Susan Calo Medina likes sleeping with ghosts

Susan Calo Medina is Travel Time; Travel Time is Susan Calo Medina. This particular mutual love affair has been on for some 25 years.

Once upon a time, Baguio seemed to be the nation’s sole genuine regional holiday destination in the true sense of the word. Out-of-town trips were usually to visit the old folks in the countryside for their annual fiesta or perhaps a nearby pilgrimage site. Maybe the beach homes of college friends; or a pleasantly surprised favorite aunt in the south. And that was about it.

As explorer, pathfinder and trailblazer, Susan led the bandwagon in revolutionizing travel around the many islands of our beautiful archipelago, joined in the area’s unique activities, participated in their festivals, tasted their local delicacies, shopped for their goodies. Total immersion was the name of the game.

After meticulous research and site inspection, the highly professional, straightforward Susan, in her usual uniform of shorts and tank top sans makeup, together with her dedicated crew, sets out to pursue — either by air, land or sea, or all three — anyone with a story worth listening to. She’ll gladly climb hills and mountains, dive below lakes, lagoons and oceans to get the story.

The multi-awarded weekly travelogue on The Filipino Channel (TFC) is a must for overseas Filipinos. It has likewise caught the eye of foreigners, friends, relatives and colleagues from other countries. Shown locally on Saturday mornings at 9:30 on ANC, it features Susan sharing her incredible discoveries and personal experiences. Forever on the go, the sprightly Susan is now agog over her latest pet project: a no-nonsense quarterly magazine, full-colored and brightly written, bursting with up-to-date useful tips and information on everything related to travel. What’s it to be called? Susan Calo Medina’s Travel Time Magazine, of course.

Forward, backward, forward: Ever-ready Susan gamely tries the fancy footwork during the street-dancing parade at the town fiesta in Mapandan, Pangasinan.

An avid collector of Philippine art and antiques, a lifetime student of history, heritage and culture, a lover of great food and excellent wines, a diligent disciple of exercise and health, meditation and wellness, a firm believer in la buena vida, prayers and novenas, and advocate of daily Mass — that’s Susan. Though close friends suspect that she may be a Manobo princess in disguise, Susan is a whiz in the kitchen, and her discerning Kapampangan life partner Johnny wholeheartedly agrees.

Susan is doting wife to Johnny and a proud, caring mother to three children. Eldest daughter Ching is happily settled in the United Kingdom with husband John. Her only son Marc is actively pursuing a doctorate degree in anthropology at Oxford University while Europe-based youngest daughter Lui is busy preparing for painting exhibits both here and in Hong Kong. Susan’s most coveted role is to play Wawa either in the UK or here to two adorable and enchanting grandchildren, Sophia and Samuel.

PHILIPPINE STAR: What do you remember most of your first trip abroad?

SUSAN CALO MEDINA: I was 18, had just finished college and I was going to the US to do my master’s in speech and drama at Catholic University in Washington, DC.

I remember a lot of things — that we couldn’t land in Hong Kong because of the weather and we had to return to Manila, that the first thing I bought in Hong Kong was a black leather bag and that I had to wash my garments for the first time in my life, in my aunt’s house in Berkeley.

But what I remember most is the feeling of sheer freedom I had when we got to San Francisco — I was finally going to spread my wings and fly!

All in a day’s work: Susan prepares to do her spiel by the historic walls of Avila in Spain.

What won’t you leave home without?

I won’t leave home without my fluoride-free toothpaste. My sea-mud soap, Max Huber & Rommel Caballes. And, of course, my Nikes.

Describe your present passport photograph.

Yuck!

How do you pass time at airports?

Depends upon the airport. If the airport is boring, I read or sleep. If exciting, I go shopping, try a restaurant and have a drink. Or go to a lounge to smoke.

Who is your ideal traveling companion?

My children. We like the same things and they have better sense of direction than I.

What is the first thing you do upon checking in at a hotel or at a resort?

Inspect the bathroom and check the coffee amenities.

What would you consider a must-do-activity in every foreign city that you visit?

Activities — plural. Go to a food store, market or delicatessen! Visit museums. And try the restaurants.

Describe your most memorable trip.

I can’t remember a “most memorable trip.” All my trips have been memorable — in varying degrees and for various reasons. I can, however, remember a trip that I did not enjoy at all and a place I have no desire to revisit: Lake Tahoe.

What do you miss most when you’re away from home?

Sitting pretty: The grand dame of the Philippine travel shows rests her tired feet amidst temples and temples and yet more temples in Bagan, Myanmar.

Nothing. Truly. When I take a trip, whether for a vacation or for my work — which is also a holiday — I get completely immersed in the place, the travel experience and I don’t miss home at all. I travel to get away in the first place. So why should I miss home? Besides, I always go home.

What is the best travel advice you were given?

I guess it must be “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.” And “eat where the locals eat.”

What is the strangest thing you have done on a trip?

Many. I’ve taken a bath under the stars in Tawi-tawi; done my constitutionals in the backyard while shooing the pigs away in Kalinga; slept in the same banig with my crew in Minangkig, Agusan Sur; traveled around the Sulu Seas in a Philippine Navy flat boat as the only female among 13 men; been stopped and questioned by armed NPA in Mindoro.

I’ve done many, many strange things in my life. Believe me!

Let’s talk favorites now. Name your favorite city abroad.

London, I suppose. My grandchildren live there and I’m there all the time.

Name your favorite spot in the Philippines.

Many. I’m being discreet.

Favorite airline?

Locally — I’m being discreet again. International, as long as its business class and I have room to stretch out and sleep...

Favorite airport?

Schiphol in Amsterdam.

Favorite museum?

Have kayak, will travel: Susan concentrates on the art of kayaking on a lagoon in rustic, idyllic Palawan.

Museums, plural. Uffizi in Florence; MoMA in New York; National Gallery, London; Sistine Chapel at the Vatican; and Tate Britain, London.

And if you could take home a piece of art, which one would it be?

“Victory of Samothrace” (or “Winged Victory”) in the Louvre, Paris and Fra Angelico’s “Annunciation” in San Marco, Florence.

Favorite hotel?

Parador de los Reyes Catolicos, Santiago de Compostela, built by Ferdinand and Isabella in the 15th century. Imagine all the history you are sleeping with, including ghosts!

Favorite landmark, building or park?

Difficult to have a single favorite. My favorites: Plaza Mayor, Salamanca and its beautiful surrounding arches; Banaue Rice Terraces; Ospedale degli Innocente, Florence with its Della Robbia medallions all over; the Red Rose City of Petra, Jordan, that changes color with the changing light; the Roman Ruins of Palmyra in Syria — they glow at sunset.

Favorite musical or play?

I prefer opera, actually. Placido Domingo and Leontyne Price in any role, singing any composer, in any medium — live, DVD, CD.

But I’ve seen some memorable performances — Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker, Albert Finney in Luther, Maggie Smith in School for Scandal. The English actually do theater better.

Favorite mall or store?

Wonder woman: The daredevil on a zipline — from one high mountain to an even higher mountain with a deep gorge complete with a roaring river in between — in Danao Adventure Park in Bohol.

London’s Borough Market. My husband says it’s my pilgrimage site. They have everything I want: Brindisa and its Iberico products; all kinds of fish, fresh seafood; roast pork sandwiches (with cracklings); echire butter pancetta that I bring home; all manner of cheeses; all kinds of meat, wild mushrooms, vegetables — you name it, they have it. Plus lots of cooked food that you can taste.                      

Favorite restaurant or bar?

Guy Savoy and a little trattoria in Bellagio where I had an unforgettable risotto al tartuffo, I forget its name.

Name an event anywhere in the world in which you would like to participate?

I’d like to go back to the Salzburg Music Festival. I promise I won’t wear noisy, dangling earrings which is what I did the time I was there and I had to take it off because it was competing with Gundula Janowitz’s Countess.

What’s your favorite pasalubong — inbound and outbound?

Inbound: cheeses. Outbound: Mother of Pearl and other Filipino products.

What is the worst souvenir you ever bought back from a trip?

A supposedly old Samovar from Jerusalem. Stupid.

Aside from unpacking your suitcase, what is the first thing you would do upon returning home?

Look for my children.

Name a city you have never visited but would like to someday.

Cartagena de los Indios, Colombia: like a bigger Intramuros and perfectly intact.

Name a country you wish to explore.

Nepal, Sikhim, Bhutan.

What would you say is the best part of travel?

Eating. From salt beef at Selfridges to Pierre Herme macaroons in Paris; cioppitos and jabugo in Spain; lardo in Florence; Robuchon’s truffled mash; panini tartufati in Giacosa; confit de canard in Lourdes. Yes, Lourdes is not just for praying.

What would you say, then, is the worst part of travel?

Airplanes and rough seas. I’m scared of airplanes and I can’t swim.

If you could reside anywhere in the world aside from the Philippines where would it be?

London. It’s a Virgo City, my friend Zenaida says. It’s civilized. Museums are free. It’s cosmopolitan in taste. Has great Chinese food. Is consumed by its heritage and history. A city with the energy of New York and a European flavor.