Warm thoughts on friendship and practical tips on traveling–fair and square

Posted on June 6, 2008
Filed Under Friends, Fun, LIFE, Travel | Viewed 549 times

Out of the blue, Tess and I met at the elevator in Mega Mall yesterday—we found out that we were going to the same place—to the Chapel for the 12:15 pm mass. We do not meet often, maybe about 2-3 times a year, with occasional phone calls and emails in between, but we call ourselves very good friends, know each member of the family, and are even almost best friends. We toured the insides and outskirts of Beijing for 1 month a few years ago, in between official business, weekends and holidays. We developed a special friendship, learned a lot from each other, and gathered practical tips (actually toward the humorous) in living in a foreign land and traveling—fair and square.

During my travels, I collected almost a hundred hotel electronic keys. These are my favorites.

I had a 6-month posting in Beijing for a special assignment on the administrative side of setting up a resident mission while Tess came later for the accounting side of the set up after 2 months of my arrival in Beijing. I picked her up from the airport, did not even know how she looked like—her first time to travel outside Manila, and I could see how relieved she was to see someone Filipino in a foreign land, where the locals, the nationalistic people that they were, would or could not speak English. At that very moment, we knew that we would become close friends. We stayed at the New World Hotel, a 5-star Shangri-La Hotel, where we lived in comfort and style.

Warm thoughts on friendship in a different land

Friendships develop over time. Tess and I have worked in the same organization for more than 15 years without knowing each other’s existence. Over time we developed a special friendship, almost best friends. We traveled together, shopped till we dropped,

Maintain your individuality and privacy. No matter how close we have become, we stayed in separate rooms next to each other. We did not want to get into each other’s noses, as we had different lifestyles and our own activities. But this did not stop us from occasionally sleeping over in each other’s rooms.

Be yourself. Laugh if you must, cry if you can’t help it, sleep if you want to, have breakfast if you are very hungry and can’t wait, and don’t wake up to join the other for breakfast if you do not feel like it—no need to be really nice thinking of the other person, as the other person might also feel the same way. Friends would understand, anyway. In short, do not be imposing or obligated, except when you have both agreed to meet at a certain time for touring, shopping, or what have you.

Practical TIPS on traveling

I have learned a lot from my hundreds of plane rides (in the picture are my boarding passes—Alan Jr counted 220+) from my 15 years of frequent travel, but I am sharing with you tips on traveling—with another person, a friend.

Carry a notebook where the addresses of places to vist are kept—and this includes the names and addresses written in the local form and language to show to locals whenever we get lost or are looking for directions. Hotels usually have cards showing their address and telephone numbers to show to tai drivers. Keep this in your wallet or bag.

The hotel’s concierge is a very important person in the life of a traveler—for worship schedules, shopping tips and directions, assistance in carrying things to the hotel, packing or storing luggage, getting a ride, and many more.

Have money ready for common expenses—Tess and I had a common purse or a kitty. For a start, we placed $50 each in local currency as our share. This way, we did not need to split the expenses every time we paid for taxi fare, train tickets, food, tips, entrance fees to museums, zoos, and all those common small expenses. We had to replenish the money, when the funds were low. This makes spending fair and square, because the tendency is that if the bills are not split immediately, one would always end up paying more if one does not have lose change. Sometimes also one forgets to pay for his or her share, if not reminded—and admittedly, this is typical of our culture, as Filipinos.

You do not need to speak English all the time. When the people you talk to do not understand English or just give you a blank stare when you say something, it is ok to speak in Tagalog or to say nothing at all. The other person will not understand you anyway. Here, sign language together with facial expression and sounds would do the trick.

With plenty of time to kill, go not only to the tourist places, shopping malls and places, but also to museums, parks and zoos as well. Also grab the opportunity to go to the homes of local friends, when invited, to see first hand their way of life.

Don’t be shy to take photos of those precious kodak moments. People do not know you anyway.

Be daring when dining out, to experience local authentic cuisine. I used to go only to restaurants I knew, like KFC, McDonald’s, Shakey’s, but I soon realized that I would eat those foods when I return to Manila, anyway. What Tess and I did was discretely watched the locals enjoy their food, and if we liked what we saw, we would point that food to the waiter. Voila, we had our local food for the day.

That’s entertainment

Oh by the way, one time when we went to our favorite shoe outlet, where the sales girls have become our friends already they were wondering why I was buying a lot of shoes. When they found out they were for my 7 kids, they called all the other sales girls from nearby stores, maybe 30 of them, who swarmed around me asking questions about my family, others not believing I had 7, and others asking about our country. Remember their 1-child policy? It was my one moment of glory, or even like I was a circus material, or a “believe it or not” character. At least, for once, I entertained them, and it was fun.

Comments

8 Responses to “Warm thoughts on friendship and practical tips on traveling–fair and square”

Kyels on June 6th, 2008 12:41 pm

Wow, 220+ of boarding passes; that was definitely a trip around the globe. Well, thanks for the tips and I’ll be sure to keep them in mind when traveling next time.

[:

Have a happy weekend ahead Tita!
haze on June 7th, 2008 5:48 am

It’s always nice to get in touch with friends! As the saying goes distance makes the friendship stronger….but originally, “the heart grow ponder”. Ok na rin yang created saying ko ano Tita, very logical naman, pauso talaga ako! have a nice day !
analyse on June 8th, 2008 8:09 pm

great tip! i never really travelled with a friend so no idea on how i manage. i twice or thrice travelled for work with a pinoy colleague though, and since our budget here in france is not really restricted compared to the budget of my colleague, i prefered to pay when the bill was really high. I tried to bring them to really good restaurants too because with their budget, they mostly eat in mcdo or kfc, then they keep the money for them for extra shopping moolahs.
dimaks on June 9th, 2008 4:50 am

practical and proven tips indeed! and i agree, take as much photos as you can, you would not know if you still get the chance to come back to the place again.
Rach (Heart of Rachel) on June 9th, 2008 5:38 pm

I’m glad you had a chance to come across a dear old friend.

Thanks for sharing these great tips. Traveling across the world is one of my greatest dreams.
annamanila on June 15th, 2008 5:55 am

Here’s to friendship—old and new. And in a foreign land, the bonds of friendship really become stronger. You need more support where the culture and systems are strange. Tapos, sometimes, you only have each other. The support network is so small.

You buy shoes for your kids, without them?
vk on June 18th, 2008 12:58 am

wow, more than 220 boarding pass….ang dami ano?

thanks for the tip….

ay oo nga, ako rin, ayokong kainin ang lagi kong nakain or nakita ko sa place namin, pag-vacation kami in other places or country, i order-kainin ko yon hindi ko pa nakita, bahala kung masarap or not….para experience lang.

vacation, so tikman, kung kaya sa bulsa….lol

what is this?....”to see first hand their way of life.”......

thanks again

thanks again.

Sexy Mom: “to see first hand their way of life.” means to have an idea of what they do at home, their way of living, etc (because what we only see is the life from the outside). MISSED YOU, VICKY! back home ka na?
Feeling all alone, but not too long from now : The D Spot on July 25th, 2008 11:38 pm

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