Cross-cultural communication, Loboc River Cruise, Bohol. June 2017
[from FB post: June 22, 2017]
Multicultural tour today - 2 French Canadians, 2 Koreans, 1 German, 1 Swiss, 1 Chinese. Lots of laughter. And lots of mobile phone photos.
Inside our restaurant/boat. The two kids in front were on the tour with me and chatting via google translate which was...... hilarious.
As part of my little van tour of Bohol, a boat trip with lunch and a cultural show on the Loboc River were included, sort of (more to come on that). I was with a bunch of young travelers and they reminded me of earlier days of world travel on a budget. I was just "this old guy" on the tour and they were polite and left me alone. I didn't long to be included, but I did enjoy watching all of them interact. That was probably as interesting as the tour itself.
When the van arrived at the Loboc River Cruise only then did we find out the price (it was expensive for the Philippines) and also realized that if we did not join, there was no other option to eat. The alternative was to sit in the van and wait a couple of HOURS for everyone else to finish (and not eat). It was not a happy group moment for young people on a tight budget watching their pesos. I had travelled like that - I remembered. We all felt somewhat ripped off, but eventually were resigned to the fact we were hungry and might as well make the best of it.
The Loboc River Cruise was definitely a "local" experience. There was a big buffet set up on a festively decorated, large pontoon boat. After everyone found their seats, we settled in to have a good time. The boat was towed up the river (which was surprisingly large for the Philippines and even more surprising for an island as small as Bohol). The scenery was extremely unremarkable for a place as beautiful as the Philippines. We reached the end point (a "waterfall" that was more like a "water swirl amongst rocks") and turned around to come back with a stop at a floating stage where local people performed for us. The entertainment concept was quite novel actually - a stage on the water..
The best part of the cruise, however, was watching my van tour comrades valiantly try to chat with each other via google translate. Since I had used it a lot myself, I knew how totally wrong it could be at times, especially for languages as different as English and Chinese or German and Korean. There were many hilarious miscommunications, but it was all tolerated in good humor. I still found miraculous even that level of communication with just a mobile phone. When I reflected on my own travels at that age in places where no one spoke English, my memory was of "guessing" at just about everything.
That scene was also something of a harbinger of my time in Duhok when I spent far too much time at Efes Beer Cafe. My best friend and bartender WMF would desperately want to tell me something using google translate with perplexing and sometimes shocking results between Arabic and English. He could tell from my facial expression immediately as I read the words on the screen, "No, Boss, I am sure it is wrong. I can see it in your face". Even if it was wrong, I appreciated the sincerity of his wanting to communicate something with me. I think it was the same with the group of young people on the Loboc River Cruise. The accuracy paled in comparison with the intention to communicate.
I cruised the Loboc River feasting on dishes that Filipinos loved and enjoyed watching some traditional folk dances on a barge moored to the shore. I also witnessed the new generation of travelers and thought just how much things never changed (small van tours) and how much the world had totally changed (google translate).
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