Hitchhiking in Philippines: Pamplona
17th of March, 2025.
I started hitchhiking around 7 a.m. Until 10 o’clock, nobody stopped for me. The man who takes me to a village called Libertad, is nice but there’s something odd about him. His parents live in the USA, and he says he came back to pick me because he knows that people do this kind of things in there, so he thought he should help me. Cornelius is a doctor, and he’s only going about 30 minutes drive from where we are, to this village.
I arrive to a hitchhiking spot outside town when it starts to rain. I hide in a small food stand / restaurant. Here I wait for a long time, but I also try to keep going to the road when I see a car coming, if the rain reduces to only a drizzle. Even though my sign reads Vigan City, which is a few hours from here, I know I only want to go to a Beach called Saud, which is only one hour driving from here, near a town called Pagudpud. That region is called Ilocos Norte.
Just before the rain stop for a while, the nice lady from the shop offers me some food and even a glass bottle of Coke. I tell her I can not pay, but she’s fine with that. I share my beef with a skinny cat, and that makes me feel good.
I walk just for a little while, and the rain starts again. Luckily, there’s a good place to let my backpacks secured from the rain, and there’s also nobody here. I keep going to the road and trying to catch a ride but for the rest of the day, nobody stops.
Around 17.00 hours, a car comes back, and the young man driving try to help me. I ask him if he can drop me off in Pamplona, the next town, and he says yes, so I get in.
Brian speaks great English, and he’s with his high school friend, Loreto. They are coming back from picking up some banners for Brian’s campaign, as he’s running for conselour in the next elections. He studied Anthropology, and used to be a university teacher, but now his in politics. At least, if anyone should be in politics, it should be someone with such degree, right? We talk about many interesting things, and important topics on the way, but he is also trying to help me with a place to stay tonight, as it’s already too late for me to carry on. After a lot of consideration, we come down to a few options.
We first stop by the house of another high school friend where I meet his lovely family and we have some cake, drink some Coke, and I try these dumplings called Shomai, with a sauce called Calanmassi. Then, we head for Loreto’s house, where I meet his incredibly smart son, Carl, of only 10 years old, but with whom I can have deeper and more meaningful conversation than with many adults I have met in my travels. Last, we go to Brian’s house, where I meet his lovely mum and roommate, Jan. Brian tells me we will all go to have dinner at his friend’s house, and I will also stay there with them tonight. OK!
First we stop by the market to get some vegetables. Back at the house, we all help Irene, the wife, to prepare dinner. We have Pork Adobo (first time I try it with pork), pumpkin and vegetables stew, tomato salad, sea weed and rice. It’s an amazing dinner!
Even before dinner, I have a lovely chat with Carl, Loreto’s son. He knows a lot about Geography and History, way more than many adults. We even play a game where I tell him a country, and he must name its capital. Superb! Brian also play the game with us. I hope Carl carry on with his love for studies, and also, that he quit the idea of becoming an astronaut.
After dinner, the guys invite me to try one of the most popular local beer, Red Horse, which is the strong one of the two most popular; the other one, San Miguel, it’s said to be tastier, unfortunately, I would live the Philippines without trying that one. We also have a traditional liquor, a gin called San Miguel, which you mix with apple tea, in a very peculiar way. I only try half of a shot. Together with the beer, we have my favourite food: pop corn! And also some fried cat fish. After the beers, we go to play the Philippines traditional pool, which is slightly different from the Western billiard. The basic differences are the size of the table, half of the other one, and the flat disks instead of ivory balls. My duo and I won! And I really suck at pool!
As everybody is tired and everybody must get up early tomorrow morning, we go to sleep. I stay in a room all by myself.
Next morning, we have rice, fried rice, omelet, tomato salad and a traditional fried sausage called linguinissa (which remind me a lot of our Brazilian sausages), and coffee. Brian gives me a lift until the next village, after Pamplona, where Jan works at the City Hall, so we can also drop him off there.
It’s so incredible that, after being stuck for a whole day, only moving for some 30 minutes drive; and facing a lot of rain, being wet and all, I manage to have such a meaningful and enriching evening, full of culture exchange, with delightful people!
10 Years Around the World 