A Continuing Saga of Aggravation
Tuesday, November 1st, 2005I don’t get it. For goodness’ sake people, those folks are dead, expired, gone. Bereft of life they rest in peace. They’re pushing up the daisies with a well-earned snooze. C’mon, we spent the whole year ignoring them, then we all suddenly decide to get up and clean the moss and slime off thier memorials. And the result of all this? 12 fricking hours on the road, stuck from one cemetary to another, a snarl of traffic on every main road from Manila to Donsol.
Question 1: Why do they have to all decide to visit their decomposing ancestors in one go, when they have all year to do it?
Question 2: Why do cemetaries have to be right next to main thoroughfares?
Question 3: Why did we have to go on a god-forsaken trip to the blasted nether regions of southern Luzon on this particular weekend?
Alright, someone came up with a wonderful idea to take a roadtrip out to Legazpi, normally a nine-hour trip (slightly farther then Baguio from Manila). Took us 12 hours, and we ended up shacked in a short-time resort/motel. The entire time it was raining, and we went to Donsol to check out the place where the whalesharks are…well, everyone was at the cemetary. Word of advice: THERE IS NOTHING IN DONSOL! Unless its summer time, you’ll get halfway sick on the winding road that lasts for two hours out of Legazpi for absolutely nothing.
The trip was a series of flickering images: traffic, cemetaries, dead people, rain, and the passenger seat of my sister’s car.
We crossed at least eight different provinces: NCR, Laguna, Batangas, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Bicol, Albay, Sorsogon… we went past beaches, farmland, up into forests, down mountain sides, past Mayon volcano. Yes, it was a trip that was interesting and fun, but there was a lot of extra baggage attached. I’m glad to be back in Manila.
