Visiting the 81 Provinces of the Philippines has been a major travel quest of mine for a while now. The idea of geographically exploring all parts of the country is sort of like a video game thing for me. For those who don’t know, before I started traveling, I was really into video games. Some of my fondest memories growing up involved inviting childhood friends over to play Family Computer and SEGA.
We would swap game cartridges and spend many afternoons just watching each other play old-school games like Super Mario, Adventure Island Lode Runner. Back then, games were really tough. Actually completing a game involved a lot of perseverance, blistered fingers angry walk-outs and resets. Your lives were limited. Two-player games like Contra, Battle City Twin Bee demanded cooperation.
Later on, when I was given the choice to celebrate with a birthday party or get the money, I took the money to add to my savings so I could buy a PlayStation 1. I got interested in games like Tomb Raider, Spyro, Legend of Legaia, StarOcean2 and Okami. I moved on to PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 games through the years with amazing games like Uncharted The Last of Us.
When I started this blog “Travel Up” in 2011, I was inspired by the whole video game concept where you “Level Up.” In the virtual world, the more worlds you explore, the more experience points or XP you get. Reaching a level cap is considered an achievement. This is especially true for action-adventure, exploration and Role-Playing Games or RPGs.
There are two types of gamers. There are those who just breeze through a game with the intention of finishing it in the fastest time possible. Forget sleep during weekends. Let’s just skip all the cutscenes and beat the final boss to see how it all ends so we can move on to the next game.
Then there are those like me who take WAY too much time grinding to get levels up and doing random side quests that they forget where they were supposed to go in the first place. My favorite parts of RPGs like Final Fantasy and Star Ocean were the side quests. Usually, these quests are not essential to finishing the main story, but I always found them fun to do.
I enjoy hunting for rare (but completely useless) items scattered around the world and seeking out difficult bosses hidden in secret dungeons just to acquire a trophy. Gathering collectible items and gaining the reward is more about the thrill of the hunt.
This mentality has carried over to my real-life travels. I find myself attracted to destinations that are more challenging to get to out of curiosity because few people have been there.
I really love maps. In RPGs like StarOcean, the game tracks your “Map Exploration Rate” or how much you’ve traveled on foot around the playable area. There’s a sense of satisfaction of seeing it reach 100%. It’s really frustrating to see your rate stuck at 97.08% and not know where to go to get that remaining percentage. I want to be able to visit the most extreme or significant points on a map just for the sake of stepping foot there.
During my trips, I’ve found myself collecting random stuff like photos of more than a hundred room keys of different hotels and resorts I’ve stayed in. I’ve collected (and am actually on an extended bonus round) for what started as a quest to try 99 bottles of beer. I revisited destinations featured on Philippine currency just so I could take photos of the bills in the landmarks. I collect everything from road markers, unique tricycles, exotic food, and woven fabrics.
Collecting things and experiences gives me a sense of purpose when I travel.
Happy victory theme music plays in my head whenever I add something new. I like looking back at photos in an album with one theme. There’s a feeling of achievement to see a personal collection grow.
But for the longest time, I’ve had mixed feelings about completing this long-term travel quest to visit the 81 provinces of the Philippines. Instead of a personal quest, it sometimes feels like a competitive game especially in this age of social media. And I really don’t want to compete with anyone but myself. That’s why I like single-player exploration games in the first place.
There are debates within the travel community about what constitutes “setting foot in a province.” Most believe that just passing through (for example if you’re on a bus and never even went down in the province) that doesn’t really count. Others say that you have to have slept at least one night in a place. For some, it counts as long as they have a photo or a “proof shot” with an iconic landmark or tourist spot in the province even if they only stayed there for just 30 minutes. There’s really no right or wrong way to travel.
Travel is a personal experience. We all have our own basis for determining where we’ve been. I’ve always gone by my personal sense of satisfaction I’ve derived from visiting a place. Beyond stepping foot geographically in a destination, I like visiting natural attractions like beaches, waterfalls or mountains that locals are proud of. I try to make an effort to do something active to soak in the essence of the place.
Biking, hiking, motorcycling or any type of extreme adventure always seems to do it for me. Other people like visiting churches, Provincial Capitals or popular landmarks in the capital. It’s up to you how you want to do it. Just enjoy the journey. Kanya-kanyang trip!
For some of the lesser-known destinations and younger provinces I had no idea about, I asked travelers who have already gone there before me what the most interesting place to see or what to do there was. Or I asked locals once I got there. Kind of like consulting a walk-through when you get stuck in a game.
I know I could have done this much faster if I had just set aside a couple of months to take a break from the real world and traveled non-stop with just this goal in mind. But I’ve found that when trips and destinations are too close apart they become a blur. You want to give justice to each place. To savor the experience before rushing off to the next.
As much as I love to wander around aimlessly, lately I’ve been feeling that staying home and settling is not such a bad thing. We all need to recharge once in a while in between adventures and nothing restores your HP and MP fully like sleeping in your own bed.
Travel can get pretty expensive so I’ve been capitalizing on travel assignments, vouchers, free flight tickets won from raffles, mileage points, and other means just to achieve these personal goals. In the course of completing this quest, I’ve sought out a lot of obscure destinations on my own time and money, which has been quite challenging for a solo traveler.
I’ve always prided myself on the whole “lone wolf” thing and initially wanted to complete this travel quest as a solo traveler. But having someone else share your journey doesn’t make you less of a traveler. You can’t do everything alone. There are some destinations where it’s really better to have a second player to help you out.
I’m also glad to have met fellow wanderers during trips who have become friends I wouldn’t mind sharing adventures with in real life. The right travel companions can make a trip more enjoyable, no matter the destination.
I feel like I’ve seen so many surreal and beautiful places around the Philippines that people don’t know about. There are so many untold stories out there. But not everyone hears about them compared to negative news. Mindanao, where I’ve had beautiful and meaningful travel experiences, always gets a bad rap.
In one of the last provinces I visited last, a tricycle driver asked me If I was there for work. I said: “Namamasyal lang“. “Wala ka ,” he said. I want to prove him wrong.
What do I get out of this aside from the satisfaction of completing this quest? Truth is, one of the most rewarding aspect has been the comments from people who come from those places. “Salamat at – .” “Sa ‘!” “My hometown.”
I’ve found that in some way, sharing stories and photos of beautiful places in rarely visited destinations gives locals a sense of pride. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see something special in a place, even if it’s something as simple as a sunset along the boulevard because locals are so used to it. I may just be a visitor passing through, but I like the fact that I can share something that gives people who are off in different far-away lands a taste of their home. Something to return to.
As I write this, I have been to 80 of the 81 provinces of the country. I could just drop everything I’m doing just go for the last one just to get it over with. But I don’t want to go there just for the sake of finishing it. I want to do it right.
Endings are bittersweet. Just like not wanting to finish a really good video game, part of me wants to finish this just to get it over with and to have a satisfying ending or closure. The other part doesn’t want it to end.
But endings also mean new beginnings. The great thing about video games and travel is that you can always go back to a previous save point, revisit destinations you’ve been to before and explore further.
Just because you’ve been to a place once or twice doesn’t mean you’ve been everywhere. I know I’ve missed out on important places during previous visits. You never visit the same place twice because places change over time. New destinations are continuously being discovered and unlocked.
But unlike video games where you have multiple lives and can restart from scratch if you want to, we only get one life. Looking back, I think I’ve played a pretty good game.