I DISCOVERED the best vacation strategy during the
Lenten break--I stayed away from this summer’s
happening-place Boracay, where almost everybody
was; or from Baguio, where half of everybody was; or
Tagaytay, where what’s left of everybody was.
What’s obvious again this summer is that Hong Kong has been de-listed from
the Pinoy’s priority destinations for the simple reason that to chronic shoppers,
"Hong Kong" is now already in all "tiangges," which are even cheaper. Instead
Filipinos are rediscovering their appetite for local discoveries--the less explored
the more chic. For instance, Pagudpud in the north, where Maurice Arcache,
Philip Cu-unjieng, Pepper Teehankee and company were, is getting to be a
good lure. Bohol, with its churches and beaches, is suddenly exotic.
To us rat-racers who just want to get off the fast lane briefly, vacation is a state
of mind as much as it is of the body (and of the pocket). Its success depends
on how well you empty your mind of work and stress, of friends and foes.
Mental letting-go is harder to achieve than physical getaway. Just keep still.
Back to fiction
In our case, it began with staying put at home and couch-potato-ing it in bed
where your sole activity is pressing the remote control. It is letting your mind
wander away from corporate deadlines and balance sheets--back to fiction, the
ultimate escape.
We gobbled up the fare denied us during the daily grind--Armistead Maupin’s
"Tales of the City," Candace Bushnell’s "4 Blondes," Zadie Smith’s "White
Teeth." We shuttled between the comic decadence of pre-AIDS San Francisco
(Armistead was a cult read and TV series), and the romance, sex and power
angst of Manhattan, and the cross-cultural poignancy of London, via these three
bestsellers.
It was a varied mental travel interrupted only by our daily adrenalin rush in the
tennis court. Read, tennis, read, tennis--that’s the best luxury we thank God
for. Sloth well deserved.
Then on Good Friday, we made our token summer trip, for only a day. We
drove to Villa Escudero in Quezon with friends who wanted to be updated on
Lenten rituals. With Jimmy Laya, the NCCA chair (whose position is always
coveted by women) and head of one of the country’s biggest accountancy and
management firms, author Ramon Villegas, leading music educator Dean
Ramon Santos, Prof. Felipe de Leon Jr. and College of St. Benilde’s teacher
Toto de la Cruz, we watched Ado Escudero’s annual labor of love, the Good
Friday procession in San Pablo City.
More alluring
For us, Villa Escudero was a rediscovery. The last time we were there ages
ago, we saw this coconut hacienda as a typical native resort whose
carabao-drawn shuttles were attractive more to foreigners than to us locals. We
were surprised that now its much-improved scenery is more alluring even to us
jaded Pinoys.
The vegetation has grown so lush and varied, from the vast plantation of
coconut trees and fruit trees to the flora and ornamentals, the ferns, bromeliads
and rare plants. It’s obvious that it has come under careful planning the past few
years--a fact confirmed by movie director Don Escudero, who said that his
family has tapped Dr. Bautista of UP Los Baños to develop the natural
landscape. The lake made familiar in so many pictorials, where people paddle
adrift on bamboo rafts, is even more beautiful now because it’s hemmed by the
greenery that has grown naturally wild.
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