Viaje del Sol*, Version Franco-Phil

February 2008

It was the only real road trip that we ever had together when she was living in Manila. It would have been nice if we were able to do more. This is re-living that drive on a cloudy, windy day in a clunky, good old, red car as we hit the road to the south of Luzon. She taught me how to drive in that piece of beauty. Too bad she sold it when she went back to France. She swears a lot, I think more than anyone I know, yet she's one of the nicest, sweetest gal and its partly because of that. I was with her when she got arrested by a faux police in the corner of Roxas Boulevard and Vito Cruz (violation: not in the right lane) who asked to just settle it with some hefty "loose change" for merienda. She gave in, helpless, but not after a fit of beautiful profanities. I was at the front passanger seat watching this frustratingly funny drama unfold. She had at least three of those unpleasant "encounters with the corrupt kind" during her two year stay. She left Manila because of those, and because of pollution, and of other kinds of disenchantment. Sadly, this was not to be the city for her, and she was not the girl for this city. But I'm glad she was here. I will never forget the first time she came to my office asking for some Filipino dancing lessons.  She not only found a teacher (the lessons didn't last anyway), but also a friend. And that she can have for keeps. We shared many other things; she saw me and I saw her.

This is for you Delphine, Mademoiselle Bulle, to provoke more road trips to come.

***

En route...

Lawa ng Sampaloc, Lac Sampaloc
San Pablo, Laguna

Kusina Salud
Tiaong, Quezon...

Off the beaten path:
Alaminos, Laguna

Delphine et moi...

A bientot!

* "Viaje del Sol" is the name of of a well-curated travel route suggestion that takes you to interesting and tasteful locations that blend delights in culture, art and gastronomy in the south of Luzon, mostly in the province of Quezon, some in Laguna and Batangas. For more information, visit their website, http://www.viajedelsol.org/index.htm

Music for the Road: Mr. Sandman - Pomplamoose

Secret Music

I love the sound of flipping pages. In a room where there is no other music but the gentle caress of one's fingers as they turn a page, or the brisk shuffling of paper sheets like playing cards, but softer.

I discovered this quiet joy when I was a child. A man was seated across the table where I sat. He was browsing through a magazine, as I was silently reading a book. Innocently, he turns a page, past leaf unfolding to future, and in fleeting precious splits of a second, everything seemed to move in slow motion. My hairs began to prickle, goosebumps spread like wildfire across my skin, as if being massaged by ghosts. This minute ecstasy occurred as he turned a single page. I'm glad he was reading a magazine, because such pages are mostly non-committal, ephemeral flashes, so his flipping was brief, repetitive and rhythmic. He went on from page to page to page, and the mesmerizing sound that such "un-paging" created went across the table and rippled through my body. I was no longer reading, instead lost, on the blissful waves of passing pages that touched and  penetrated.

Until he stumbles into something that finally took his interest, and lingers there for a while. I remained seated, flushed and feeling deprived, yet secretly overjoyed by this innocent awakening. I returned to my book, disoriented for while, trying to remember what was the last word I read.



***

Tips for Traveling

Text by Paulo Coelho

1. Avoid museums. This might seem to be absurd advice, but let’s just think about it a little: if you are in a foreign city, isn’t it far more interesting to go in search of the present than of the past? It’s just that people feel obliged to go to museums because they learned as children that travelling was about seeking out that kind of culture. Obviously museums are important, but they require time and objectivity – you need to know what you want to see there, otherwise you will leave with a sense of having seen a few really fundamental things, except that you can’t remember what they were.

2. Hang out in bars. Bars are the places where life in the city reveals itself, not in museums. By bars I don’t mean nightclubs, but the places where ordinary people go, have a drink, ponder the weather, and are always ready for a chat. Buy a newspaper and enjoy the ebb and flow of people. If someone strikes up a conversation, however silly, join in: you cannot judge the beauty of a particular path just by looking at the gate.

3. Be open. The best tour guide is someone who lives in the place, knows everything about it, is proud of his or her city, but does not work for an agency. Go out into the street, choose the person you want to talk to, and ask them something (Where is the cathedral? Where is the post office?). If nothing comes of it, try someone else – I guarantee that at the end of the day you will have found yourself an excellent companion.

4. Try to travel alone or – if you are married – with your spouse. It will be harder work, no one will be there taking care of you, but only in this way can you truly leave your own country behind. Travelling with a group is a way of being in a foreign country while speaking your mother tongue, doing whatever the leader of the flock tells you to do, and taking more interest in group gossip than in the place you are visiting.

5. Don’t compare. Don’t compare anything – prices, standards of hygiene, quality of life, means of transport, nothing! You are not travelling in order to prove that you have a better life than other people – your aim is to find out how other people live, what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and with the extraordinary.

6. Understand that everyone understands you. Even if you don’t speak the language, don’t be afraid: I’ve been in lots of places where I could not communicate with words at all, and I always found support, guidance, useful advice, and even girlfriends. Some people think that if they travel alone, they will set off down the street and be lost forever. Just make sure you have the hotel card in your pocket and – if the worst comes to the worst – flag down a taxi and show the card to the driver.

7. Don’t buy too much. Spend your money on things you won’t need to carry: tickets to a good play, restaurants, trips. Nowadays, with the global economy and the Internet, you can buy anything you want without having to pay excess baggage.

8. Don’t try to see the world in a month. It is far better to stay in a city for four or five days than to visit five cities in a week. A city is like a capricious woman (or a capricious man, if you are a woman): she/he takes time to be seduced and to reveal him/herself completely.

9. A journey is an adventure. Henry Miller used to say that it is far more important to discover a church that no one else has ever heard of than to go to Rome and feel obliged to visit the Sistine Chapel with two hundred thousand other tourists bellowing in your ear. By all means go to the Sistine Chapel, but wander the streets too, explore alleyways, experience the freedom of looking for something – quite what you don’t know – but which, if you find it, will – you can be sure – change your life.

As an old hippie, I know what I’m talking about…

The text was taken from Coelho's book “Like a flowing river”

For more of Paulo Coelho, visit his blog:  http://paulocoelhoblog.com/