Video#4: Roadtrip

Please watch in HD!

Call  me crazy for saying yes to a road trip that involves hrs of uncomfortable back-ride, because yes, I am crazy.

Going to Sagada, we left 3:30am from Quezon City and took NLEX-TPLEX-La Union-Cervantes to arrive at 4:00pm. It would only take 8 hrs straight to get there without the mini stopovers to stretch and drink coffee. But it’s impossible. And since I was out the night before and had zero sleep, it was the right choice to stop over at San Fernando, La Union to sleep in a motel. Funny story, as we were searching for a place to stay in, we saw JOCES and thought it was a hotel T_T. We passed by and saw the coffins, hahahaha. A little advanced tour for the hanging coffins, ay?? We slept straight up for 3 hours to re-energize although it wasn’t enough especially for a heavy-sleeper like a.k.a me, we didn’t want to risk riding in the dark up the mountains and so we resumed. I won’t pretend and tell it was all just rainbows and butterflies because in between those riding and stopovers was a grumpy Aika. I shared this on my facebook. There was a moment while we were in Cervantes that my anxiety almost spoiled the trip.

It was my first time to back ride for a long trip with breaks in between to stretch and feel my numb left foot. I’ve never prayed that hard ever since mama’s passing. As we were going higher and higher up the mountains of the north, I felt more anxious. In one of our breaks, I cried a little remembering how I failed to tell anyone at home or even my ate that I was going to Sagada, and I wasn’t able to tell her how much I loved her, in case one of the scenes I played in my head happened. The signal was bad making it impossible for me to do that at that time. I wanted to light a cigarette to smoke but I was too shy to do that to the mountains, so instead I just stretched and prayed even harder. We met DPWH workers painting the side of the roads just when I felt like we were already getting lost and I was losing trust over the driver. Joke, hihi. He talked to us and asked us where we going. He suggested places and told us how many hours were left to reach Sagada. Odd things happened when we resumed the ride. OK, they weren’t odd but I took them as if they were God’s signals that I shouldn’t fear anything. After passing by signs that said, “caution: falling rocks” and “landslide prone area”, it was good to see what followed after that break. There were two MTB riders fearlessly pedaling on the opposite side of the road and shortly after that, a woman was sitting on the roof of the jeep looking so chill. It felt magical how all my worries suddenly went away, my butt felt comfortable, my back for a moment found the right spot and I knew my driver won’t let anything bad happen to me. There are moments in life when we get to appreciate how to live it even more. Sometimes, we take for granted letting our love ones know that we love them or to overlook such a beautiful world we live in. Worries spoil trips and it makes you grumpy or make up scenarios in your head that aren’t going to happen. It’s a waste of energy.

We could have just taken the bus instead, that’s what everybody said. But I personally know that I would just sleep and miss out on all the beautiful things that were all free to look at. There were moments during the trip that left me in shock that were not caught in the video. As much as I want to take videos of the happenings in my life, I make sure that I keep them as organic as it is. I actually just took a few longer videos and cut them to put in the video. I didn’t want to focus on just taking videos and miss out. I loved seeing the sunset, getting acquainted with drivers because Cervantes had no one except for that L300 who kept giving way for us. LOL and everything about the trip, and that includes me being grumpy. I was also surprised with how I made this prejudice over drivers that they lack courtesy when it comes to motorbike riders, but to my surprise we didn’t have any bad experiences. Luckily.

Essential info: it was 9 hours going to Sagada via Cervantes, Ilocos Sur and 12 hours going back to Manila, via Banaue, Nueva Vizcaya and Tarlac Exit in TPLEX.