I’m writing this column inside the Victoria Court “Motel†in San Fernando, Pampanga. It was either that or sleep in a tent during the pouring rain. Yes there are many fine hotels in the area, but we’re not here for a pleasure trip but to experience what it’s like to be part of the Land Rover Festival 2013.
Against my better judgment, I agreed to accept an invitation from Land Rover Philippines and the Land Rover Club of the Philippines, to join in a 5 day event where an international mix of participants from the region will drive, trek and camp while going through Mt. Pinatubo in the Pampanga/Tarlac boundary, Pantabngan Dam in Nueva Ecija and finally the little discovered spots of Baler, Quezon.
Having committed myself to promoting local tourism at every opportunity, I could not walk away from the invitation especially since it would give me an insight to what it’s like to “tour†with nearly 40 different units of Land Rovers and how the international assembly of drivers and businessmen would react or conduct themselves while traveling to undeveloped tourist destinations.
From the very beginning the club president Attorney Robbie Consunji made it clear that 40 4x4’s and thrice as many passengers would mean that resources, space and patience would be stretched, so if things were a bit wet, and if lines to the toilet were long, just remind yourself that it’s the price you pay to be in places regular tourists and travelers don’t get to go.
The 2 night sleep over at the Victoria Court is not something to poke fun at because as several of us realized, the motel chain can actually be a very practical option for travelers on the go. To begin with you have secured parking, because they constantly have guest turn overs, the staff and management run a tight ship in terms of cleanliness and maintenance.
If you only intend to sleep and then drive on, it would be hard to beat the chain in terms of price. As someone who has traveled to many places, I can assure you that the Victoria Court chain can give many so-called business hotels in the provinces a run for their money. I later learned from the women participants that they called for massage therapists, room service and discovered that the service providers were TESDA trained and certified. This is in line with the motel chain’s efforts at repackaging themselves to be like the travel-motels in the United States.
Apparently there are just as many foreign visitors who are willing to drive off the beaten path to experience how Off- roading can be more fun in the Philippines. Once the entire contingent were introduced, I discovered that half of the crowd were Land Rover owners and drivers from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong etc. The other half were Filipinos representing Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Clearly these were dedicated off-road enthusiasts but not limited to a bunch of guys with too much testosterone. I saw at least eight women who actively participated in the drive and trek activities and at least two of them were veteran 4x4 drivers. In fact some of the younger women from the organizers group were so inspired that some tried their hand at driving through the sandy and boulder covered terrain surrounding the Mt. Pinatubo crater area.
After spending our first day rounding up in San Fernando, Pampanga, we kicked off day 2 with an 5 a.m drive to nearby Clark field to watch the rise of Hot Air balloons which obviously had even more participants this year and seemingly double the number of visitors from year to year. After a very short drive through and the necessary photo ops and group shots, we quickly set out for the Crow Valley Military reservation which was our entry point towards the Mt. Pinatubo crater.
Unlike past years when just about anybody could drive to Mt. Pinatubo, local authorities in Pampanga and Tarlac as well as the PNP have tighten the access and control because accidents have happened when ill-prepared or ignorant visitors went in and got stranded or lost.
A trip to Mt. Pinatubo is no easy ride and if you’re a little fragile, you have to go slow and easy. The drive, depending on the person behind the wheel is somewhere around an hour and a half one way where you will feel like you were on a location shooting in Egypt or maybe Afghanistan. The landscape is eerily beautiful in spite of being the outcome of a major volcanic eruption. Several people even compared it to scenes from the movie “The Hobbitâ€. Yes, that is how beautiful the drive is to Mt. Pinatubo.
Along the way you will of course encounter pockets or groups of dark skinned children and impoverished “curly†haired people. Please show respect and not pity towards the “Aetas†of this mountains because any old timer in the area will tell you, that these forests and valleys are part of the ancestral domain of the “Kulotsâ€. It is we who are entering their kingdom. They still walk half a day to the nearest barrio, they still hunt, forage and barter. And they can still teach many of us about how little one needs to live on and still laugh and smile.
After a long bumpy ride, we finally reached the jump off point for the “30-minute†walk to the crater. The 30-minute time is a standard they claim applies to senior citizens. My only advise is to pace yourself, take in the scenery, the sounds as well as plants you might never have seen in their natural habitats.
When you reach the crater, you will find a perfect example as well as a lesson of life. Twenty or so years ago a volcanic eruption caused so much damage and so much fear. From all that destruction, the people around Pinatubo came back stronger and more determined. From the destruction God gave us a landscape we never had and never imagined. Now we even have a tourist destination to a place that 20 years ago was not in peoples’ minds.
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