Country Roads

Puerto Princesa

Taking one last big breath of fast, free internet before I take a tricycle to the bus station and board a rickety bus for Taytay.  Ahhhh, internet...

Though taking a group van is a faster way of getting around, I prefer the no-frills bus.  I feel claustrophobic in the vans, which (in my experience) have been more crowded than the bus.  I love just sitting back, gazing out the window and absorbing the scenery that flits by, and ruminating over whatever thoughts happen to enter my relaxed brain.  

It's the same in every tropical countryside that I've driven through: Lush, thick vegetation lines the road and looms in the distance, blanketing mountains and reaching down to the palm trees by the sea.  These forests seem to hold endless secrets and mysteries within their green tangled limbs...shooting by them on a man-made road in a man-made machine seems such a juxtaposition...

I also love watching the people that we drive past, going about their daily business.  A major revelation for me as a traveler was that, though I may once have considered myself "tough" for enduring cold showers and no electricity and hole-in-the-ground toilets during my travels, people actually live with these conditions their whole lives.  I'm not tough, just pampered.  Realizing that people have lived this way and continue to live this way makes it easier to deal with difficult living conditions - there is some comfort to be had that these are not insurmountable discomforts, but just another way of life.  (That said, my living conditions for this trip are actually pretty luxurious).  

It's fascinating to just watch how people go about their lives, and to realize that there are so many different ways to living in this world.

Feeling much more like super-Tara this morning. It's easy when you're feeling awful to wonder, "Am I EVER going to feel normal again?"  Just in time to go out and check out the dolphins next week!