Travel and life on the cheap

The photo above is my bill for a one night stay in the Hillside Inn in Batad, Philippines. The cost, including a private room, 3 meals, a couple beers and a couple bottles of water came to 885 pesos - $18. i did have a $7 hour-long massage not included in the bill and I am paying a guide about $22 a day. My social security check goes a long way here.

It must be said that this is not a 5-star resort sort of experience. The room was tiny and contained only a bed - shared toilets and showers were down the hall. Meals were small by US standards. My supper was a small piece of chicken, cooked carrots and cabbage, and the standard cup of cooked rice that comes with every Philippine meal. The "bar" had your choice of beer, beer, or beer. There was not a comfortable chair in the place.

 

I didn't see any tourist my age on the hike to and from Batad. A group of 30-somethings from France were staying at Hillside too, but middle aged couples wearing floral print shirts and Bermuda shorts with teenagers in tow were not to be found.

Batad feels isolated. There are no roads, only paths leading to the village - paths that not even a donkey could manage, I don't believe. I saw one water buffalo in the rice terraces, but no other animals bigger than the ubiquitous small dogs which are in all the villages. There is no cell service, no Internet. While I did see a school, I did not see a library, post office or police station (but I did not get to the main concentration of homes far down in the valley.) At 6:30am, a loud speaker echoed through the area with, what I was told, were the day's announcements. No newspapers. The most common encounters on the trails were men and women carrying bags of stuff and children going to school. The small shops, not much larger than an American walk-in closet looked to carry mostly soft drinks and snacks. When it got dark at night, it got very, very dark.

I always wonder why so many people travel to other countries, check into a resort, and never leave that resort. i don't understand people who stay in fancy hotels which are the same in Cairo as they are in Chicago. Going to a place like Batad makes one ask the question "What does it take to live a good life?" Are the rice farmers who i am sure make less in a year than I spend in a month at home, more or less happy than those of us with the Internet, shopping malls, large homes, nice cars, expensive clothes, and fancy restaurants but who may worry about bills, politics, and loneliness?

I wonder.