Most of my life was spent travelling the roads that leads to the province of Iloilo, from my home province Antique, and vice versa. When I was young my grandparents would take me to their trips. One of my fondest memories was throwing up my whole supper right on the lap of the man next to us. I had a rough childhood. A huge portion of my conscious life was spent on roadtrips with my family. Sometimes my father would drive us and we would entertain hitchhikers. Most of the time hitchhikers turned out knowing someone my father knows. It was pretty awesome.
This weekend I went home to my parents house to have myself pampered by my mother. She tucked me in before I sleep, she served real food, and she gave me extra money. My parents are very protective. It is partly the reason why, I’ve been trying to get away from them. But I fail all the time, I always come home unconsciously begging for attention. I was their typical rebellious middle child. The one who likes to runaway from family problems to create my own individual problems. The one who doesnt want to settle in one place. The one who wants to live on the road like Jack fucking Kerouac.
Yes. Blame those Beatnik writers for the lifestyle I’m trying to live. You can also blame National Geographic Adventure for it. They made me took this photos while I was on my way back to Iloilo City.
Alright, there the name Antique. (If only WordPress didnt blur it)
Antique is kilometers and kilometers(or miles for you Americans) away from Iloilo. I did not research the distance I have travelled but it is enough to make your butt burn.
Shores of Hamtic, Antique. Alright, more of skies of Hamtic, Antique. But yeah the stones and pebbles you can see, there’s a sea beside that.
Perhaps the thing that would make you stay awake when you travel is the sight of the “thousand diamonds sewn across the blue blanket” that is the sea. And for this travel, I made a goal, to follow the outline of the sea. I want to never loose the sight of it’s calm water. I want to watch it. The sea is so blue. It must be very sad. I want to watch it to drown my own sadness.
I tell you, travel makes you wonder about things. Wandering and wondering, a little difference, there is.
Another, attempt to capture the shore of Hamtic. There’s the sea, playing peek-a-boo behind the coco trees.
For a good 20 minutes, you’ll find yourself zig-zagging along to a bus that is trekking a zig-zag road. Which stirs the hell out of your stomach. Hence, the gross story from my childhood. You’ll enjoy the ride if 1.) you’re asleep 2.) on a travel induced high 3.) trying to locate the shoreline of Antique.
My thumb had a little cameo on this. You can’t see how the road is as curvy as those mountain peaks.
Oh hello, river. Another metaphor for the curvy road in this travel and in life, generally.
Opening your eyes to everything you see beside the road is a little bit of a mind exercise. When you see an object an idea springs into your mind. Thoughts like “wow the mountain is still green and why do we still have global warming?” or “if someone throws their trash off of the bus window, who will pick them up to throw them properly?” or the worst thought “what if the bus crashes off the cliff, can I stop it from falling?”. I actually had thought of that a few times. Okay, oftentimes.
Hello White Fluffy Clouds! (How many Brandon Boyd references am I going to make in this blog?)
I have always wondered what is the purpose of those yellow tin things. Later when I was already old enough to understand, it’s a warning sign that there is a cliff behind it. As we travel, we discover answers to our own questions.
I don’t know what’s going on with this plants.
The mountains will surely make you forget about the sea. When a beautiful thing pass by even for a minute and our attention is being stolen by an equally beautiful thing, we focus our admiration on the latter. Momentarily, but I am still having fun waiting for the blue sea to peek from the mountains. Meanwhile:
That rock right there is the boundary. The datus from the past might have agreed that “Hey, Datu from Antique your territory begins from that big ass rock right there.” Maybe the conversation didnt go that way, but maybe sort of.
So many signs like this.
When I was a kid, I read somewhere that in order to avoid motion sickness, do not loose stare at that white lines beside the road. Which I still do every time.
There the sea, can you see it? No you can’t. But almost.
It is refreshing to see a place not crowded by houses and people. It makes you think that the world is still doing fine. We still have space for more people to live. But it also makes you think, where would this trees live if the people will take their home away. It is a little bit sad. It is hard to find balance in this world. Try to stand inside moving bus.
There’s a bird and there’s the sea.
There’s a bridge over troubled water that leads to the sea.
Green grasses growing.
There it is, the horizon. I have always wondered what’s beyond that.
Finally, the sea has surfaced. The calm and seemingly dangerous sea of San Juaquin, Iloilo.
I did not wanna sleep specifically during this travel, sometimes sleeping during trips will leave you even more exhausted. Ironically waking up and admiring the scene beside the road is more relaxing. I rarely have this moments. I only have this moments when I try to stray my mind from thinking about something or someone. Nature is indeed a gift. It has the ability to make you giddy with excitement thus making you forget about the bad things in life.
Life is a travel, hold your phone up, stretch your arm outside the bus window, let your hair get tangled all over, snap, snap, snap. Enjoy the ride.
