Traveling with Delsey

It was a good friend of mine from the travel trade industry who introduced me to this French luggage brand in the early 1990s. He swears by it; Delsey has been the only enduring aspect of his first foray into Europe in the late 70s-early 80s. To appease my raised eyebrows, he gave me one of his hard cases. Frowning at its blatant red color, I accepted it with great reluctance. Well, that medium size red hard case traveled with me around the world until about 2003, when airline weight restrictions forced me to get the Delsey soft trolley line – still in red, which became the trend! I even completed my red set with the cabin valise I got when I was in Paris in 2007.

Unfortunately, the problem of the soft cases is the durability of its four rotating wheels. I had to buy a new set of Samsonite luggage when I was in New York last March (no Delsey on stock!) as the wheels of my medium trolley case would no longer rotate and I ended up pulling it along. Same problem I have now with the small trolley case I will be bringing with me to my Caribbean cruise at the end of this month.

One definitely positive thing with Delsey luggage is that they are much lighter compared to the Samsonite set I recently purchased (as well as with other more expensive brands I tried to check out while in the Duty Free Galleria in Hong Kong). With the stringent weight requirements among airlines, every kilogram counts!

So it was a great opportunity to buy some new Delsey luggage – “noir,” this time! – when SM City Cebu had a one-day sale for its Privilege Card holders and I was able to get 10% more from the already discounted items. From “rouge” to “noir,” hurrah!

I travel with locked luggage. Never mind if I put only clothes, make up kit and spare shoes in there. (I always warn fellow travelers against packing valuables in the check-in luggage.) Prevalent theft has made me security-conscious. So it was with great curiosity that I took note of the latest Delsey technology – the Zip Securi Tech, dual ziplines that do not add weight even if they double the locking mechanism. Patented solely to Delsey. My new Delsey acquisitions have this mechanism.

Well, I hope the wheels of my new black set will not give way that soon, the way my red luggage were battered after several transit handlings.

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P.S.

Was in a meeting recently and the side topic was how embarrassing it was for the foreign visitors who were exposed to the foul smell prevailing at the Cebu side of the Mactan channel, near the Cebu International Port area.

Effluence from Cebu-Mandaue waterways exit to the sea, at this juncture, polluting the waters and what little aquatic life cycle surviving there. I was told that Coca Cola Company has manifested willingness to undertake the cost to clean up the Butuanon River. That’s great news, if true.

I have always been pointing out why Cebu is not made part of the ports of call of cruise ships since we have the seaport capable of docking huge vessels. Political will is all there is to it, and no doubt public support for a clean environment that would revive our dead waterways.

If its international tourism we want, cruise ships are dynamic factors for these tourists to have a glimpse of what we can offer. I experienced the “crude” offerings in island stop-overs of a Caribbean cruise. My heart ached as I watched my fellow passengers scramble over “souvenirs” made of coconut shells displayed in a hot shack with a galvanized iron roof. Can we offer much better? Of course, we can!

Will we do something towards that direction? That’s a question that remains so…has been so, all these years. - THE FREEMAN