Confession:
I flinch when I get tagged a "travel blogger"
because, one, I feel that "blogger" is a weird tag (I'm an
ESL teacher, corporate trainer, even a raketera writer
who happens to blog. Why
I blog.) Two, my qualms about this blog being a "travel
blog," really has to do with the fact that I don't think my
posts about traveling are comprehensive enough.
At
best, I think Secretly Wayward provides snippets about cities (Calle
Crisologo, Vigan), an anecdote or two about certain places (Mt.
Data, Bontoc), snapshots and scrapbook-like posts about
particular topics (like eating
in Chiang Mai, Hanoi, & Luang Prabang), among other
non-travel thingies (like literature, kadramahan, music, etc.).
There's no grand aim this blog is trying to achieve, travel-blogging
wise, except perhaps to add a line or two about particular locales,
provide some sort of catharsis through stories and to create
conversations with people.
If you were to ask for
recommendations, of course, I wouldn't be one to scrimp. Talking
about places and dalliances elsewhere are worthwhile
indulgences. Like books and art, places and travels are
impossible to paint in totality. Depending on where you look (or
don't look), there's always something different to say.
Meet Meet
Manila
 |
That
being said, I love it when I meet other people through this blog.
Recently, the
Last Row Traveler, introduced me to Meet
Manila and
their "Meet
a Hero" project.
"Meet
a Hero" is an initiative to find and feature Filipino citizens
who lead for a good cause. On the site, Meet Manila describes the
heroes they are looking for as "game-changers driven by
knowledge, motivated by passion, and are not afraid to fight for what
they believe in." They chose the
Last Row Traveler, Froilan
Grate in real life, as one of their first batch of heroes.
A
little about Froi: since he's my bestfriend, of course I'm required
to say that he's one of the coolest people around. But really,
outside our friendship, Froi exists as one of the most awesome beings
on the planet. He has trained countless communities all over the
Philippines on proper waste management and has reached out to
students (from the elementary to the university level) to tell them
about the harmfulness of plastic, the
little things one can do for the environment, the importance of
waste segregation, among other things, spliced with anecdotes about
his travels and his love for traveling, for the last 8 or 9 years.
Having known him from Day
Zero of his advocacy, I saw how hard he has worked, sacrificing
sleep, always being on the move, not choosing what could possibly be
a thriving corporate career, all for the love of Mother Earth (his
NGO and its literal counterpart). I think central to his success as
an environmentalist is his practice of walking the talk and his
belief that Filipinos would make more ecologically sustainable
lifestyle choices if they just knew how. Honing kiddie Earth
advocates and giving alternatives to communities who used to engage
in harmful fishing practices are only some of his little successes.
This
guy is one of the biggest believers I know and so compelling is his
power of belief that he can sway other people, even whole
communities, to start believing in themselves and to change. We (by
"we" I mean our small circle) often
kid him about having a fanbase and being some sort of a rockstar, so
when he got selected as a Meet Manila hero, we
were just really, really proud.
#ThoughtfulTourism
Since
traveling counts as a mutual devotion, Meet
Manila's advocacy, “thoughtful tourism” got our interest.
Froi,
our other wanderlustful friends, and I have dreamt together as
college orgmates about those places we would one day see. After
somewhat saving up in our early 20s, thankfully, in
the last few years we
have slowly started setting foot in those almost-mythical countries
of our imaginations and Philippine provinces our college selves
thought were too far away. With every travel we took, sometimes with
each other & at times on our own, it became clearer to us
what kind of travelers we are: in a nutshell, not the luxury types;
the ones who go for the love of the journey. Biyahe became
that one bisyo we
can't say no to. We don't have cars or condos to show, but we do
have kilig travel
stories to tell.
Always, as these stories
unfold, the Philippines becomes a reference point- be it the good,
bad, or somewhere-in-between sort of referent and the outcome (so
far) was that the Philippines has always managed to present solid
reasons why we should come home.
Because we want our
country to be available to backpackers, honeymooners, traveling
families in its best possible form 10 years down the road and so on,
we advocate traveling responsibly. Thoughtful tourism as a tourist
happens when you don't leave any damaging marks to the natural or
cultural heritage. As an individual, it means minding your trash and
keeping it to a minimum, supporting local trade, following
instructions at local museums(i.e. not touching valuable objects when
indicated), being sensitive and respectful of cultural norms in other
places. Curiosity has been known to enrich journeys but showing
respect for others and our tangible cultural and material capital?
These would preserve what you and I now enjoy for our future
children/ nieces/ nephews and their progeny.
Pepper curiosity with
respect, and pack along a sense of adventure and openness to
unforeseen circumstances. My mantra has always been "if I could
survive Quiapo, I could survive anywhere." Hopefully,
one day, Quiapo will cease being the benchmark of survival.
Which
brings us to the second point: the call for thoughtful tourism
extends beyond individuals traveling. Institutions, even more than
individuals, are directly answerable to our country's
conservation. That's why incidents like the
cutting down of pine trees in Baguio City are tragic because
the DENR and the DOT could have prevented it from happening. Pine
trees are part of Baguio's heritage. I'd like to think the smell of
pine trees is a more compelling reason people make the six hour trip
to Baguio than SM. I hope this emerging story about the DMCI
Torre de Manila threatening to dwarf the Rizal Monument in
Luneta will have a much better outcome.
"Fun" in
perspective
 |
Photo
by Benito Vergara
*This could be a great way to call attention to the need for funding to preserve the Ifugao/ Igorot heritage |
Indeed it's
more fun in the Philippines, but
since it's also our home, let's not stop at "fun." And this
is where Thoughtful Tourism comes in: the goal of making things
better through tourism. Don't you want your taxes spent this way?
Real Thoughtful Tourism is one that works on improving infrastructure
(roads, highways), empowering communities with ways to preserve their
natural resources amidst the influx of tourists, training a group of
guides (or updating the knowledge of existing ones),
and standardizing
tourism rates (Palawan is one good example of this) so visitors
would be encouraged to come back.
Thoughtful
Tourism minds both foreigners and Filipinos,
visitors and locals.
As tourists get their money's worth, the community, more importantly,
should benefit through something as necessary as improving the basic
necessities or something as valuable as raising funds for the
preservation of the intangible heritage.
We
go to Banaue to experience "authentic" Ifugao culture, but
if the present generation of Ifugaos are leaving town to work in
Manila or even flying out of the country to work as OFWs, who will
carry on with the culture we travel to see? But you can't blame the
younger ones for leaving, if
their families will go hungry if they have to rely solely on farming.
You can't blame them for
choosing their family's survival over keeping the tradition of
weaving or wood-carving. It's impossible to expect traditional
heritage to survive without government support. I've had my share
being an OFW and believe me, if people can find work in their
hometowns that would allow a decent life, few would leave.
Believe me, too, when I say that Ifugaos take pride in their culture
and would want to preserve it for their descendants.
Yes,
we Filipinos are a warm and easygoing bunch and this should inspire a
similar treatment. More so, fairness and respect. Real, effective
Thoughtful Tourism is as fun as those hilarious memes but it goes
beyond that -- because Tourism necessarily deals with issues related
to the environment, culture, and other sociological factors.
Yes, DOT,
we're looking at you and we're counting that you guys have plans
beyond the slogan.
So, these are some of the
things my friends and I think about when the topic of “Thoughtful
Tourism” comes up. Hopefully, that's what Meet Manila has in mind,
too.
As a portal of stories
about travel in the Philippines and an advocate of Thoughtful
Tourism, what Meet Manila sets out to do may seem Herculean (or
Rizalian, para Pinoy, hoho), but thank god, they're not doing it
alone.
How
do you define thoughtful tourism? Anyone
can join the discussions and bloggers can pitch in their share of
stories through Meet Manila's Twitter and Facebook pages. Meet
Manila's main site itself features concise information about
places in the Philippines, like this page dedicated to Laguna
Empowering travelers
Alongside their
Meet-a-Hero initiative, Meet Manila launched another project:
Empowered Travelers. They asked for (a) "breathtaking story and
(that will) tell us why you should be amongst the Empowered
Traveler." I submitted an entry.... and got chosen. Wee!
"Empowered Traveler" almost sounds intimidating –
but tunay na nakakakilig, nonetheless.
 |
#kilig
- I've never won anything
|
My
prize? A Q350 Lenovo phone (which I'll be writing a review of in
another post) and meeting some of the people behind Meet Manila,
like Ysobel
Hamidjojo, the driving force behind Meet Manila, and Aix
Montes, travel enthusiast who tirelessly coordinates with the
empowered travelers for Meet Manila/ Loudwhistle.
I'm
honored to be in the company of the thirteen other folks who were
chosen, like Budget
Biyahera, who can give you nifty tips on packing and getting
deals on the cheap, and Islander
Girl, a marine biologist who travels, writes, and shares stories
about her diving expeditions in El Nido (warning: cute sea creatures
alert). Read about other Empowered Travelers here.
For the curious, here's my
entry:
 |
One other positive
takeaway to being an "Empowered Traveler" is that it called
for a sort of re-assessment. What am I blogging about anyway? In the
call for Thoughtful Tourism, how am I doing my share? Perhaps it's
time to revisit those reasons. And in much the same way that teaching
language or training has a direct impact, one can dream about
empowering others even through blogging.
Your thoughts on
thoughtful tourism and empowered traveling?
No comments:
Post a Comment