Traveling Locos!

It was a trip worth remembering, because it reminded me of a once carefree moment in my life. It simply made me feel that I was a simple person with simple needs – to experience life in a very blissful way.

 

We were scheduled to leave that day at 5:00AM for a 3 day out of town trip to Baguio City. It is designated by the Philippine Commission as the summer capital of the Philippines. The city is at an altitude of approximately 1500 meters (5100 ft) in a moist tropical pine forest conducive to the growth of mossy plants and orchids.

 

It was an unofficial company trip planned by the AVP with some key officers of our division – an all expense paid out of town trip! Hooray! So at exactly 6:00AM we headed out for an 8 hour drive. We had 5 convoys of cars/vans leading to one direction – Baguio City. I was riding with 4 of my officemate buddies – we were the youngest in the group.

 

The song It’s My life by Bon Jovi was just released that year, so sure enough we listened to the song all throughout the trip (never cared if it was on repeat mode), we just simply loved that song. When we arrived at the city proper I asked, “Do any of you know where we are supposed to go meet with the others?” They just stared at me and one of my friend said, “I thought he knew”, pointing to our friend who is driving, which he replied with, “I’m just the driver, I thought any of you knew.” At that point we all talked at the same time, and honestly I don’t even remember what was said.

 

Suddenly a phone rang, everybody stopped talking and another friend said, “Whose phone is ringing”, I realized that it was mine. I answered the phone and it was our AVP! He said, “Where are you?” I was lost for words not just because I was talking to our AVP, but also because I/we don’t know where we are.

 

For the next two hours we were called by our AVP and he was desperately trying to know where we are by the description of the place we are in. Just a trivia, when it is your first time in Baguio City, you will immediately notice that all the streets look the same. At one point during those calls none of us wants to talk to our AVP anymore – out of embarrassment perhaps? In one of those calls we were pushing the phone to each other, when the phone drops to floor. For a millisecond no one moved, our AVP is still on the other line! The five of us grabbed at the phone at the same time causing our heads to bump to each other – It was a major OUCH! I grabbed the phone first and the first thing that our AVP said is, “I don’t bite” and then he said, “Do not move where you all are, we will just look for you”.

 

True enough in another hour they found us at a gasoline station. The five of us were leaning against the car like some lost college students with no money. When the AVP approached us he said, “You, you, you, you, and you do not leave my sight”, after a few seconds of silence he laughed and said, “Hell! You’re worst than my kids!” The song It’s My Life was still playing, and believe me that song will never allow me to forget that day.