A time to travel

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

This is a travelogue that is more of an account of reactions that the mind gives to what the eyes see around during an unexpected round trip.  The diary is supported with quotes of great thinkers of the past who, according to their experience, wrote about how or what travel is to them. Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” 

Exactly what happened to me last week. Suddenly, I arrived in Manila! I had no plan of any travel that day as my intention was simply to attend a prescon by Genesis Transport Service Inc. (GTSI), particularly, JoyBus at the Hill Station. Upon signing the attendance sheet in front of GTSI GM Ms. Patricia A. Moises-Afuang at the door, I observed that almost all of my colleagues in the prescon had their gear and backpacks with them.

I inquired from Joseph Zambrano of PIA and Frank Cimatu of the Baguio Chroniclew hy I felt like an odd man in the crowd because there was something that everyone in the room knew that I did not. They had no choice but to tell me the truth that GTSI offered the press club a trial run cum tours on JoyBus, from Baguio to Manila and back.

The round trip joy ride was confirmed by Baguio Midland Courier columnist BabooMondonedo who also said that a slot was waiting for me as somebody backed out. Thank you. That relieved me and it solved the “mystery” created by Uncle Joseph and Frank.

I had no plan to go anywhere out of town that day. But Baboo, Uncle Joseph and Frank shared a single thought that time and told me to go get my bag right away and be back in time for the joy ride after lunch, which was exactly what I did.     

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.”  –  Robert Louis Stevenson.

I chose a comfortable seat by the left side window of the yellow and blue GTSI JoyBus that was designed to have a limited number of only 28 seats. I learned that the design was intended to provide passengers sufficient leg room and space for bags. By the way, I almost sat on the cookies and bottled water provided as free refreshments by the bus company that the friendly and charming stewardess Rose Anne placed on my seat and on every seat.

There was also a blanket for each traveler. As the bus smoothly glided down Marcos Highway, I noticed the road shoulders on both sides were becoming wider as the greenery was being replaced by residential houses, sari-sari stores, woodcarving shops or frontages of unoccupied subdivision lots.

Fellow newsman-columnist and City Hall apologist Manong Ramon Dacawi was next to me by the aisle. I remember him telling me to choose for us seats that were near the toilet. To make their passengers more comfortable, Globe powered Wi-Fi signal for internet users is on board JoyBus. In addition, GTSI has equipped JoyBus with TV sets that have a list of around a hundred movies to choose from. I noticed that Stewardess Rose Anne was attentive to our needs but unfortunately she was too far in front and could not hear me when I was requesting her to play the movie “True Grit” starring John Wayne.

It was 4 p.m. in Pampanga and we have been moving on the highway to Manila for three hours now. The scenery has changed as we passed the mountains of Tuba above Ansagan in Benguet and Northern Cement in Sison, Eastern Pangasinan. To my left, I saw that Mt. Arayat in her dark green coat has been chasing us for almost 30 minutes, until we lost her as we entered the expressway to Manila.

I told myself, we are in another land, even while I remember another quote by Robert Louis Stevenson that said, “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” Incidentally, one of Bob Dylan’s traveling songs “Boots of Spanish Leather”was in my earphones. In his last lines he sung: “Well if you, my love, must think that-a-way, I'm sure your mind is roamin.’ I'm sure your thoughts are not with me. But with the country to where you're goin.” Indeed, we were all thinking about where we were to be lodged. Our bus reached Roxas Blvd. at past 7PM and headed straight to Midas Hotel and Casino, the former Hyatt Regency Manila.

After checking in, buffet dinner was opened in a spacious dining area. The foods were so tempting that guests kept going back to the buffet tables. The consequence: there was more leftover than what was eaten as shown by unclean plates on the tables. What a way to contribute to poverty. I think I will suggest to the hotel managers to install the sign that I saw in a restaurant in strawberry valley in La Trinidad, Benguet that goes: “Please consume all food. Leftovers will be paid.”

Midas Hotel has a casino on the ground floor. I was told that each room at Midas Hotel has a wireless internet connection. The 5-star luxury hotel, located some 15 minutes away from Ninoy Aquino International Airport aims to offer the best service by professionals trained under Genesis Hotels and Resorts Corp, according to a brochure I found in my deluxe room that is safely protected by an electronic door lock system.

After dinner, Patricia, AK-47, Loren Angelie and Atty. Ronald S. Ang, lawyer of the owning company that holds Midas, JoyBus and the rest of the business brought us to hoot at the Hooters. At the bottle-keep bar, I saw the name of Hans Sy and other familiar names. Maybe this is the place where these people talk about the wealth they get from killing the environment.  

Breakfast the next day was alright, although the cook forgot that King Midas wanted his eggs sunny side up. After that, we proceeded to Resorts World, a 6-star hotel where high rollers and big-time Chinese and Korean gamblers check in and play.

 We had a guided tour around the hotel and mind you, we were brought to a P93,000 per night villa. And so while we were being led out, I asked one of the cleaners who was pushing a laundry cart if they received higher salaries than public school teachers or cops. I expected a positive answer but there was none of that.

Since the room rates were so expensive, the salaries of employees should be reasonable, but the poor hotel cleaner said, “wala sir, pero okay lang kasi mahirap maghanap trabaho” (no sir, but it’s okay because it’s hard to look for a job). Indeed, as Henry Miller said, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

Before leaving for Baguio, Baboo informed us that Congressman Sonny Angara wanted to meet with us in a quick interview at the Sulu Hotel. This time, I proved Charles Horton Cooley wrong when he said: “To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change.” 

His quote does not apply to newsmen who have to work every time they are awake because news does not stop. But the prescon was quite brief. Soon to be called Senator Sonny A. by next year talked about the funding for the candidates that the coalition parties have fielded has to be discussed, considering that LP has coalesced with many other supporters belonging to NUP (former Kampi loyalists), NP, LDP, NPC, UNA (PDP and PMP), especially in the provinces. In the Senate, in case he will make it which depends on us voters, he said he wants to head the education or the agriculture committees if these are not taken by senior senators. At this point, I am now endorsing his candidacy. The Angaras in Baguio and La Union should be in the campaign.

 Contemporary songwriters, the likes of folk-rock and country singers Merle Haggard, Art Garfunkel and Jackson Browne also wrote about travel in their songs. In Merle’s song “I’m A Lonesome Fugitive,” he wrote, “I'm lonely but I can't afford the luxury of having one I love to come along. She'd only slow me down and they'd catch up with me, for he who travels fastest goes alone.” I have this friend who exactly feels this way. Garfunkel, meanwhile lamented: “Take my place out on the road again, I must do what I must do. Yes, I know we were lovers but a drifter discovers that a perfect love won't always last forever.” 

Then Jackson Browne sang about his hotel experience: “Gamblers in the neon, clinging to guitars; blues in old motel rooms, girls in daddy's car; you're right about the moon, but you're wrong about the stars. And when you stop to let 'em know you got it down, it's just another town along the road.”

By the way, please do not mistake this article as an advertisement or promotion for GTSI JoyBus. Honestly, I only wanted to share with you my experiences during that wonderful trip. Let us say it was a junket, but it was worth it. Lastly, Lin Yutang, another Chinese great once said, “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – marchfianza777@yahoo.com