The Itchy Feet*

Taken during the film shoot of "Batanes" in Batanes, 2007.

"Aren't you going back to Italy anytime soon?" I asked though I knew what his reply would be.

"I'll keep travelling while I'm still young", he quipped.

He was an Italian guy, attractively scruffy and if I were to judge on how he looked, he was an artist. And he smoked weed a lot.

Me and my brother met him in Marrakesh, Morocco in a nice riad where we stayed for a couple of days. Then we took the train together, he to Casablanca and us to Rabat.

He quit his job four years ago and started travelling the world non-stop. Sleek. Pretty much what I wanted to do with my life, too. Flashback to a year ago when I got burned out in doing one film after the other. Apparently I realized there's only so much you could take and that the amount of success in the business should not be based on the number of films made but the quality of how they were made. When I went to Vancouver, Canada in October where my second film was exhibited at the Vancouver International Film Festival, epiphany struck me and I felt the need to make things happen and explore other terrains - anywhere but here.

To start it off, I went for the first time in Bangkok right after Vancouver. Then by December, after the gruelling edit of "Enteng ng Ina Mo", I went back to Hongkong and Macau, spent time with old friends and made new ones. Mainland Southeast Asia (Bangkok, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos) didn't escape me at the beginning of this year then I grabbed the opportunity to go back to Dubai in March to work on a documentary. Two months after, I packed my bag and went with my brother to Morocco. Then I resumed doing the documentary and rekindled my love affair with Bangkok where, after my passport stamp expired, I gathered enough strength to see if I would love or hate India. I came back to Bangkok intent on staying longer that I should and psyched myself up on moving in here in the future for good.

As I sip my 45 baht milk tea, I thought of the Italian guy and where could he be right now? He must be somewhere, having the time of his life, not wiping off that smile and lightness on his face because he is living his dream. That simple reply to my question would echo in my consciousness for the longest time, reassuring me each that going to places is a baggage you carry that's worth more than any other possession you have. Which brings me to the question...

Taken in Hongkong, December 2011.

TO SAVE UP FOR THE FUTURE OR SAVE UP MEMORIES? There's a wrong notion that you have to be rich to be able to travel. Well obviously, you need to provide a budget to do that. But 'how much?' is a subjective question.

So here's the chicken-egg question: how can I travel without money and when I have the money, will I still be capable of traveling? There goes the light bulb moment, the Italian guy's voice reverberating: travel while you're young.

I am not rich. In fact, I don't earn as much as the other filmmakers. I know I can't dive in the pool like most of the travellers I met in Bangkok, Cambodia or Vietnam, mostly Europeans, who quit their job to explore Asia. Their First World concerns are far different from my Third World situation. The currency exchange would tell me that. For someone of my stature, there's always that dilemma.

Yes, the world is an infinite adventure ready to embrace any explorer and a lifetime is not enough to wait for that moment to be the person of the world. I often weigh on the need for me to travel when my means cannot allow me to save up for my future - the what ifs that cloud the certainties of my goals. The truth is, I feel like I'm always in a hurry to go to other places because there's so much to go to and only a short time left to do so. Well, time is always short. But I reckon, though I am a 'now' person, there's always time for everything. So here's how I resolved it: I work for a certain period of time, say three months.  Work that puts the buffalos to shame. Then I set my travel but I don't spend all my money instead keep some for the future. It's a compromise and though I want to stay longer, I'd have to take shorter trips. Two to three weeks instead of a month. It's a win-win situation for myself.

Having been to different countries widened my perspective on the diversity of nations, it scrapped my prejudice, it made me loathe the English grammar nazis, it made me appreciate races and culture and language. I intend to learn more. I still want to party in Satorini, to kiss someone in Paris, to experience full daylight in Oslo, to swim to the currents in Australia, to see the Mayan ruins in Mexico, to dance in the festivals in Brazil, to experience romance in Venice, to walk on the edges of the Banaue Rice Terraces, to taste the food in Zamboanga, to anywhere. Anywhere but here.


"Makati ang paa" literally "itchy feet" is a Filipino idiom to describe a wanderer, someone who can't stay put in one place.