“Hey man, wassup?” shouted the two young boys on a bike as they saw me walking on the street of Brooke’s Point with my camera and backpack.
I was already on my sixth day of Palawan exploration, and the sight of a six-foot man in unwashed clothes, unshaven and sunburned must have looked odd to the people of this southern town that they mistook me for another foreigner on his way to take the backdoor boat to Malaysia via Rio Tuba. I have gotten used to being mistaken as a foreigner since I started backpacking many years ago, and I always enjoy watching people’s reaction whenever I reply in Tagalog “Ayos lang!”