Weltanschauung

Gone in Bagan

evantan — Thu, 7 Nov 2013 19:35:00 GMT

Next to traveler's diarrhea and your Hostel fears coming true, what's one of a traveler's worst nightmares?

Well, we had an experience of that on our way to Bagan.

Sleepless in Yangon

evantan — Thu, 7 Nov 2013 19:32:00 GMT

We arrived in Yangon at 8:20 in the morning, groggy from the quick nap we were able to take during the flight from Kuala Lumpur. Aldrich, the guy who manages the homestay we're in now, picked us up from the airport and drove us to Lanmadaw Township, the downtown area of the city where we were staying. I noticed how it looked a bit like the pictures of 1960-70s Manila, with pedestrians spilling out to the highway thanks to a lack of proper sidewalks. While not yet as crowded as Metro Manila with only 6 million people living in the city, Yangon may just end up like the former, with its poor urban planning.

Read more here.

Both The Thief and Giver of Happiness

evantan — Thu, 7 Nov 2013 19:29:00 GMT

I caught myself staring outside the bus, at the tall buildings lining the highway from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, and I thought the idea of being in a strange country, or strange city or town or whatever territory that is not what you're used to -- it felt like coming inside someone's house, uninvited, and you watch the people who live there with so much curiosity, and perhaps romanticization. You watch them and their home detachedly, like it is the nicest thing ever -- do you know how Americans (or Touristy White People In General) would go to a poor country (Manila) and say, look at them, so happy in the midst of poverty? It felt like that, except I don't mean it in the sense that I glorify poverty or suffering, but in the sense that there is something charming in the (artificially) unfamiliar, the undiscovered, the unknown.

My Travel Writing Scholarship 2011 entry: Weltanschauung

evantan — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:25:00 GMT

A friend of mine recently got tagged in a picture at Facebook. On the image was a popular quote by Saint Augustine, which goes: “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

Being an avid reader, the metaphor's truth struck me deeply. Like me, those who love books can attest that literature bestows new experiences to one's life -- adding dimensions, colors, and flavors to one's perspective of the world. And I believe this wonder is only exclusively shared by another class of people: those who are passionate about traveling.

My family is a family of travelers. The wanderlust that my parents instilled in me early in life has grandly influenced my views and beliefs. My childhood is filled with memories of smiling faces from different towns and provinces, and of awkward attempts to communicate with people who speak a different dialect, which usually end in laughter and profuse apologies. I have been exposed to the kindness of strangers here in my own country, and I have been amazed by their willingness to help and give despite how they themselves need it desperately.

Through traveling, I’ve also seen the injustice that those who never leave their homes may probably never see. During my travel to Boracay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, I’ve come across the resident Ati tribespeople who have been displaced from their homes because of the island’s massive commercialization. Illiterate and ignorant of modern-day laws which the foreigners have set up, they continue to be discriminated in their own paradise – forced to move from the land that was rightfully theirs. I have since reported their plight to the local broadsheet The Manila Times – hoping to give the Ati tribe a voice that will allow a better life for them and their children.

I agree with what renowned playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said: “The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit - this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.” There is an immense, indescribable power in coming across other cultures, in listening to the stories of the many men and women who have seen, felt, tasted, and touched the world in a way that you have not. It is a power that makes you acknowledge that however diverse we are, in the end, we are all the same -- connected by the common strand of humanity, seeking to find our purpose and happiness in this world.

By winning this contest, I hope to see more of the world I have yet to see, away from the comforts of my home. I look forward to turning the page again soon, and be awed and inspired by the people I will come across with in my journeys.