Musings from Lucban

That there's a preferred road to every destination- in fact several roads you can choose from.

That there's a favorite time to travel- early morning is right for me except for one inconvenient truth. 

That people travel either alone or with company. Bad company or good company. I choose young and old. It is always nice to travel with a baby. Babies who are not my responsibility.  It is amusing and entertaining to travel with children. They are full of wisecracks and they keep the driver awake with their noise.  

Today i travelled with Ka Justo, the old stock and photographer, his mommy Ana, the soap maker and Vitty, the builder and pizza man. 

That I love the roadside, the little towns, churches, houses, sari-sari stores, remains of a fiesta, sleeping dogs, cows, carabaos, horses and goats on foot because the pigs and chickens travel by jeeps or small delivery trucks. ;(  the joyrney to my destination is very precious to me. 

That the market in every locality is the soul of that place. Markets are like people who wake and get up from their bed as they are. No masks and no pretenses. It is a hub for both sinners and saints. 

That I always end up buying baskets and bags made of native materials.  Quite plenty this time as i think of the girls in hedcen who probably don't look this way and fail to appreciate the hands of those who make things-that probably there's one or two unique souls who would choose these bags or baskets for their books and notebooks. :/  I got little baskets too for the little girls in school to play with. 

That I am not a foodie the way people are foodies. But i like to check if the town has sand-roasted peanuts with shell, or if they have in their local bakery the humble pan de coco -the bread baked to perfection and the filling moist with cane sugar and grated coconut. I just have one quirkiness when i see flies inside the "escaparate" or the display rack. That automatically disqualifies the panaderia or bakery.  Pan de coco in a 'sosyal' bakeshop rarely qualifies too. 

Oh and by the by, on your way to Lucban, make sure that you get the most delicious rice bibingka (cake) generously mixed with buko, topped with  cheese and prudently slapped with margarine. It is packed in a beautiful basket woven from green and fresh palm leaves.  

This last slice is free for grabs as i have had three- whole bibingkas!