Staycation: Tourists in Our Own City

I’ve always been a probinsiyana at heart. Let me live in the city and I’ll surely wither like a flower taken from its water source.

Living in Lampang for three years had given me fond memories of this quaint city, of this province. Although there were times when my homesickness became almost like a physical pain, but the slow-paced, unhurried life in this city had always, at some point, kept me sane.

When you live in a place for quite a period of time, you fail to see it in fresh eyes, in the perspective of a tourist who set foot on it for the first time. Heck, we haven’t even tried, ‘til this particular day, the horse carriage in which Lampang is known for.

So, one day, we just decided to become tourists in our own city. Clad in our Sunday dresses, we first stopped at a park, 20-minutes away from our house. P’ Prasit, the silo driver, looked at us with suspecting eyes as we went down and giddily started looking for perfect spots to have our photos taken at. He was probably thinking, “Ano na naman ang nangyayari sa mga pinay na ‘to at mukhang ngayon lang nakita ang park na ito?”, in Thai of course. Kohtot kah. Put pasa-Thai, nitnoi na kah. Ahahahaha! *wink

We enjoyed the park like it was our first time to be there---we even found a tree, too beautiful to be passed up for a photo op. Come to think of it, it was Ahne’s first time to climb a tree, and the ways she looks in the photos, you wouldn’t guess that she was actually scared and at the same time, too giddy with excitement that she had several attempts and shrieking episodes before finally reaching the top of the tree.

We also went to the train station and a local Thai restaurant, Aroy 1 baht, like we were first-time tourists, when actually, these two places were actually part of our (almost) regular routine. There was even a time when we craved for Thai food for an entire week that we were at Aroy 1 baht of 4 consecutive days that when we left the place on the 4th day, the attendant said, “See you tomorrow!”. Ahahahaha, shame!

Transacting business with the local people in pure English proved to be fun, they were actually giving us quizzical looks, probably thinking, “Teka lang, ‘eto yung mga pinoy na padaan-daan dito kapag namamalengke ah!”

But, one of the highest points of our activity was when we were already on the horse carriage. Looking at the slowed down scenes of Lampang’s streets, my home for three years, I was filled with a deep sense of nostalgia for all the memories that it gave me, including the lessons. I saw, on a fresh perspective, why tourists actually flock to this tiny and charming city. I understood why a lot of them fell in love with this place and never wanted to leave.

In Lampang, everything is slowed down---you have time to walk and to think and to just, feel. However, this girl had to go home. I just had to, just because. But, in that brief instant, I smiled with the answer why ‘pinas momentarily ceased as home for 3 years.

These beautiful ladies (inside and out), Ahne and Frezy, are two of my emergency sanity buttons.