Bacolod + Don Salvador | Philippines
There’s something in the act of setting out that renews me / that fills me with a feeling of possibility / On the road, I’m forced to rely on instinct and intuition / on the kindness of strangers / in ways that illuminate who I am / ways that shed light on my motivations, my fears. // Andrew McCarthy
I try to visit at least one new country each year on my trip, so this year I decided to start my trip in Philippines.
Dinny, an acquaintance from New York noticed my plans on Facebook and invited me to visit her in Bacolod, her hometown. Though we had only met twice, I enthusiastically took her up on her generous offer, and I’m so glad I did!
I flew from LAX (after a lovely 3 day visit in LA with some old and new friends) to Manila via Taipei. The Taipei Airport was a lot of fun because it was filled with Hello Kitty. Even the carrots on my in-flight meal were shaped like hello kitty!
I skipped Manilla completely on the advice of pretty much everyone who has visited, and immediately hopped a plane to Bacolod, where Dinny was awaiting me at the airport. Even though I had just traveled 24 hours, I had enough energy to meet Dinny’s friends for a big seafood dinner and beers!
The next day (a little rough around the edges from beer, scotch, and shooting pool), Dinny offered to take me on a road trip to her friend Lily’s hill top house in the mountains of Don Salvador.
I was introduced to the crazy Filipino-style driving. It’s especially crazy in Bacolod because the region produces copious amounts of sugarcane, which means hoards of sugar cane trucks driving at a abysmal pace. But after escaping the city, the drive became beautiful, a surreal landscape of lush green valleys and rice fields. Stormy weather created a dramatic sky, and the roads winded around the land, offering views of Mt. Kanlon volcano. Dinny knew the roads like the back of her hand, and told me scary stories of night-driving and nearly driving off cliffs. “See this shop? I almost drove straight into it.”
When we arrived at her friends place, we did nothing. Doing nothing is one of my favorite things to do while traveling! It started to rain a perfect amount, and I just lay there, half sleeping, feeling the mist blow in through the open doors, listening to sounds of the breeze and the birds as I soaked in my first day on the road.
This is one of the first frames I shot upon arrival and it’s one of my favorite photographs of my travels so far. I will be printing it large!
