22nd of February, 2025.
When I’m about to leave the airport, I get a message from my host that he’s in Manila, so I can come to the camping site with him. I think for a while and then decide to stay this night in Manila. Not only because I already paid for the room, and there’s breakfast included (laugh), but also because I feel I could use the rest.
I walk from the airport until a main road. Luckily, the hostel is on a straight line from here. I catch a lift quite fast, with a grab, but as the man is already going that way, he takes me for free. As we talk, and I tell him about my life, he gets emotional, and the reason is because, as he tells me, even though he struggles about money sometimes, he never thought about someone who simply choose and is happier by living without money. When he drops me off, he also try to give me some money, but I kindly refuse.
The hostel is called CrossRoads and it’s a bit outside Manila, which I love and it’s also very convenient for me. It’s a small and very cute hostel. It’s clean, tidy, with a good enough common area, not an actual kitchen, but a microwave, hot water, and free coffee or tea all day long. I really like it here!
I struggle to buy some food, after being so happy to have 7-Eleven around again, so I could have my Cheese and Spinach sandwich, because they don’t accept debit card. Why, Loki? Why? As it’s a fortune to withdraw money from a ATM, and I am stupid enough to not simple go back to the hostel and search for a real supermarket, my best option is trying to exchange the 30.000 INR I still have, and use that money to buy some instant noodles. I need to buy two, for lunch and dinner, and I manage to do that. Yay!
I come back to the hostel, take a shower, and rest for a while. Later on I watch a film and go to bed.
I don’t need to wake up so early, but breakfast is only until 9 a.m., instead of 10 o’clock as so many hostels. We have tea and coffee, toast, peanut butter and different jams. Ah! And there’s also some chicken rice kind of ready meal, which you just warm up in the microwave. I don’t have it for breakfast, but I keep one for lunch, as I’m leaving for my volunteer work in the afternoon. The reason is, as it’s Sunday, I think I can chill here in the hostel, use the wi-fi to do some more travel planing, eat some lunch, and start going out around 15.00 hours, so I can get there in the evening.
My sign reads “Batangas”, the biggest city near where I’m going, in the region of the same name. A group of friends going to work in Lipa, a town half way to Batangas, stop for me. They are going there for work, and at first I think they are going to Batnagas City, but no. They are very nice people, and they offer to buy me food and water, but I kindly refuse both. They also offer to drop me off somewhere else out of their way, and again I kindly refuse, because I thought they were going all the way to Lipa, which would be good enough for me. But they are actually not. They stop way before town, so here I go again, walking.
A couple with a friend stop for me. They are coming back from the wive’s brother’s funeral, which is really sad. They are lovely people and seem very worried about me and my hitchhiking. I try to explain to them about how it always works so well, and the wonderful people I meet everywhere, but still, I think they are a bit doubtful. They drop me off in the highway to Mabini.
A young man, who’s a lawyer, stop his car and ask me what am I doing. As I explain to him he says I can come with him. I think he’s a bit different of other people, but he is still nice and just want to help. He doesn’t drive me for too long though, still, it helps.
Two friends stop for me next. At first, because they look a bit “rough”, I’m not sure, but at the same time, as I don’t have a bad feeling about them, I get in. They turned out to be very nice and try their best to take me to a good spot.
At this intersection, a mum and her two young kids stop for me. They are not going far, again, and I think she just want to chat with me a little bit. At least, she open my eyes to the fact that, if I don’t write something else on my sign (now it says Solo, a small village after my final destination), nobody will understand / know where I’m trying to go. She drops me off in Binau.
I borrow a marker in a 7-Eleven and write Anilao in the back of my sign. It’s a really well know place for diving, and it just a little bit before where I’m going. As soon as I start walking, two lovely women stop for me.
Candy and Mads are a lovely couple, and I tell them how happy I am when women stop for me. They tell me such kind words about my travels and my journey, which is very sweet of them! They are going to Anilao, to visit Candy’s relatives grave, but when I tell them that the camping site I’m going is right beside Monte Carlo Resort, they kindly offer to drive me all the way there. How sweet! And now I’m arriving right when I wanted, at sunset, to my volunteer work place. It’s called Tamarind Anilao Camp.
10 Years Around the World 