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reading through my daily dose of blogs from contacts I’ve developed in cyberspace, I chanced upon an article (to the island and back) that I instantly connected with. it talked about the author’s scary tripto boracay to attend a wedding recently, a rough plane ride through some bad weather and the subsequent boat ride to the world-famous resort island.

this brought to mind my fear of flying. well, not exactly the flying itself but more of my aversion to local air travel. believe it or not I have never flown locally! believe it or not, I have never been to boracay, palawan, davao or cebu because of this phobia (which is irrational and totally unfounded, according to friends). you might say that I’m an air travel “virgin” locally! ha ha ha.

I cannot recall how and when this phobia started because I am quite well-traveled elsewhere. having spent part of my childhood abroad, I have flown on airplanes since grade school. I have even traveled alone many times at a young age shuttling to and from the philippines every summer and christmas break, wearing those ridiculous “unaccompanied minor” tags hanging from my neck throughout my journey (totally dorky and embarrassing!). but when it came to local flights, I chicken out. it must have been due to those horror stories I used to overhear from adult conversations as a child about rickety old airplanes flying the southern routes. or the disastrous wrecks and near misses by filipino airlines as I was growing up. I still remember philippine airlines’ planes overshooting the runway several times and ending up on the service road! this happened two or three times, earning them the mocking tag of “the only airline with a flight from naia to the south luzon expressway”! jokes about other local carriers didn’t help either: cebu pacific – “fly to cebu and end up in the pacific!”, asian spirit – “leave as asians, arrive as spirits!”. remember those jokes? lol.

I know that the local airline industry has greatly improved since then, growing by leaps and bounds in recent years. but somehow the stigma has remained in my subconscious.

though not as bad as flying, it is similarly true for local sea travel for me. the thought of drowning or sinking in shark infested waters haunt me. furthermore, I’m not that confident with my swimming skills, if you can consider it a skill at all (blame my over-protective mom for this who can’t swim herself). add to this an almost non-existent coast guard with antiquated equipment and questionable skills! yikes!

a former classmate once remarked that I was just being snobby. that was unfair! he just didn’t understand how it feels. he hadn’t experienced having nightmares, dreaming of falling from the sky and waking up at an unholy hour in cold sweat. that’s right, it really happens that way sometimes. just like in the movies.

my often reliable mind-over-matter mental exercise hasn’t been effective at all. tried to convince myself on many occasions but it seems that my travel phobias have a solid grip on my balls, squeezing tighter every time I try to break free. aray! my friend vincent has suggested hypnosis. he saw this method of overcoming fears and addictions featured in a documentary from the discovery channel, he said. he seems thoroughly convinced and has been egging me for years to try it. but where? haven’t heard of this locally. is there a qualified hypnotist I can go to here? to tell you frankly, I’m willing to try it. in fact, I’m eager overcome these fears which have greatly dented my social life. traveling has been one of my passions and it’s a shame to be limited to land travel within luzon. in a country that has 7,106 other islands (high tide or low tide?) with more adventures and sights to offer, nakakahiya (it’s embarrassing)! many foreigners have seen more of my own country than me!

help! I really need to fix these kinks (there are many more! ha ha ha!) in my head!

update (10/26/2007): just when I thought that air travel in the country is getting safer, an accident happens. a PAL plane overshot the runway while landing in butuan city earlier today!

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the accident-fearing tourist: my travel phobias

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