Journey alone

I’ll turn my back on Manila this Thursday. I’ll  join Babe to Pampanga then we’ll part ways in San Fernando. I’ll be staying with my sister in Mabalacat until Friday then catch the first bus going to Baguio at Dau terminal in the morning. If my itinerary is followed to the minutest of details, I’ll reach Sagada by Saturday afternoon, that is, if I decide to stay a night in Baguio. This plan was finalized an hour ago. Other than basic facts such as what buses to take, where to take them, where to stay for the night, and where to get a clean meal (save delicious), I had to keep myself from reading descriptions of the trip and veered away from reading reviews of hotels and restaurants in the area. I want to reach Sagada with my sense of wonderment as whole as that of a five-year-old’s.

It’s a trip I have been dreaming about and finally embarking on alone. I am forgoing a Visayas trip with former college classmates at UP in favor of this sojourn. I’ve had too much of talks these past few months that I reached a point when I get nauseated whenever I hear any form of utterance. I do not want to spend this hard-to-come-by vacation in loquacity. I have deprived myself of this much needed introspection which can only be had by distancing myself a bit from all these things that caused me undue stress, and from my very self, including.

My backpack will contain only the most essential–a little cash, toiletries, clothing for two days, my laptop, a camera, and two paperbacks. Trips of spiritual nature, though I am far from being the spiritual sort, are best conducted in ascetic fashion and in solitude.

I tried my best not to sound like I romanticize solitude in writing this post as aside from the fact that I do not want to be called funny names such as troglodyte, recluse, solitary, anchorite, solitudinarian, or worse cave dweller and/or hermit, the whole concept is trite. I need somebody to survive. In retrospect, it was an illusion I cultivated during my teenage years: that I can be self-sufficient. A fallacious assumption. However, in spite of this realization I recently have, now that I am in my mid-20s, I still believe that I owe it to myself to seek quiet whenever chance lets me. And this is exactly what I am going to do in the next four days.