I write this with an inspiration of the book "The Art of Travel" by Allain de Botton.
If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much as the dynamics of this quest ---in all its ardour and paradoxes--than our travels. They express, however, inarticulately, and understand of what life might be about, outside of the constraints of work and of the struggle of survival.
"See the world as much as you can!" This is the philosophy of my late Lolo Tony. He, as he would always playfully boast, had seen much of the world and he wanted his children and grandchildren to see what he had seen. I spent most of my life hearing these words and eventually making them come true.
My whole family tries to live up to what he believed in. Hence, as early as one and a half years old, I set off to Hong Kong together with my whole family for the holidays in 1985. In fact, the earliest memory of travel was on that trip. I was riding one of those stationary horses, watching dolphins and whales in Ocean park and of course having my picture taken beside the penguin-inspired garbage can. From my first Hong Kong experience, I always thought that traveling would only be possible if it was fun, exciting and if i was always ready to pose for the camera.
It took a while before i rode a plane again. My parents wanted me and my two elder siblings to reach an age where we can remember sights that we see. So in 1989, at 6 years old, my family set foot to America for summer to visit my uncle who was getting married. It was a lot of firsts during that trip too-- first time to be a flower girl and my first time to run around a palace called- Toys R Us. Then the following year, we spent five day in sparkling clean Singapore. It was the first time that i saw so much orchids in one day. Eventually, these travels became an annual event since we went back to see more of Hong Kong the year after that. Then we visited relatives in Japan in 1992 and 1995 where we saw all these historical places that I thought were only seen in history books such as Mt. Fuji, The Imperial Palace and Tokyo Tower.
Like most, if not all, Filipinos, we have a lot of relatives in America and Canada. We cannot seem to say no to their invitations to visit as we spent several summers there(1993, 1997, 1998, 2001). I thought that seeing the sights in America like Manhattan, The Washington Monument, The Ford Museum of Detroit and the bridges of San Francisco was already enough for me to brag about. But seeing Europe spelled out a very different travel experience with family (as it also decided what course i wanted to take in college). Choo-chooing away to the different museum like countries, provinces, towns, cities of Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Greece, Sweden, Finland) during the years of 1997, 2000, 2001,
2003 and 2005 made another chapter in my perspective of travel.
We are familiar with the notion that the reality of travel is not what we anticipate.
If we are inclined to forget how much there is in the world besides that which we anticipate, then works of art are perhaps a little to blame, for in them we find at work the same process of simplification or selection as in the imagination.
I always travelled with family. At my age, 24, i always wanted to travel with friends. See the world in a different lens, with different people to be with. I entered grad school with a perspective of improving my business and be able to frame those scattered photographs of operations, marketing, HR and Finance in one big picture frame. Until an invitation to join EntrepAsia China came up to me. China is one place i have not been to. I have seen much of the western world but the east has yet to uncover. After so much uncertainties of this trip, I found myself 430 in the morning last november 25 checking in for my first international trip with friends!
Journeys are midwives of thought.
Few Places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving
planes ships or trains.
This trip was indeed a break. A break from so many things that has been going thru with me for the past two years. I took the welcomed isolation to some place unknown. After so many travels with family, a journey with friends has taken me miles far away from 'home'.
In fact, the friends I am with even are not those friends from 'home' as well. They are friends whom I met only 4 months before we took off. Some even we only met during that trip. I guess the 20 days of boot camp that bound us together made the bonding
and breaking ice so much easier. I wouldnt complain spending a few more days with them again. Everyone was just "GAME" and everyone was just as excited of what other things are there to unfold.. related to our business or not. It was just being in a different world that made us wander and wonder of how would life (and love) should, would and could be.
Technically, our first stop was at Beijing. We met the rest of the group at the Tienanmen
Square where we had our first loads of photos. Thank god for digital cameras, i try to imagine how many rolls of 36 ISo200/400 films i would have brought if that thingamajig was never invented. It was there that we had our reality check that, we truly are out of the realms of our day to day chains-- of change fund, of decisions points, of EAs and of IAs. What are we suppose to do here? What are we suppose to think? The company of certain people may excite our generosity and sensitivity, while that of others awakens our competitiveness and envy.
The food, oh glorious food, i havent been stuffed with peking duck so much in my life. Is that possible Human stuffed duck? Duck Stuffed Human? I would recall at times how my father would joke that it was not a real duck in the first place (oh please, do read the pun). Snippets and peep out moments of past travels would come along like an egotistical idiot's echo the whole time. Armed with my lola's and mom's training with packing and unpacking, shopping and bargaining, dressing and undressing it was easy for me to be with traveling light and shopping light crowd.
A danger of travel is that we may see things at the wrong time, before we have had an opportunity to build up the necessary receptivity, so that new information is as useless and fugitive as necklace beads without a connecting chain.
Manzhouli, Mongolia-- The city of Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia is still China's top inland port of entry in terms of imports and exports, trade volume and the amount of tax paid tot he state, a position it has held in recent years.
Trains from Beijing to Moscow would pass this quaint Eurasian town. Frozen lakes, Frozen Fish for lunch, Clothed for -30C, running around with just a tshirt, water thrown from the 8th floor turning to ice at the 4th floor, russian looking chinese, chinese looking russians, tsino-european architecture, russian dolls, russian doll looking girls, 6 peso beer, 180 peso vodka, and a hotel room filled with hysterical brown bears, couple of ducks, black geese, fat females, running hares, simple simons, sicilian sailors, napping nymphs and flig flockers.
Just like mandy moore, i wanted to be in two places at the same time. Manzhouli gave me that experience. Though i only held Russia in my eyes, being able to almost breath the same air is already some big experience for me. At an almost -30C weather, i braved the cold with an almost 6 layer clothing just to pose for a photo! Sad to say, my camera was not prepared for such weather! the cold froze the batteries and could not work! Thanks to dearest cecille, HK roomie for taking my photo!
The risk is compounded by geography in the way that cities contain buildings or monuments that maybe only a few feet apart in space but are leagues apart in terms of what is required
to appreciate them.
Back in Beijing, i had a chance to tick off one of the 147 places i want to see in my life time. The great wall of China. I was waiting for a Mulan to come my way. It's architecture that could go on for miles that even eyes could never reach its both ends.
I wasn't a fan of Chinese history. Eastern History at that. It's dynasties, dynasties and more dynasties. Its emperors, its politics, its economy and even its culture. I found them very restricting and too much importance is given to fate. Yet this experience gave a different photograph in mind. A Photo that creates a panoramic view of the endless opportunities, just like the great wall, that you can capture and captivate given its history, politics, economy and culture.
A night filled with dancing, singing,celebrating and remembering, and creating new memories with new bonds tightened. Filling in the gaps between classes, long distance skype cum Ym updates, feeling the YOUth, and simply being able to enjoy and relax with no worries of cafe curfews, sales deposits, sales targets, VMOKRAPI-SPATRES!
It was indeed another travel to remember. Some of us took a last leg in Hk and Macau. And it definitely provided me more insights that traveling is not just about fun, excitement and posing for a pictures. Rather, I discovered that i should give a lot of importance to these places and freezing moments to preserve it's beauty that no 20 KG baggage limit could stop me.
I may not be able to write everything in here, more so in the photos i took with my freezable camera, because most of the smiles, laughter, life and love talks are captured in my mind and heart.
Every Realistic picture represents a choice as to which features of reality should be given prominence; no painting ever captures the whole.
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