Airports and Coming Home

I am home after almost six months of being away. I arrived here in Manila early morning of Friday, November 23. I spent the previous afternoon and night in Phnom Penh and Bangkok Airports and two plane rides…not really one of the best deals in life especially considering that the stop-over in Bangkok went for about 7 hours… but just the thought of being with my family and closest friends again (albeit briefly) is enough to give me that frame of mind to enjoy my surroundings.

Many people may hate airports but I am not one of them. I am not saying that I go jumping with joy when I am in airports. But it is more of having this feeling that in airports, one is so anonymous that he can observe more people closely without being thought of as a lunatic or a stalker. Yes, I enjoy people-watching in airports. For me, travelers are very interesting people. I can probably make a movie out of the scenes I see in airports. I see couples hugging, kissing, having arguments, or simply rushing together to catch their flight. I see tired-looking businessmen typing on their laptops and then calling people on their mobile phones. I see beautiful stewardesses walking so elegantly as they pull their trolley bags. I see teenagers in their gravity-defying hairstyles. I see all sorts of people. And then I see myself wandering around, thinking, hoping, living. I am these wandering people and they are me.

How long have I been traveling? I couldn’t remember when this wanderlust start. All I can remember is that even as a child, I always wanted to go out, travel, be with the world. I remember "escaping" from my sleeping Dad so I can join my friends in their weekly jogging and cycling trips to the Cultural Center of the Philippines grounds, in the wee hours of the morning.

And then when I was still a student in UP, I was invited to an international conference in Hong Kong. It was to become the First overseas trip of my life and perhaps, it further ignited this desire to travel and explore the world. Seeing myself amidst a throng of people who are all going somewhere made me feel so independent and alive. I am going somewhere. I am free as a bird.

That early Friday morning in Bangkok airport, I saw a man who didn’t have any qualms and just laid down across 8 seats in the Boarding Area. Maybe he was even snoring (I didn’t get too close or he’d think I am stalking him!). It was really a funny scene! He used his handcarry bag as his pillow. I swear I’d do the same thing if I am a man! I suddenly realized that in this aspect, a man is somewhat luckier. :-)  I have never ever seen a woman do such a thing in airports…is it really a gender thing? Are women afraid or embarrassed to just let go and abandon all cares when it comes to showing fatigue especially during long stop-overs in airports? That is a big question mark. Why didn’t I just grab my bag, too, and sleep on the seats? I would definitely not occupy 8 seats!

And then I saw this young man running like crazy, going madly for the escalators to reach the next higher floor. Only that the escalators he’s chosen is going down. So he ran the steps of the moving escalators, going against its direction. That’s when I realized that just beside the moving escalator is a stair! Man. I think that in this guy’s mad rush, he didn’t realize that there’s a stair just beside the escalator that is going down…

And these are just few of scenes that I have encountered. There are much more. But I’ll let you discover them as you also wander around in airports or in this journey called life. That sounds really cliche-ish but how else can I say it?

Oh, it feels nice to be home.