02 December 2019 | When I embarked on this journey up north, the only goal in mind was to escape – from feeling that kind of sick of being around myself way too long.
Several things were bugging me during this time much as the number of attempts I did to make this trip possible. I immersed myself in a huge deal of Batanes primers being that desolate dream destination of architecture-history-nature mixture I have been salivating for like, forever. Have been fully invested in this trip and making it happen was non-negotiable being the sole 2019 trip I hugely looked forward to. Just knew I badly needed to be there for whatever cost and circumstance.
The waiting thrill dates back to as early as January 2019. As the flight's already written in the books, each fading month was like Greenday waiting to wake up when September ends. However, all such exhilaration and anticipation almost ended naught as the trip seemed bound to a massive disaster. News wildly broke about a super-typhoon hitting the country coinciding with my travel dates, a week prior. The birds were clearly singing the wrong tunes in the wrong trees for all the wrong reasons. But I otherwise chose not to listen to the birds.
Amidst all heavy warnings and screaming red flags to abort the plan, the hardheaded part of myself prevailed over the sane
other. Later, I found myself packing an entropic pile of clothes and other travel stuff.
As if trouble wasn't enough, I was caught in an airport riot of an odyssey;
took me to twisted and difficult times running around, hopping between
terminals, kissing feelings of hopelessness in those wee hours after my original flight was desperately canceled.
Strongly determined to scratch the travel itch, I
found a way to snap an expensive 14k deal with another airline for the
sake of pushing through with the plan. Neither do I want to return home full of
what-ifs nor would I allow myself put a five-day vacation leave I dedicated for
this date all go down the drain.
So before the sun broke beautifully that day, I found myself sitting like a prince overlooking the plane window watching the vastness of whateversphere above probably what I presumed to be the Cordillera
mountain range, the Cagayan valley stretch, or maybe the Ilocos northernmost seas.
Wherever I was during that moment, the clouds were incredibly pleasant in
gold linings softly dancing in pleasurably enchanting ways.
And it wasn’t long before the plane landed on
that peaceful and sleepy Basco runway.
