For most of us Filipinos, traveling light-- meaning with less luggage or bags in tow--is not in our national vocabulary, most specially when visiting the homeland.
 
A few days ago, I had to massage my wife’s shoulders and back with deep- heating cream to relieve her of some muscles pains caused by the   never-ending, back-breaking weighing and packing of our luggage and carry-on bags to meet the airline’s   50-pound per bag requirement.

While writing this piece, I myself am having some back pains too. The past weeks we have been busily   packing our suitcases with all the goods we could find in our home: canned corned beef, meat loafs, coffees, cookies, chocolates, shampoos, toiletries, toothpaste, baseball caps, perfumes, women’s accessories and other goodies which we normally   send to our relatives through the balikbayan box.
 
Most probably, as you are reading this article, my wife, our son and me are already airborne on our way to our three-week visit to the Philippines.
 
Just a few days before our D-Day, we are still doing some shopping; we buy some chocolate bars, white chocolates, but my main worry is that these snacks might thaw since we are going to the Philippines with a hot weather. Well, it’s good that Shoppers Drug mart near our place is having a closing out sale giving as much as 50 per cent off in almost all items in the store, so again we having some shopping spree.
 
 Worrying that our luggage might collapse by the sheer weight of the stuffs we putting in, we also buy some plastic straps, which could provide some support    to our luggage.
 
Despite the physical strain in maximizing the contents of these suitcases, there is also a positive note that we can learn out of this experience .In filling in these suitcases, we don’t have    to shop around a lot to buy some     discounted items for our pasalubong. 
 
By simply   opening boxes and drawers right in our home, we could readily find stuffs good enough as gifts, thereby effectively de-cluttering home of goods which we have bought and accumulated through the years of buying. And I think, people here in this part of the world could relate to our own experience since impulse buying is a norm   in North America--people just keep on buying discounted goods even if they don’t need them and they're keeping   them for the " rainy days”.
 
Ping Nacua, our kumare and a good friend, says that whenever she and her husband, Danny, travel to the Philippines, they make it a point that aside from buying gifts as pasalubong, they also   collect the various stuffs they have accumulated through the years of buying and give them away to some families, relatives, kumare, kumpadre and friends, adding that  “ ilalabas namin ang lahat ng mga ito para ipamigay sa kamag-anak at
kaibigan “.
 
“ We also maximize the luggage and carry-on bags’ weight requirements of the airlines, but we insure that we have the correct weights to avoid hassles at the airport, Sayang naman, kung hindi ma-maximize ang luggage’s weight,” Ping says.
 
I think that maybe I’m getting paranoid already with all the news I’ve been reading from the papers back home and the newscast I’ve watching from the TV Patrol World, that the dengue epidemic caused by some mosquito bites could be a year-round danger throughout the country.
 
With this at the back of my mind, we have to buy Off insect repellent spray and the Off mosquito Katol for fear that we might find ourselves in some areas infested with dengue-carrying mosquitoes. Well, for a cancer survivor like me, I think it’s better to have some kind of   preventive measures to avoid any untoward incident.
 
We are also bringing my wife’s portable device for insulin –level testing, handy blood pressure apparatus, sleeping device for preventing sleep apnoea, pillows, some blankets, a box of medication and anti -bacterial hand wipes. I don’t know why we worry so much about getting sick or being stricken with some illness but I think it goes the age.
 
Of course, a month before, we got our travel health insurance. And we know, this kind of insurance is a must for us travellers. With all these luggage plus the three carry-on bags, I don’t think one taxicab would be enough take us to the airport With this in mind, my wife has to contact a friend --who has van with enough space to squeeze in all our heavy bags-- to take us to Pearson Airport
 
Visiting the Philippines is both physically and emotionally stressful and tiring.
Physically tiring, in the sense that we Filipinos would always want to maximize the weight and sizes of the allowable pieces of luggage that go with our travel.
So at least three week before our planned departure, we have started the packing the suitcases and from time to time, we put these bags on the weighing scales to insure the correct weights.
 
A few days ago, my wife and I together with our youngest daughter Katrina, we were at Cosco to do some last-minute buying foodstuffs like bread, juices, hotdogs, eggs and sandwich spread. And these are not for our own consumption but for Katrina and grandchildren who would be left behind. We just want to make sure that during our 3-week vacation, they would have something to munch on.
 
We, Pinoys have close family ties and our lives revolve around families, relatives and friends. And our travel abroad would not be complete without first making certain that family members who could not be with us in our travel are given enough provisions for their sustenance while we are away on vacation.
 
 Once, we’ve arrived in the Philippines, what comes to mind is how we could immediately visit our relatives and friends whom we haven’t seen for years—and that visit could only mean a never-ending kamustahan, kuwentuhan  at kainan.
 
Let’s go and visit the beautiful Philippines not only to see its scenic tourists places but also to experience once again the warmth and hospitality of our kababayans and friends.
 
See you there!

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine