(The Challenge was that we would need to visit 37 new places in the year leading up to our 37th birthday)
I had completely forgotten this because when Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) happened, it eclipsed everything else, made all non-Yolanda matters irrelevant.
In the new scheme of things, this is still not relevant, come to think of it. I decided to complete the folder anyway- add the pictures of the trips that made it to the cut (It is a welcome distraction when one is in yet another airport, waiting for another flight that is delayed). And belatedly, six months since the deadline in December, I realized that I had completed that challenge.
Yeheey. That sounded hollow even to my ears.
But I cannot deny that the experiences of that challenge were significant. I would have said life-changing, but now I only use that description for disasters like Yolanda.
So, from January 2013 until my 37th birthday in December, as part of this “37 trips for 37 years challenge” I:
• racked up 3 new countries to my world travel map ( UK, Germany , and Belgium); and visited 9 new cities outside of the Philippines (Brussels, Eindhoven, Njimegen, Kinderjdike, Hamburg, Manchester, London, Fujeira, Sharjah)
• went up and down a slippery, almost-90 degrees cliff in the dark caves of Sumaguing, Sagada and decided that I will do that only once in this lifetime
• Rode a roller coaster in Singapore
• watched my first musical on the West End (Billy Elliot)
• Watched a play starring Felicity Huffman & Ed Begley Jr. (November) at the Mark Taper Theater in LA, front row seats to boot
• Went on a road trip with my sister in UAE and watched an ancient bull fight in the Emirates of Fujeira.
• Went on another road trip closer to home with a friend, that took us around Laguna Bay
• Unrolled my banig on the desert and sat to watch the sun set.
• Watched Willie Nelson sing the standards in Hollywood Bowl one summer night
• Jumped into raging waters of the Ulot river in Paranas, Eastern Samar.
• Paid an exorbitant amount of money (in Pinoy standards) for a joint in a coffeeshop in Amsterdam
• Went sunset-hunting in California, UAE, Vietnam, in the local front (Batangas and Southern Leyte)
• Took many early walks to avoid the tourists in cities/places where it can get overwhelming
• Went to the many islands of my archipelago for a country on random weekends- Bohol, Anilao, Southern Leyte, Batangas, Kalanggaman
Dipped my toes where the Indian Ocean meets the Arabian Sea on a full moon, and again at day-break.
• Sang as part of the church choir in Belgium even when I don’t normally go to church (but I do know the church songs)
• Road many trains and drank too many variety of beers in beer capitals of Germany, UK, and Belgium
Trip no. 37 was the most special, it was in December, two days before the deadline. We went up to Tagaytay with my parents (who are Yolanda survivors), my sister (who came home from Dubai), and my Proj. 4 family to celebrate my birthday. Yes, I traveled a lot that year but I always know I have a family to come home to.
But 37 is just a number (borrowed from a tag line of a popular anti-aging commercial). It does not tell how these memories were made with old friends and family I traveled with or whom I visited during these trips, and friends who showed me these new places. It does not tell the stories of the friends I reconnected with. It does not tell the stories of the stories told during those long drives, train rides and quiet walks.
Yes, these are memories to last a lifetime even if it seemed like it all happened a lifetime ago.
