A fellow solo traveler once expressed her sentiments on how constantly
she is beset with prejudicial curiosity when traveling alone. The society, as
it is, has this common notion that a woman needs a companion to somehow ensure
her safety. So she asked whether there ever were drawbacks to being a solo
traveler among guys. At that time I couldn't think of any until I had my most
recent travel.
If there was one
thing I could say I have fully developed in the ten years that I've been
travelling, that would have to be my ability to get along with the locals very quickly. And this has been easily achieved because I travel alone
most of the time. Being alone makes it less intimidating for the locals to deal
with me. The connection you establish with the locals is essential in ensuring
a fun and safe stay in a new place. I thought that was enough. I was wrong.
Your charisma and geniality lose efficacy when politics comes into play!
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| The mother is fishing amid the thundering Pacific waves of San Pablo Islandd |
San Pablo Island, one of the twin islands off the shore of
Hinunangan, Southern, Leyte was the last leg of my Leyte 360 itinerary. This
destination is the least lustrous among the stops I made in this week-long
journey. But I chose it to be the location for my birthday as it is unpopular
and expectedly as immaculate as could be (the place turned out to be familiar
with tourists). I just wanted to be with people who didn't know who I am and
who didn't care about the significance of my travels.
The lovely beaches of Canigao and Limasawa had made the
pebbly shores of San Pedro and San Pablo islands look like swamps. But trust me
I had fun with the locals. I honestly want to tell you more of the fun I had
during my two nights in San Pablo Island but the terrible experience I had in
that place dims my mood to write a positive note of the place. So I will just
be sharing that horror story that gave me my most ‘peaceless’ bus ride back
home. My ears fell deaf to the playlist I was forcing myself to enjoy while in
transit. Here is the story.
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| My humble birthday celebration: this was the fun part, before politics blemished the journey |
When I arrived in Hinunangan from
San Juan, I followed my travel protocol: log in at the municipal hall and
barangay hall. I was actually accompanied by the boatman (who happens to be a
barangay councilor in San Pablo) when I logged in at the barangay hall. One
woman there posed with a certain air of distinction. We exchanged cordial
smiles and greetings. I believed she was the barangay chairman so I thought
that was already enough courtesy call.
On my second night, however, the real
barangay chairman came to the boatman’s house (where I stayed). He had heard of
my presence in the island. In a polite tone, he was asking about my identity
saying that he was just concerned about the security of his constituents.
Unfortunately, I had lost all my ID’s along with my wallet that I left in a cab
while processing my employment documents in Cebu. I do have a passport but I
don’t carry it with me when I expect to climb mountains. And I had already
surrendered my recent employment ID when I quit. My host reassured him that I had
logged in at the barangay hall. He was appeased a little bit but after a few
seconds I heard the most ridiculous investigation a traveler could have. “Naa ka’y dala nga cedula?” (Do you have
a residence certificate?). When I said no, he preached that all travelers
should carry a cedula with them when
travelling. That’s when I reckoned that with that kind of leadership the backward
community may take decades to progress. I was tempted to be sarcastically rude
by asking the question ‘Katong puti nga
laki ganiha gipangayuan sad nimo og cedula?’ (Did you also ask for a cedula from the Caucasian visitor?). But
I chose to just apologize and say ‘Sige
po. Next time timan-an na nako!’ (I’ll surely take note of that next time.)
The conversation was not really as intense as we both were honestly feeling. We
maintained an air of courtesy and we kept apologizing to each other for the
inconvenience. When we said goodbye to each other, I suddenly remembered, I had
my credit card and my two ATM cards that bear my name. I showed them to him and
I was assured that would seal the drama off.
In the morning of my departure,
however, he came to the house sooner than I woke up. He said that the chief of
police had told him to escort me to the PNP station. And I was like, What?! I
calmly said ‘All right.’ It was becoming an intolerable annoyance but I just
kept my cool. When I asked how the PNP knew about my stay, he said that some
locals may have texted the PNP! Wow the locals have the cell phone number of
the chief of police and they texted him within that span of time! Nice try! But
it doesn’t take a genius to know what really was happening!
His eagerness to cross the sea to personally
escort me to the PNP station and miss the important barangay meeting they were
to have later that day helped me formulate this theory:
He wanted to update his political
resume. He wanted to add ‘He is the great barangay chairman who caught an insurgent at large!’ And
this is the scenario that he was insisting on establishing using the lame
premise that I couldn’t present a cedula.
As nobody actually had informed
the chief of police of my stay in the island, he gave a 10-minute briefing to
the chief behind closed doors before I was summoned. After seven days of
travelling, I was already sunbaked and I definitely looked more of a bum than a
traveler. The chief, with his prying eyes, started with the question ‘Waray ka mga ID dida?’ (Can we present
any form of identification?). The barangay captain had told him I was a Waray.
I said ‘Waray kay nawara ha Cebu’ (I’ve
lost all of them in Cebu). When the chief
asked me to tell him what I was doing there I asked permission to express myself in a language I was most comfortable with—Tagalog with a bit of English. During my litany, I
showed him my bank cards and a playback in my camera of the places I had traveled
in the last seven days. I told him that I was just trying to help the tourism department
of Southern Leyte and he was grateful about this. I also dropped the names of
the police officers that I made friends with in Limasawa and Cabalian. The
consistency of my story which was delivered with a seamless voice reassured him that I
was telling the truth. Shortly after my statement, he said that he trusted I
was from Carigara because back in the day, he knew a Captain Lloren who hailed
from my town. Then I was dismissed and he started giving me friendly remarks on
my way out. When I asked about an ATM in the town, he told the barangay chairman
to escort me to the ‘co-op’ where I could withdraw cash. In his humiliation and
defeat the Brgy captain was walking ahead of me noticeably faster than on our
way to the police headquarters. He had lost his face. But we were still
superficially courteous and friendly. Like I said, I have mastered the art of ‘public
relations’ in my more than one decade of traveling…and in his case, as a politician
for I don’t know how long.
The drama ended quickly but the
trauma was so overwhelming as to make me write this whole story in my mind on my
way back home. In hindsight, I wondered whether things would have unfolded
differently if I had been a woman…or a Korean. I think the premise that the
chairman used to qualify me as an insurgent was that I was a guy and that I was
a Filipino. I also wondered whether it was originally pride that spurred him to
harass me. He was probably offended why he wasn't given proper respects or the
honors to receive me. It must have been hard for him to accept that these were
all accorded to a mere kagawad
instead. I wondered whether proper identification would have sufficed if I had
had one or would he still have found other loopholes just to get back at me.
And so I have resolved to keep traveling
alone and keep encouraging others to do so. I am hopeful that through this
campaign, more and more people will be made aware that some people do travel solo...and that we are not necessarily insurgents!
So that eventually, people will stop asking the annoying question ‘Why are you
alone?’ And ultimately, no crook and no ignoramus may use the myths of
travelling rebels as a pretext to harass a traveler just to adorn his political
resume.
