Back home from our trip, which took us around 9 days.  Below is the last entry I wrote in my diary.  I feel that it captures my feelings about the trip, so I'm copying it here rather than writing a new one for the blog:

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Tonight is our last night in Bohol.  I'm glad that we approached this trip with curious, independent spirits.  Instead of riding the enclosed sterility of vans and taxi cabs, we walked.  We rode jeepneys, tricycles, and the habal-habal (a regular motorcycle meant for public transportation).  This allowed us the privilege of getting an intimate feel of the roads, overhearing the intonation and flow of everyday speech, and opening all our senses to all the little things that make the character of this place. 

There were mats of mushrooms and rice laid out to dry under the sun.  There were two women riding a motorcycle with a dead rooster dangling upside down from the left handgrip.  I felt the cool air of the Bilar forest on my legs, and saw the sun peeking from behind the foliage as I looked up with raindrops on my glasses.  At the back of the habal-habal, these raindrops feel more like pebbles than water.  Also, when you close your eyes during the ride, it feels like you're in flight.

Instead of going on the highway from Corella to Sevilla, our habal-habal driver, Danny, took us through steep, unpaved mountain roads that could easily beat up a car, but not his Honda TMX - a motorcycle that has more things in common with a Manila tricycle than a Dakar Rally bike.  A few inches to the left and you'll find yourself falling to your death.  It was raining and we lost our map somewhere near the mountains leading up to Sikatuna. 

The flowers we buy in pots here grow wild in those mountains.

Now that I have experienced these things, I feel like there is no other way for me to travel.  Wherever I go, my steps must be slow and deliberate, so I can feel the distance between places and not merely shuffle about from point A to B.

How can I return, knowing that most of what happens in Manila is all that shuffling?