Nah, real travel can perhaps be done via the eyes of great photographers whose coffeetable book- or National Geographic-eyes see beauty in any place pretty or ugly. To them, all spots on earth are photogenic, inclusive of what may be deemed postcard clichés or CNN-ishly wartorn.

And so, therefore, perhaps to arm oneself with the examples of the cameras and writings of – say – the Discovery Travel and Living channel staff, cameras and writings possessed of an attitude or formulas of feeling instead of place utopias coming from over-educated or corrupt tourism authorities, one will be sending oneself to a fulfilling daily tour of even only what his remaining life will give him access to. After all, it might be conjectured that a penniless poet might have a deeper feeling towards the banana leaves outside his village’s window than a millionaire’s son towards the white sand and tiny shells beside his bottle of tanning lotion. Access, therefore, as no guarantee of having arrived. Feeling, therefore, as one’s necessary ticket to life and adventure (and perhaps consequent passionate geographical rebellions of diverse forms; one of these rebellions can be culled from the people- and land-loving and government-hating poems of Pablo Neruda).

It is no accident that this above attitude will find joy in visiting remote and fearful zones of West Africa equal to that upon visiting a travel agency favorite as Venice or Hong Kong. With this attitude, why not Cambodia? Why not, indeed.

THIS ATTITUDE will be very much needed in Philippine travel, and I don’t mean in light of newspaper reports concerning criminals in lowly and upper society (there are petty and big criminals wherever you go, the Vatican itself being no exception). After all, barring such spots as Boracay, Cebu, Bohol, Guimaras, Palawan, Davao, the Banaue, Batangas’ diving and yachting facilities, among a few others, not much hype or focus has been done on other Philippine places, the conventional government view being that a city or province can turn itself into a travel destination only through public financial investments (or the private financial investments of the officials’ rich friends).

The attitude will certainly make a tourism authority out of everyone of us, a demonstration of which will only support the argument that observation and imagination can be better accomplished by taxpayers than the people they pay their taxes to.

LET US start with what might be deemed a most depressing spot to visit. By conventional Department of Tourism cameras, Tacloban City and Leyte province is boring, not worth spending one’s last months on earth in unless one is intent on spending one’s last months writing sci-fi classics in a murky house, the way the French Matisse spent his, painting quasi-paintings in a hospital room.

And yet, there is really a lot to be seen in Leyte, especially perhaps if one had his/her childhood spent here. A digital cam documentary can be made on such simple dishes as the dagmay, the lawot-lawot, the ginataang langka, or the lechon consumed with gabi at the beach. Lakbay TV Videos have already been made on the binagol, but it failed to mention its byproduct or moderate version, the sagmani. The Leyte lechon paksiw is defiant of the Tagalogs’ lechon sauce, its gata procedures beaming with pride against the coconut-poor or chicken blood-lacking methods of other places. Its tuba is deemed the most superior bahalina produce that cannot be imitated by tuba makers in other provinces.

Tacloban’s sidewalks aren’t fun to walk in. A protrusion here and another there, or a sudden climb here and sudden descent there, can surprise one (the roads hardly climb or descend). I haven’t even mentioned the occasional little open ditch crossing the walk. And need I mention the very Filipino mark that tolerates rich people’s SUV and trucks occupying a sidewalk minus only two feet for the walking people to squeeze into? If this were done in many US cities, a car owner is certain to find his car decorated with the popular art of scratching.

But these symbols of city government ineptitude, or this semblance of a remaining cultural feudalism or plutocracy, can be drowned at times by little realizations. One such realization is that the city still boasts of a duckpin-bowling hall, with pin boys instead of the urbane automated pin setups, although this facility can’t beat the three floors of duckpin alleys in Marilao, Bulacan that offers games at only P18 per.

The beaches of Tacloban and Palo also reminds one of the reliance of tourism on the performances of the Department of Energy and Natural Resources as well as the Department of Health. Tacloban’s beach resorts as well as Palo’s Gen. McArthur Beach Resort are possessed of nice-looking beaches that, however, suffer the occasional products from the river mouths whose outflow are carried by the currents to these very resorts’ beachfronts. I need not mention what goes on in the rivers with their house on stilts, nor during the building of septic tanks at the beachside subdivisions near these resorts.

But Imelda Romualdez Marcos’ Olot lot, presently under the sequestration and administration of the Presidential Commission on Good Government and offered as a primitive resort, has a cove that is practically freed from the occasional cellophanes and rubber slippers that has become a bane to Tolosa’s main beach. In the town’s main beach, one is almost certain to find one’s breaststroke or butterfly challenged by a coconut husk, a material sometimes used by fisherfolk to wipe their asses after discarding themselves of their daily intestinal grace.

Still, Leyte has beautiful beachfronts such as the one right before Dulag, south of Tolosa, unfortunately dredged by the old Inco Mining. Potentially useful for water sports and diving, unless mine tailings are still present and still sport cancer-inducing mercury drugs for that ultimate trip.

THE NEGATIVE things for tourism that are happening in Leyte is to be found in many other Philippine towns and cities. The ultimate tip for the foreign and local traveler is this: do not rely on what tourism boards or even travel agencies tell you about a Philippine place, unless they’re in the form of travel advisories. Tourism boards neither have the attitude you need nor the projected knowledge of what travelers are looking for or want to do.

Simply go there, wherever it is you want to visit. The enjoyment is not to be found in packaged tours or recommendations from tourism authorities. The enjoyment of a place is to be found in life itself. The life. The knowledge. The search for life. The seeking of knowledge.

Then there, wherever boredom reigns supreme, one is sure to be surprised by the place’s fauna, flora, hidden architectural fragments and values, undiscovered artists and art, long-neglected dances, exotic foods and wines, occasional good theater, materials for urban cinema and music (e.g. Eli Africa’s NY Video and Film Festival-winning Selling Songs of Leyte), undiscovered bands and songwriters, great chefs of foreign and local traditional cookery, local poetry, hidden history behind the corrupted historical spots, exotic crafts, clothing ideas, exotic businesses, ceremonies of religious weirdness, cemetery architecture, transportation modes, local science researches, faith healers, witches, neglected museums and libraries, weird laws (often weird in their implementation or lack of implementation), among other exotica.

Sure, one might need a guide. But, firstly, one will need the attitude and the knowledge to know what kind of guide to look for.

GOD KNOWS how many more years or months remain of my life on earth, and I might lament a misfortune in not having seen much of the world or my own country.

Then again, there is my understanding too that many of those who’ve packed their bags and gamboled their way through the world via packaged tours have not exactly seen much either.

The enjoyment of a place is to be found in life itself. The life. The knowledge. The search for life. The seeking of knowledge. The attitude can be derived from the cameras and writings of the many cable channels on TV (and we can include in the roster even the religious channels), or from the perspective of the cable channel you wish were there and, sadly, isn’t.