I've Heard Good Things

I’ve been in the Philippines the past week with two friends/co-workers making a short film for work. We shot in the village of Layag-Layag outside of Zamboanga City. Layag-Layag is a community built on the beaches of the Celebes Sea, with nearly two miles of mangroves separating it from the mainland. 

At high tide, the village is flooded, and the denizens wade and swim through warm waist-deep water, or paddle boats from home to home. At low tide, the landscape is crushed coral and mangrove trees. 

The children formerly waded two miles through the mangroves to get to the Talon Talon Elementary School in the city. We’ll be telling their story. 

I don’t know what it is about traveling that gets me all restless. I felt the same way when I camped for a week in Yosemite last summer, or backpacked briefly through Germany in 2007. There’s a lot of crazy shit to see out there… and traveling sort of makes you feel small yet big at the same time. Like with each new culture you see and person you meet you’re becoming a fuller person. It makes you want to talk to more people and go more places. Sleep less. Waste less. 

The real problem is that this feeling wears off.