Travel tales

I have just returned from a fam tour - sponsored by Philippine Airlines and Fortune Travel - to Jakarta and Singapore. True, these are near enough places to visit but when you start your journey from Manila, you have the Cebu-Manila leg to consider. That's an added hour and twenty minutes to your travel time. Had we taken the first flight to Jakarta, we should have been at Mactan Cebu International Airport by 4 am to catch the 8 am Manila-Singapore-Jakarta schedule. An unholy hour to start a journey...but then again, we could have had more time to browse through the antiques and household knickknacks along Jalan Surabaya - with an arrival shortly after lunch. As it were, we took the afternoon flight that left Manila for Singapore at 2:50pm. With an hour's stopover in Singapore, we reached Jakarta at way past 8 pm. Just in time to check into our hotel to sleep. We lost a day so we had to squeeze our antiques/house wares shopping into just 30 minutes the next day. Much to the dismay of the bargain/treasure hunters in the group who were titillated by what the shops had to offer in Jalan Surabaya.

Traveling somehow puts your well-being off-kilter. Delays, unforeseen incidents or even air pockets can whiff your equanimity into the empyrean. Generally, the incidents probability is in direct ratio to the number of people traveling as a group. (I however enjoyed my Jakarta gang immensely! All 15 of them...no exception! Ours was one of those rare groups that really became a comfortably bantering family in no time.)What I mean is that some of the members can go missing when he/she finds a "date"(ooops!) or when wings unfurl through inspiration (ehem!) or when apparitions prance in "elvin" grace(ehem...ehem!) or when shopping proves too tantalizing that hours seem like minutes. (In the latter, there definitely is a gender bender in this era of the metrosexual male.) Then the other members scamper around to retrieve the unaccounted for, like postmodern mystery-busting Sherlock Holmes. Ahhhh, what traveling companions can do to carve your wrinkles!

Yet, it's the same co-travelers who will come to your aid in times of stress, like when one of us was about to faint and the high-heeled vamp jumped out of her ramp-model poise to do a mean chop-chop massage to alleviate the discomfort of her sick companion. Or when the capo di capi (Chinese version) would stay by the bus door to gallantly help the women in the group manage those tricky steps. Or when the rumor monger of a guy magically handed the panacea "smelling salts" stick (Chinese version, again!) that saved the damsel from swooning altogether in that intense noonday heat.

Which brings me to my important point for this piece: traveling can really be a bane if you are not feeling up to par. This was the reason why Marijo (Araneta of PAL, my roommate) and I had to take a nap when we reached Singapore from Jakarta, foregoing the lures of Orchard Road, where our hotel was conveniently located. We barely slept the previous night since we had a 3 am wake-up call to be at the airport by 5am for our flight back to Singapore. We felt woozy, sleep-deprived. When we woke up three hours later, we were up and ready for a late afternoon shopping spree.

One of us developed allergies, so she was not able to go shopping at all. Another one felt feverish, while yet another suffered a stomach upset. These are probable incidents in a trip. However, these can be avoided, pre-empted, minimized or exorcised by fortifying yourself way ahead of the trip (avoid weakening you resistance through late nights, stress, etc., immediately prior to departure). Pop vitamin C and multi vitamins into your system for optimum immunity and get those basic/personal medicines into your bag. Mind what you put into your mouth in a foreign place. When they claim that their water is potable...it may mean potable "to the locals." I love oysters and such seafood delights as shrimps and seaweeds but I stay away from them while traveling...unless they are guaranteed to be fresh. Also, be careful with "tinuno-an" or dishes/desserts with coconut milk. Most importantly, if it tastes or smells strange, spit it out promptly! Better to lose your poise than to endanger your health.

If you are physically fit, then traveling can be a wonderful experience when you can expand your horizon, literally, and make more friends along the way. Your travel companions can become your life-long friends who will eventually share memories with you because of the common tales you share.

These tales unravel, are retold, a tad embellished, somehow grow longer with each retelling, gather glowing colors as burnished by memory and, in time, get tucked into one's remembrance of things past.