3 Things to Do on a Road Trip to Pagudpud

This post may also be titled "How to Survive an Almost 12-Hour Road Trip (that Started at 1 a.m.)," but that would be too descriptive (and may or may not drive you away from reading this post). Also a fair warning, expect a lot of parenthetical comments (because they're the words that actually matter haha).

Christmas for some people is spent with family in their homes, in front of the TV, eating Christmas dinner. This was also our usual celebration, but this year, we decided to shake things up with a road trip to Pagudpud.

Now for anyone who knows anything about traveling and road trips amd Philippine geography, a road trip to Pagudpud (with all the rest stops and necessary traffic delays) would take about twelve hours.

Here's a map.

See, how lousy I am at pictures haha.

Anyway to pass the time, here's what you can do (because this was what I did).

1. Sleep. 

As Ms. Universe 2014 advised Ms. Universe 2015 during her final walk, "Sleep if you can." I took that advice as if I were the girl she was talking to and spent most of the trip asleep. You can't blame me (or yourself if you decide to also do this). The trip started at one in the morning and we didn't sleep the night before. Of course sitting in a moving vehicle would lull me to sleep (I can practically sleep anywhere). 

This is also when I finally appreciated the existence of backseat seat belts. Once I was strapped on, the only risk I was posing to my sleepy self would be banging my head on the window (of course I'm in the window seat, duh). 

Sleeping on a dawn road trip, you don't really miss much. You just have to make sure you're a bit awake when the sum rises so you can catch the colors of a newly woken world. 

But of course if you're the driver (or the driver's navigator or the backseat driver or just a driver), you can skip this because you're not allowed to sleep. Keeping you, Mr. Driver, awake can be a challenge and a totally different post because I don't want to talk about that right now.

What I do want to tell you is another thing you can do on the road trip.

2. Eat.

This is important because we all have to feed ourselves at some point. And riding. Car is very exhausting. So every time someone offers food, take it. (It's also kinda rude to refuse an offer hihi.) 

This was kinda what we did, and I tell you, it was the unhealthiest trip I have ever been. This trip introduced me to the awesome package that is the Weeshee Bag.

Photo taken from Oishi.com.ph (I think). 

It's this bag full of junk food goodness that can make the kid inside fill with glee and your kidneys and uric aside cry in disappointment (but who cares, really). 

We consumed most of its contents in more or less just a few hours (because we had to sleep in between eating---that's an important part of eating during a road trip). I can't say I regretted the snack food because I really don't regret it. Hihi. 

But if you get a chance to actually plan your trip snacks, you might want to include something healthy . . . Like hot dogs and marshmallows. Or maybe some fruits. That would be great too.

And last but not really because there are so many possibilities:

3. Watch Scorpion.

One of the advantages of being in an Isuzu MUX is a built-in TV. And when the passengers come prepared, there is bound to be a TV series in their possession. On this trip, it was Scorpion.

It's a case-solving series with highly intellectual characters and is inspired by the true story of Walter O'Brien (who says he has an IQ of 197). It's kind of Mr. Robot working in CSI with the nerdiness of Fringe and Flash and all them other case-solving series with nerds. Needless to say (but I'm still going to say it), I was hooked. Science and fun characters, what's not to love. I mean, a control freak genius, an OC human calculator, a mechanical prodigee, a narcissist behaviorist, an agent (really just an agent), and a normal person who gets to keep the balance of the team equals, well, Scorpion. (As you can see, I am also very lousy at promoting things I like.)

What's great about the show is that it's fast-paced and witty. The science stuff doesn't drown the normal person but also isn't dumbed down for the nerds (I am using this word as a compliment, okay). In fact, I was amused that one experiment they did was just aired on National Geographic, which means the creators of the show (and I guess every other science-y show in the world) really did their research. Really, just watch.

Anyway, so during the round trip of the road trip, I think we finished ten or thirteen.

But (and I am saying this with emphasis) if you are prone to motion sickness and your eyes make you dizzy and naseous when you watch TV or read inside a moving vehicle, I do not recommend you watch this during a road trip. After a couple of episodes, my head hurt and I wanted to vomit, and I found myself fighting the urge to still watch the show (as in my left eye was closed but my right eye was still peeking). But of course, it's your call.

And there! My three things to do during a twelve-hour road trip. Hit repeat and you are good to go. Sure, there are other things you can do and I can suggest so much more, but for this trip, these three things worked for me.

I hope it works for you too.

Follow-up posts on the road trip coming soon. Happy New Year, everyone!

1