Why I hate abhor dislike traveling from Baguio on a Sunday.
At 5:20 pm yesterday my Victory Liner bus left Baguio City while Jang trotted off to a dinner with her friends nearby.
When we met at the terminal I was already complaining to her how anxious I was about this trip.
Ok, *deep breath* the main reason I avoid traveling on a Sunday is because of the tourists. This is the day most of those who went up for the weekend flock to the bus terminals to head home. And they come in big groups, and most of them are loud, inconsiderate, gaudy, bastos …
They shout at each other in the bus, they take pictures in the bus (loudly, HOY IKAW NAMAN MAG-SHOT NITO, UYYYY ISALI NIYO NAMAN AKO, ANOBA NATATAKPAN AKO!!!), they take pictures of the most insensible stuff to the point of inconveniencing other people (I totally get this, I do, but come on… there are boundaries between interesting and plain dumb), they are rowdy, they block the way, they act as if they own Baguio, they look down on the locals, I can go on and on.
Of course, there are tourists who are acceptable, courteous, polite (and all its synonyms)… but the subject here are the annoying ones.
I’m sorry, I really am, but I (and Jang) just can’t tolerate most tourists in Baguio, I JUST CAN’T … especially those who make fun of the Igorots who beg for coins, I mean what the fuck? If you won’t give her/him money, just effing walk away and show some respect by not poking fun at the beggar!
I know. I know. I’ve been saying some really mean things about tourists in general and I just want to clarify that I only really dislike the loud ones, those who have utter disrespect for the place they are visiting, those who are annoying, period.
For one, this guy at the terminal yesterday cut me off at the ticket line. Strike one. Then when I was on the bus this group of teenage girls boarded the bus loudly, I don’t even know how they do that: MOVE ABOUT LOUDLY, AS IN MAKE LOUD SOUNDS WITHOUT THE NEED TO. Strike two. And then they started taking photos of each other. In the bus. With their cameras’ effing flash on. While shouting at each other. Strike three four five.
In the past, I’ve done a very good job steeling myself for these kinds of tourists. I had to. Then later on I figured why travel with them? I can travel on weekdays. I only really travel on Sundays when very necessary.
Jang and I have been talking about ‘tourist karma’, meaning, because we are not that kind to tourists (the annoying ones) because we say mean things about them, we look at them unkindly, we make fun of those wearing their winter collection (term borrowed from Kiko), we give wrong directions when they ask (HAHA joke lang) etc.–maybe we are setting ourselves up for bad karma by the time it’s our turn as tourists.
But what the hey, we will be responsible visitors; we will respect the place, the people, and the culture; and anyway we are one hundred percent proper. So I think the one who doles out karma will give us a free pass on this one. *grin*
Anyway, what saved the day for me yesterday was this gorgeous amazing fiery sunset seen from Marcos Hi-way. It was unbelievably orange.
Complaining wouldn’t get me anywhere I know, so by the time we were in La Union I already did a very good job zoning out from all the tourist noise and I arrived at Cubao in one happy piece thank you very much.