a Northern Exposure trip of our own, managing to make it all the way to Laoag and getting lost in a spooky place called - get this - Liliputen on the way back to Bangued). We've done Baguio and Pangasinan and Boracay (minus yours truly) and Pagsanjan and Caliraya together, and we still actually like each other. And Neil, Jules, and I even went on a four-day tour of Hong Kong and nearby China...and found ourselves extremely annoyed, not with each other, but with other members of our tour group (considering that we were only with the group for a day and a half!!).

Anyway. I have many more travel horror stories to tell - including the time a diplomatic incident almost erupted in the back of a rental car headed to the South of France. Sweden and Korea almost came to fisticuffs (or a major catfight, at the least), while USA kept tearing his hair out and the Philippines, neutral for the most part in the driver's seat, pulled a well-timed tantrum and burst into tears, forcing everyone to refrain from further hostilities (for the time being!). Not all travel stories are bad though; there are some people whom you just know will make the perfect travel companions - just like my dear sorority tukayo Lourdes Marivic Kalalo Punzalan-Espiritu, who crashed in my closet of a Paris apartment for a few days and saved my life on what was turning out to be a very stressful birthday! We both promised each other that we'd go to Europe together soon - Spain and Portugal and other dream destinations - and, through God's generous grace, we will, and have one heckuva of girl-bonding time. Larry M also made a superduper travel buddy - another future companion to Europe - Manhattan will always be one of my favorite places in the world because of how we explored it ("cinematically"-speaking, hehe). But, for the most part of my many travels, I've been happy enough with the company I've kept - me, myself, and I. And God, of course, whom I can never leave home without.

I'm looking forward to a full schedule of travels that start in a few days, and a "new" set of travel companions: Mindanao starting Friday with the parents, Dad's side of the family, and the "punx;" Kabayan once again with the usual suspects ("Bakang" et al., unless he trades in our company for the pristine beaches of El Nido and a hefty TF, hehe); maybe Babuyan (asa pa) with Pabs the surfdudong etc.; trekking through the Batad fields of gold with my anaks Jeryc and Alman (call me "Hanne")...and then we go global in June, mwahahahuhuhuhehe. All through God's grace. He, being my "bestest" travel companion of all, knows exactly when I need to "get going." :-)

posted by Honey Oliveros @ 1:14 PM