Journeying Filipinas: Classification of Travel Writings by Filipino Women Travelers

Abstract


Introduction
Travel writing, a variant of creative nonfiction, has a very long literary tradition.It historically accounts for peoples' travel across the globe.Numerous travel narratives existed in the 19th century, and massive scholarships were produced in the 20th century (Bentley, n.d.).Wittkamp (2008) pointed out that the "Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu predates other genre forms, and travel writing, as a literary genre (nikki bungaku), appeared much earlier in Japan  than in Europe (as cited by Clark and Smethurst, 2008).
In postcolonial studies, Edwards and Graulund (2011) pointed out that 19thcentury travel writings have often been demonized because of their Eurocentric ontology and are perceived as colonial discourse (Spurr, 1993).Spurr claimed that discourses became "tropes that come into play with the establishment and maintenance of colonial authority" (p.3).These tropes, in particular travel writings, prepared a colony of general readership.As a colonial discourse, Western travel writings regarded the colonized land and its people through the concepts of 'far away ' and 'exotic' lands and 'Otherness.'In Victorian women travel writing, women's travel writings allowed them to develop new concepts of their self, imagination, and experimentation with language (Kelley, 2017).Frawley (cited in Kelly, 2017) purported that travel and writing show the connection between the writer's sense of herself and her relations with others.These offer the writers an identity with purpose and their basis for accomplishment.Thus, the travel of these Victorian women to remote locations helped them become experts on foreign cultures and provided them with a sense of authority often denied at home.Lisle (2006) posited that this "authority" of Victorian women achieves hegemony when constantly repeated over time such that it acquires the authority of truth.
The acquisition of authority of truth by hegemony, however, still aligns with the colonial discourse on the 'far away' and 'exotic' lands and 'Otherness' of the colonized places.Thus, numerous writings and scholarships were produced to offer an alternative representation of the colonized.These massive scholarships were produced by "countertravelers" who resisted the historical and cultural myths of Eurocentrism; and they can also be women travel writers who subvert the male traveler's traditional values and privileges (Holland & Huggan, 2000).Mills (1991) studied the gendered aspect of travel writing and claimed that Victorian women's travel writing operated on a different framework than those of its male counterparts, mainly because it tended to concentrate on descriptions of people as individuals rather than about a whole race.These writings, Mills posited, were produced and received in a context that is similar to the discursive construction and reception of male texts.However, because of the pressures placed on female writers by the discursive framework, there may be negotiations in women's texts that lead to distinctions related to gender.Additionally, Mills asserted the tension between the empire and gender in the colonial setting because women are perceived as passive participants in imperialism due to societal conventions that establish the masculine British identity (e.g., national identity).Women's travel writings, Mill concluded, are counter-hegemonic discourses.
The preoccupation of many scholars to provide an alternative representation of the colonized overlooks other complex dimensions of travel writings, especially contemporary travel writings.Lisle (2006) maintained that "the vision embedded in contemporary travel writings and espoused by many liberal thinkers is not as emancipatory as it claims to be, rather, it is underscored by the remnants of Orientalism, colonialism, and Empire" (p. 5).The travel writers' frequent crossing of cultural and national borders failed to address the complexity and ambiguity of power relations.Among women travel writers, their interactions with feminism have pushed postcolonialism to develop a more critical and introspective understanding of cultural nationalism (Gandhi, 1998).

Ropero
(2011) purported that postcolonial travelogue foregrounds new development that is distinguished from its colonial roots.Instead, travel writing is now a potent vehicle of cultural critique, and contemporary travel writers have become more subject-oriented.Their experiences frequently result from a personal drive to resolve internal problems about home and belongings.For Korte (2003), dealing with one's home is more pressing for many postcolonial travelers, and the hunt for home is their primary motivation to travel.
In 2001, Netzly's study (as cited in Kelley, 2017) accentuated that travel is often viewed in many societies as a male activity while women traveling is frowned upon and only acceptable when accompanied by any male family member.Among Asian women travelers, these companions are classi�ied into distinctive subcategories as accompanying wives or concubines, or domestic workers (Clark and Smethurst, 2008).Muslim women, before the mid-twentieth century, traveled to ful�ill religious duty and to seek (rihla), employment, and leisure, accompanied by a mahram (either a father, brother, or husband) for safeguarding (Poopale Ratthinan & Selamat, 2018).
While travel writing encompassed baf�ling forms (Thompson, 2011), Fussel (1982) essentially categorized travel writing into three categories: 1) exploration for the explorer; 2) travel for the traveler; and 3) tourism for the tourist, who produces a "travel book" for each journey.
Fussell then drew our attention to understanding what real travel is.Fussell maintained that while all explorers, travelers, and tourists embark on journeys, their motives for doing so vary.Explorers seek undiscovered territories and mainly focus on adventures, while tourists, as products of mass production, typically travel for relaxation and consumption.Travelers, however, mediate between the two and retain the excitement of the unpredictable (the explorer) while enjoying the pleasure of knowing where one is at any moment (the tourist).From this, Fussell considered the travelers as the ones who realize "true" travel, and the best travelers are the travel writers who can hold inconsistent ideas altogether and regard themselves as serious persons or clowns.Thus, Fussell de�ines the travel writing produced by the traveler as "a sub-species of memoir in which the autobiographical narrative arises from the speaker's encounter with distant or unfamiliar data" (1982, p. 203).He conceded that the narrative mode interweaves the inner and outer world of the travel writers, thereby, representing the writer's craft (Thompson, 2011).
In the Philippines, Jose Rizal extensively wrote about his travels in his diary and even contributed an article on the subject titled Los Viajes ("Jose Rizal," n.d.).However, Hidalgo (2015) claimed that there was no tradition of travel writing in the Philippines apart from the writings of Nick Joaquin, Kerima Polotan, and Maria Paz Mendoza-Guazon.
From the contemporary ideas of travel writings being subject-oriented and driven by personal drive to search for home and belonging (Ropero, 2012;Korte, 2003) and Fussell's conception of the intent of travel, this paper examines �ifteen selected travel narratives written by Filipino women to classify each according to Fussell's categorization and/or determine if they fall into a different category.

Methodology
This qualitative research utilized textual analysis to address questions concerned with understanding the meaning and experience dimensions of humans (Fossey, et al., 2016).Moreover, the study utilized textual analysis which emphasized processes of deconstruction in exploring the structure of the fifteen selected travel narratives written by Filipino women.The selection of these texts is influenced by Hidalgo's (2015) assertion that Philippine travel writing is relatively a new genre.These contemporary selected texts written in different decades are then classified according to Fussell's (1982) typographies, and those that did not fall in the said typographies are typified using grounded theorizing (Glaser & Strauss, 1967;Strauss & Corbin, 1990).Grounded theory, on the other hand, is utilized in the study to address other types of travel writings in Philippine literature that cannot fit the categories by Fussell.Grounded theory, in addition to Fussell's classifications, was utilized in the study to address other types of travel writings in Philippine literature that did not fit the categories determined by Fussell.Grounded theory is a systematic induction method aimed toward theory development (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).The main thrusts of this theory are its methodological strategies to construct middlelevel theories directly from data analysis and the inductive theoretical thrust central to its logic.The resulting analyses provide focused, abstract, conceptual theories that explain the studied empirical foundation (Lewis-Beck et al., 2004).Using grounded theorizing contrasts with other research approaches concerned with validating or describing the preconceived hypothesis.Findings are tightly connected since the theory relies on collected data to discover the outcome.To help ensure that the collected data is sufficient to explain the findings, the researcher continues to collect more data and only ends if theoretical saturation is reached.Theoretical saturation refers to the point at which additional data adds no insight into the theory created from the analysis.The strategies for analysis are a very open-ended methodology that enables the researcher to stay structured and analytical in the discovery process (The Practical Guide, n.d.).Such strategies would subject the data to three types of coding observed when grounded theorizing (Strauss & Corbin, 1990): open coding, in which the data are analyzed broadly and categories begin to be identified; axial coding, in which the categories and sub-categories are developed based on further observation and analysis of the data; and selective coding, in which the categories are unified under a core category.

Results and Discussion
With the purpose of classifying the fifteen selected travel writings using Fussell's categorization and the intent of travel, Table 1 outlines the categories of the selected travel writings by Filipino women according to author and title.It must be noted that, from the analysis, some narratives fall under more than one category of Fussell's classification.

Classification of Selected Travel Writings by Filipino Women
The succeeding discussion explains how each selected travel narrative is classified according to the categorization of Fussell.
The Traveler Verdolaga's (2012) Island Girl recounts her travel experiences as a Filipino woman in Tokyo, Zurich, Rome, London, and other places, not just as a tourist but also as part of her work.Before traveling, Verdolaga thought that she was the "…proverbial island girl" who lives on one of the many islands (p.8) and believes that she is far from the "tall and tan, young and lovely" women described in Jobin's The Girl From Ipanema song.However, when she started traveling, she realized that being a Filipino woman is a factor for male foreigners being drawn to her.Some of Verdolaga's travel encounters include: being mistaken as a bar girl in Tokyo; being offered chocolates by an older man in Zurich; her girlfriend being pinched from behind by a good-looking man in a crowded bus in Rome; and being dismissed by a British after determining that her appearance is not the "stereotypical exotic Asian woman," but when dressed professionally as part of her work, men avoided her.In hindsight, she thinks: "But despite the layers of Westernize clothing and faux/real animal skin accessories, I'm still the island girl, albeit older and wiser.Still wearing beads and shells, still trawling the seven seas" (p.13).
Verdolaga's essay is classified under the traveler category because it details her encounters with distant and unfamiliar things and her narratives revealing a form of "selfdiscovery of her womanhood." Reyes' (1999) Manila: Spirit of Anarchy appeared in Times Travel Library (1990).As a travel magazine editor, Reyes travels for a living.Since her travels are funded, she confesses that these are relatively quick and tense because she has to stick to a strict timetable for her travel.Afterward, she must write a feature story with lovely photos and her impressions of these places.Reyes's essay reveals her impression of the execrable Manila traffic and the Filipinos in general.The narrative shows a factual, objective description of the metropolis and its people: vehicles moving at a snail's pace, overloaded jeepneys with loud stereos, long lines of commuters, fruit vendors appearing everywhere, scattered sidewalk vendors, elder men urinating on brick walls, and a woman shouting after being honked at by a car ---the chaotic scene goes on.Reyes' narrative also reveals her thoughts and feelings reflecting the interweaving of her inner and outer worlds; thus, classifying the essay under the traveler category:

Such are the everyday jams and rituals of survival in metropolitan Manila, the sprawling, brawling capital, and primate city of the (What a country!) Philippine archipelago of 7,107 islands. Manila's populace of nine million Filipinos improvise big city lives amid the urban hordes, the urban pollution, and the execrable urban traffic-managing to cope with uncommon patience and cheerful optimism [emphasis added] (p. 201-202).
Traveler, Tourist Ocampo's (2000) Chance Encounter recounts her unusual encounter with a stranger on a plane after attending a writers' workshop with side trips in Myanmar.Fussell (1982) argues that often tourists are prepared for an ultimate encounter of "placelessness"the airport and then proceed to the airplane.The airplane or the "�lying cigar" whose interior has uniform furniture and �ittings alongside the routinary fastening and loosening of seat belt experiences con�ine the tourists.Ocampo admits that although most �lights are uneventful, sitting next to a stranger can be engaging or can hold unexpected outcomes.She experienced this situation when she sat next to a grubby-looking man who turned out to be a Physics professor and a freelance photographer.Their conversation became engaging as the man willingly shared information about his life, especially his photography.She believes that the two of them shared something special in that encounter.Ocampo's essay is classi�ied under the traveler category since she conversed and not simply chatted with her seatmate.Her conversation revealed her inner thoughts as manifested in the statement: "[p]erhaps there is something about long �lights that makes it easier to tell one's story to a stranger, someone with no biases about you, some you may never meet again" (p.220).Lim's (2018) Cave of Wonder is first classified under the tourist category because the initial intent of the travel is to see the underground river of Sabang, Palawan.The narrative is a continual flashback of Lim's past and then navigating back to the present moment.The opening narrative shows Lim recalling her first-ever dangerous journey (or so she believed it to be).It discusses her interest in traveling, her relationship with her mother, and her coming to terms with "motherhood."These thoughts flow in the narrative, simultaneously informing the readers that Lim is journeying with her child to the desired destination.Lim thought: "It wasn't so much the dangers of falling that magnified the perils of that waterway; it was all the inconveniences that came after, that deviation from daily schedule that a single mother simply didn't have the time for" (p.60).
The labels Lim accepts for herself are traveler, artist, and activist "[b]ut not Mother.Certainly not Mother.There was such permanence to it" (p.62).While threading the waters in the cave, Lim comes to terms with "motherhood" when she reflects on her mother and her dealings with her daughter while they are visiting the cave: Perhaps this is my own mother's secret to numb out the overwhelming perpetuity of the word: Mother.What can be done at this moment?All the other dangers are for another day's walk…I tell my daughter in a syrupy tone I don't recognize how the cave was really a home to mermaids, the ones she saw in her movies relaxing on riverbanks and lagoons, brushing their hairs, playing their lyres.They only reside in places as pure as Palawan (p.69).
The essay reveals Lim's inner and outer world while traveling, thus, it also belongs under the traveler category.Lim's essay further shows a conscious attempt at her "selfhood" which corresponds to Thompson's (2011) idea that travel writing is a way by which writers express the dimensions of "their inner world of thought and feeling, and to reach an understanding of the influences and circumstances that shaped them" (p.104).Laling Lim's (2000) Traveling with a Wheelchair is classified under the traveler and tourist categories as some of her travel accounts to being a tourist.These narratives are not only for social awareness or the pleasure of posing as a member of any social class, instead, they reflect features belonging to the traveler category.Lim recounted her trips to different places and she experienced mobility issues due to her physical disability to the extent of feeling shamed.For instance, she experienced being brought down in her wheelchair secured by a rope at the Palawan airport, or fighting with the crew to get on a plane in Korea.Apart from her disability, Lim encounters hardship for simply being a woman.She narrates that once, some Koreans refused to discuss business with her.They feel uncomfortable talking to a woman executive, especially one who is disabled.They signified that they would rather talk to her male manufacturing engineer.These incidents Lim went through affirm Fussell's (1987) claim that traveling has its travails; however, for Lim, even with her disability, traveling could be enjoyable, a challenging game to solve yet could be turned into an unusual memory (Lim, 2000).Ordonez's (2000) Bali on My Soul's episodic re-arrangement of memory is apparent in Ordoňez (2000) essay Bali on My Soul which describes her "magical journey" in Bali as she is being reminded by the balsam wood carving.After attending a school-paid conference, Ordoňez and her companions toured Bali, stopping at an arts-and-crafts shop to buy souvenirs.The wood carving was a gift by Rachman to her which was delivered to the hotel where she was staying.She engaged in a whirlwind romance with Rachman, having been swept off her feet by the charm of both the Indonesian man and Bali.She narrates, Misty Bali had cast a total spell upon me, quenching my thirsty soul.Here I had found only courtesy and Old-World charm, no rough talk.Here I found a quiet smile and a desire to please, no self-importance.Here was a haven in which thoughts could turn the meaning of life, a pause that allowed contemplation of the good in each of us, a turning to God for peace and happiness (p.185).
The above excerpt illustrates an out-oflife, momentary experience for Ordońez -a distinct and meaningful one.
While in Manila, Ordońez makes a wistful of her time in Bali: Back in Manila, I have resumed my daily routine of going through my "to-do" lists.But at the end of the day, I allow myself to sit quietly on the sofa and gaze lovingly upon my beloved Balinese carving.In silence, the lady seems to invite me to close my eyes, bow my head, and return in spirit to that mystical place called Bali, and to the man who, I suppose, carves endlessly to create her Balinese mate (p.186).
Ordoňez's narrative validates Cooke's (2015) contentions that travel writing often presents more transformative experiences, and journeys of self-discovery are the most powerful forms.
Traveler, Explorer Fansler's (2000) Marketing Meandering narrates her travel to the various markets of Singapore, Seoul, and Madrid.Fansler's fascination with markets began as a young girl accompanying her mother to the market of Baguio.For her, markets are the best site to peek at a country's culture.Fansler finds excitement in many things in the marketplace -various fresh produce, livestock, market opening and closing time, and even the language.Her narrative aligns with Fussell's contention that a traveler combines the excitement of exploring new things and having the pleasure of knowing where one is.He further puts forward that travel writing is funny because the worst trips are the best reading.This is reflected in one of Fansler's amusing encounter in a market in Seoul where she had trouble speaking the new language, struggling to say "two" in Korean when she attempted to share that she had two sons.The merchandiser assumed she was talking about a fish or fowl until she used her fingers to demonstrate the word "two."From then on, she had refrained from talking about her sons, only conversing about fish and poultry with the market folk.In an encounter in Madrid, Fansler experienced poripos or flattery from a group of older men, which immensely cheered her.This undoubtedly illustrates that Fansler is a travel writer.Fussell (1982) also defines an explorer as someone who seeks undiscovered territories and focuses on adventures.By the term 'adventure' or the unusual and exciting experience, the researcher further extends the definition of explorer to the expression of the traveler's subjective experience (Korte, 2003).In Mary Kingsley's Eothen, Korte (2003) draws our attention to the narrative of travel by which the marking of sights and objective information are no longer dominant in the narrative, instead, it expands to a presentation of the act of traveling itself.For example, the moments of enthusiasm that Kingsley felt about fire, food, drink, and so on.
As shown in Table 1, Fansler's essay is further classified under the explorer category.Fansler's narrative numerously reveals the traveler's subjective experience: "Exploring markets and learning about the people in our host countries through their eating and buying habits then became a passion and a game" (p.118).Fansler also shared similar feelings of discovery in various trips in the markets of Singapore and Korea.
Traveler, Explorer, Tourist Zafra's (2007) New York essay describes her trip to New York.First, to attend a seminar at Yale and then to take a "side trip" to the state's famed landmarks.Zafra's writing reveals both the internal and external journey of the traveler herself.This is evident in her description of her thoughts and feelings toward New York and America in general: We agreed that the melting pot metaphor does not quite apply to America.Other metaphors were proposed, including the salad bowl---the tossing of the national roughage, the popcorn popper, and the oil refinery…New York City as the metaphor for the immigrant experience----filthy, smelly, squalid, noisy, exciting, strange, and familiar at the same time (p.17).
Zafra's narrative style of writing is humorous and colored with irony that demonstrates what Fussell calls the "ironic experiences" of a traveler.For instance, Zafra comments on the food in Yale's cafeteria.

The food is beyond awful, it is 100 percent flavor free… Perhaps the general blandness of their cuisine is what spurred Americans to become the most powerful country on earth -they have to dominate something to take their minds off dinner. The Pinoy situation is the reverse, we love food and spend so much time preparing and enjoying it, who has time to conquer the world? (Hey, a new excuse for my zero culinary skills: I'm working on universal domination.") (p. 65-66).
Juxtaposed with the amusing retelling of her experiences while on board a train is Zafra's shock at being discriminated against because of her skin color.Zafra's writing is categorized under traveler as she can present both amusing and serious ideas in her narratives, and it also openly accounts for her thoughts and feelings (Fussell, 1982).
Zafra's writing also falls under the explorer category.Apart from documenting sights and sharing objective information, Zafra's travel likewise exhibits the act of travel as her subjective expression.She compares her adventures to those of Holden Caulfield from The Cather in the Rye.She sees many similarities between her experiences and Holden's while in New York.In addition, Zafra recounts other adventurous experiences: missing her stop while on an express train; exploring a museum with her friend Splatter and stopping at Central Park; taking unplanned trips with her sister to Bronx, Harlem, Queens, Brooklyn, and others.Hidalgo's (1992) Europe Through the Eyes of a Filipina English Major essay begins with a narrative of her European tour; thus, it is initially classified under the tourist category.Knowing they could not return to the same place again, tourists often do not miss visiting famous landmarks.This tendency, Fussell (1982) asserts, makes the tourists' senses function merely to "sight and taste."In her essay, Hidalgo narrates her sightseeing trips to cathedrals, bridges, masterpieces, and other sites and is awed by the multiplicity of these objects.She describes the feeling as "a whirl of sensations," quoting from James Fenimore Cooper (p.33).Hidalgo moreover mentions tasting various delicacies that solidify her tourist ventures.All these activities are typical among tourists.In this regard, Hidalgo confesses how she hates being a tourist: "Actually, I do not make a good tourist.It's not that I do not like traveling.In fact, I think traveling is one of the most interesting and profitable ways of occupying one's time" (pp. 36-37).
What sets a tourist apart from a traveler, Fussell (1987) claims, is "the obsessions with things that are not travel" or "the mechanics of displacement, not object" (p.652).In Hidalgo's case, these are the theatrical Italian waiters, over charming Romanian servers, and the bully Italian tour guides whose actions are meant for the tourists' benefit.Tourists, Fussell continues (1982), experience travails often caused by "touts" -individuals who hound or lure tourists to patronize hotel shops and other establishments, which, in turn, reward them monetarily or with other privileges, and that tourist guides are also considered touts.Hidalgo and her companion had various encounters with touts.Moreover, Hidalgo's travail as being tourist includes being branded Asian terrorists by Italian border police, an almost snatched wallet by Italian women, and a stolen camera.Such unfortunate incidents validate Fussell's (1982) contention that travel held high hopes of misadventures.
Hidalgo's essay displays the aesthetic ideals of a travel writer qualified for both the interior, sentimental, and exterior voyage, which includes descriptions of scenery and other such things (Fussell, 1982).Hidalgo also comments that Eastern travelers, both abroad and in their homeland, look at things through the Western eyes because of their studies or reading of travel books often written by Western travel writers.She opines that what seems exotic to Westerners when they visit the East is perfectly normal for the locals.Thus, Hidalgo maintains, We should write our own travel books, and we should write about what we find exotic, which, naturally, is the West.And the things which we will find funny or odd will probably seem perfectly commonplace to the western person (p.32).
Hidalgo also comments on the French influence on Filipino culture, which is less evident than that of the American or Spanish.
The travel writing of Hidalgo, additionally, is classified under explorer, as shown in Table 1, because it recounts her wanderingsstumbling upon locations less visited by typical tourists and witnessing unusual scenes.These things express the traveler's subjective experience or the act of traveling other than objective information (Korte, 2003).

Other Classifications of the Selected Travel Narratives
Six of the fifteen selected works do not fit in any of Fussell's classifications.Through grounded theorizing, the study created four classifications based on the writer's intent to travel: 1) escapee/convalescent, 2) backpacker, 3) pilgrim, and 4) labor worker.These new categories are presented in the same table (Table 1).
The succeeding discussion explains the reasons for the categorization of each narrative.

The Escapee/Convalescent
Travel writings and life writings were previously viewed as distinct in form, but Cooke (2015) insisted that there are no blurry differences between the two.Cooke maintained that "one of the self-evident but crucial features of travel writing as life writing is that it tends to concern the self when away, abroad, elsewhere, focusing on encounters more than relationships" (p.76).This feature of travel writing as life writing is observed among contemporary travel writers (Hulme, 2002).
Cooke also emphasized that the spatial dislocation in life writing has a "temporal" counterpart, unlike autobiography and biography which presents a "cradle-to-grave (or cradle-to-present)" account for it "focus[es] on a portion of life."Thus, travel writing is sometimes an excursion, an episode in life distinct yet resonant to a life story as a whole.Another feature of travel writing as life writing, Cooke continued, is that the form follows "a non-chronological or episodic (re) arrangement of memory -the journey, rather than the life, provides the structural momentum"(p.83-84).Conversely, Benson and O'Reilly (2016) used the term "lifestyle migration" to mean not specifically the writing but the "lifestyle choices of individuals who are anti-modern, escapist, [having] self-realization projection, [and in] search of the intangible good life" (p. 1).Benson and O'Reilly (2016) contend that "lifestyle migration" emphasizes "the escape, escape from somewhere and something, while simultaneously an escape to self-fulfillment and new life" (p.3).
It is with the above consideration in mind that the life writing of Ledesma (2000), Ordońez (2000), Panlilio (2000), and Roque (2021) are grouped into the "escapee/convalescent" category since the intent of each travel as recounted in the essay is either to escape a current situation or to heal from ongoing emotional troubles or both.An escapee is a person who runs away from something, whereas a convalescent is a person who is recovering from an illness, often through relaxation.In contrast, Certeza's life writing narrative is categorized as "labor migrant" because her travel intends to find employment.Roque's (2021) How to Ride a Train in Ulaanbaatar is classified under the escapee/convalescent category.The narrative employs constant flashbacks of Roque's pastthe reason why she became an Overseas Migrant Worker (OFW) in China and its connection to the passing of her mother.Her recollection of the past spanning more than a decade of her life happens while she journeys to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.All her pent-up emotions and grief come rushing out after she misses her flight to Ulaanbaatar.Roque confesses that "[s]he cried for her stupidity; her loneliness; for being at the right place at the wrong time; for the familiar dread for being left behind yet again.She cried until crying turned to grief; she cried for her mother" (p.188).She reveals that her trip to China was her means of escaping from her grief due to her mother passing away: The year was 2008…when I registered to become an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW).I was there because my mother died.If she were alive, my father like to repeat, you wouldn't be allowed to travel alone, much more work to another country (p.191).The essay's ending manifests Roque's selfrealization: "Scientists say memories were never meant for nostalgia but survival; the last step.My vision began to blur.Eleven years after her death, I stopped crying for my mother and began crying for myself" (p.206).The author's narrative situates her journey with much of her personal history.In this sense, the journey serves as a narrative device by which the writer's entire life is brought to focus (Thompson, 2011).Ledesma's (2000) Flight Flight to Freedom life writing essay is within the escapee or convalescent category because it details her travels following a divorce.Even though it is spring in Manhattan, Ledesma feels that she is in a different season, reflecting her inner reality.She states: But my heart was still caught in the chill of a lingering pain.I had recently separated from my husband of 19 years and was suffering from a deep sense of loss.I was mourning the death, not so much of a marriage, as of the dreams we had dreamed together, dreams so real they had become a part of me.True to my upbringing, I never imagined it would happen to me.And certainly not at midlife.But there I was, 41 and single in New York (p.128).
Ledesma sees the hand-gliding lesson she participates in as a doorway toward freedom from others' expectations of her: To my grandmother, I had to be a saint, to my parents an achiever, to my husband the corporate wife, and to my children the pillar of strength.In this relentless maze of demands, I had lost my identity.Now with no role to play and alone in the capital of the world, I could finally hear my own voice and follow the prompting of my heart.I could begin to discover me (p.128-130).
The writer sees New York as the perfect place for her at this current stage of her life.While attempting to expand her horizon though, Ledesma in retrospect admits, I would sometimes feel an emptiness, or perhaps a circus-like quality to the frenzy of filling up my days.I was told that these were aspects of "the human condition," part of the package.The garbage came with the sky (p.132-133).
Ledesma's yearning for freedom is her metaphorical journey towards healing which only became a realization ten years after her hand-gliding experience when she meets Siddha Master and begins practicing meditation.Panlilio's (2000) Sonya's Secret Garden narrative is categorized as life writing, focusing mainly on escape and healing.The lunch date at Sonia's Garden in Tagaytay with Panlilio's two close friends, Nancy and Frances, is meant to get away from their emotional dilemmas momentarily: for Panlilio, it is her husband's recent death, while for Frances, it is her troubled marriage to her philandering spouse.They felt they needed a "change of scenery" (p.96).The narrative exemplifies a non-linear narrative or an "episodic (re) arrangement of memory" that focuses on a particular portion of one's life (Cooke, 2015, p. 77).
Panlilio recognizes the healing effect of the garden on her but, at the same time, observes Frances's struggle because the starkness of the space is seemingly heightening her friend's sadness.She states, "[d]espite my enchantment with Sonya's fanciful cottage, my heart went out to Frances" (p.100).Fortunately, their conversation over lunch makes Frances decide to start her own homecook business and declare, "I'm just going to reinvent myself…as Nancy and the absent Sonya herself have done" (p.104).Panlilio, in retrospect, acknowledges the transformative effect of the excursion: Little by little the bird makes its nest…One day at a time, this is enough…It was how I myself resolve to carry on with my now anchorless life.I knew Frances was as grateful to Nancy as I was for having convinced us to come and spend the day here in Sonya's Garden, allowing us to unlock the secret pains and fears imprisoned in our hearts (p.104).
Interestingly, women in gardens are often the subject of Victorian paintings that show the garden in closed spaces representing ulterior motives where the virtue of women, especially young ladies, is quintessential in this society (Célia, 2016).In this sense, the garden may be regarded as a metaphor for the lives of these women and the secrets they share.
The Backpacker Francisco's (2012) Stranger People is placed in the backpacking or backpacker category.Backpacking is a form of modern tourism combined with long-distance travel, utilization of affordable accommodation and transportation, and extensive social connections and networking popular among young adults as an initiation to adulthood (Noy, 2016).Backpacking has unique characteristics and a degree of heterogeneity, setting it apart from typical tourism.Noy's (2004Noy's ( , 2006) ) studies show that the trip is framed as a rite of passage whereby backpackers give accounts of how their travels have changed them individually.
Contrary to the romanticized idea of a lone traveler, backpackers participate in intense social connections that support a strong sense of community (Noy, 2016).This feature of backpacking is manifested in Francisco's essay.The beginning narrative of her essay states: "Never talk to strangers."It was a constant warning from her mother when she was a child.This incessant warning was ingrained in her, which led her to become reclusive, sticking to only her family and other people she knew.Francisco reveals, "[i]t was only when I started to backpack, that I discovered that not all strangers coveted the whopping 150 pesos in my wallet" (p.58).As a backpacker, she then recounts her memorable encounters with various strangers, and from these encounters, Francisco conceives this change within her: "…my encounter with strangers have helped me stop looking at them as mass murderers and take them as what they are---just some strange, strange characters who can teach me a thing or two about the world" (p.59).Francisco concludes that a stranger is a friend she has not yet met, who happens to be a considerable part of backpacking because the experience is more than just about the sights, sounds, and tastes; it also involves the people one encounters.

The Pilgrim
Sun-Cua's (2018) The Holy Shroud: A Pilgrimage to Turin is classified as a pilgrim's writing.The practice of pilgrimage among Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Shintoists predates antiquity (Guzik, n.d.)."Pilgrims" are typically thought of as devout individuals leaving their homes for religious reasons; however, contemporary pilgrimage increasingly includes travel to locations that are not religious such as the graves of renowned persons or dead soldiers, disaster sites, monuments, buildings, or landmarks of cultural and national significance often parts of tourists' itineraries (Mendel, 2010).A pilgrimage allows one to escape to unfamiliar surroundings, releasing the individual from daily social routines.Sun-Cua's narrative recounts her travel to the famed Holy Shroud in Turin making the trip a pilgrimage.For Turner and Turner (1995), this temporary phase of escape or liminal phenomenon results from social interactions free from hierarchical restraints with the involved individual undergoing "communitas" or anti-structure setting opposition to one's mundane life.
Moreover, Coleman and Eade's (2004) study about pilgrimage examines the movement to and movement at sites (and sometimes from sites) and, in some instances, traces how "mobile performances can help to construct---however temporary -sacred charged places" (p.3).For instance, the implicit stories depicted on altars, ex-votos, paintings, etc.-the images depicted on the said objects convey 'movement' yet do not necessarily show movement per se.In the case of Sun-Cua's travel, the object is "The Holy Shroud" believed to be the linen used by Joseph of Arimathea to wrap Jesus' body when He was brought down from the cross.While beholding the life-sized reproduction of the Holy Shroud, Sun-Cua conveys the 'movement' through the implicit stories depicted through the linen as follows: In black and white but sharper now, a distinct countenance with its eyes could be clearly limned.The subject's face was bruised and its nose, fractured.The bony hands and feet had old bloodstains and wounds.But was struck me most the facial expression: sad, desolate, and seeming reproachful (p.39).
Gothic atmosphere, indeed, as my imagination galloped wildly.The hairs on my neck stood on end as I contemplated the vision in front of me.I forced myself to turn around to look for Alex and nearly collided with him, as he was also standing behind me, looking wide-eyed at the blackand-white depiction.Was this the real thing or not?A popular devotion to the Holy Shroud had grown, and to believers, it was real (p.40).
Sun-Cua's narrative also accounts for contemporary pilgrimage as she visited other sites such as the statue of King Vittorio Emanuele with two women statues representing Faith and Religion, Mole Antonelliana, and medieval stone bridges, among others.Bewitched by the stone paths in River Po, Sun-Cua professes "[w]e felt as if we did not have any care in the world, and there was no need to hurry anywhere.We gave thanks for these moments of quiet and grace" (p.43).

The Labor Worker
Certeza's (2012) Curiouser and Curiouser essay details her lived travel experience as a labor worker in New Zealand.As defined by International Labor for Migration, labor workers are those who move for employment as opposed to "migrant workers" who move from one country to another, intending to find employment other than being on their own in the new land (Simon et al., 2015).The narrative style of the essay does not directly associate the experience with the author but rather with the fictional character Alice in Wonderland.
She meets White Rabbit and Mad Hatter who offer her guidance on looking for work.Since she is an immigrant, both advise her to "start low" and make herself "little" leading Certeza, as Alice, to react by saying, "What a curious feeling!...I was never so small as this before, never!" (p.54).Heeding the advice, she was able to secure a job interview, but it turned out to be an unpleasant encounter.The interviewer criticized her work experiences in multinational advertising companies and that her English is not the same as that spoken in New Zealand.Her unpleasant experience continues with her encounter with two young men while on a stroll.She then decides to return to the Philippines, telling herself, "Better madness at home than this misadventure in Wonderland" (p.56).The narrative gives the impression that Certeza's personal travel experiences have emotionally impacted her (Thompson, 2011) negatively.Certeza's narrative is a life writing with employment as the primary intent of travel; hence, the essay is more specifically classified as labor migrant writing.

Conclusion
The types of the selected travel writings of Filipino women authors vary based on the intent of travel, although all these writings re�lect the interweaving of their inner and outer worlds while they travel -whether for pleasure, escape, work, healing, or other reasons.A number of the selected essays fall under the three categories by Fussell (1982) -explorer, tourist, and traveler; however, a few do not adhere to any of these classi�ications.These "unaccommodated" essays were then subjected to the principles of Grounded theory, getting assigned a category after saturation coding focused on the traveler writer's intent of travel, along with the characteristics of the travel narrative.
The travel writings of Lim (2018), Verdolaga (2012), Fansler (2000), Zafra (2007), Hidalgo (1992), Lim (2000), Ocampo (2000), and Reyes (1999) are categorized under Fussell's traveler category since these travel writings exhibit the writers' intertwined inner and outer worlds.Their inner world reveals their subjective thoughts and feelings mixed with factual and objective descriptions of their outer world.As to the intent of travel, most of these writers go on trips because of work; they only travel for leisure once their work is done.When traveling as "tourists," they are often in the company of friends and relatives.
However, they distinguish themselves from ordinary tourists as they "see" things differently, as shown through their insightful observations and comments in their narratives.
Even though these travel writers travel for work, they take advantage of the opportunities to go on side trips and end up becoming tourists in the locations they initially visit for work.For the said reason, the travel writings of Lim (2018), Zafra (2007), Hidalgo (1992), Lim (2000), andOrdońez (2000) are also categorized under the tourist category.
The travel writings of Zafra (2007), Hidalgo (1998), andFansler (2000) are classi�ied under the explorer category.According to Fussell, an explorer looks for uncharted territory and concentrates on the adventure, that is, the unusual and exciting experience in the place.This study extends the de�inition of explorer to the expression of the traveler's subjective experience as, according to Korte (2003), the narrative presents the act of traveling itself rather than the usual dominant details of sight and factual information.
Through grounded theorizing, the travel writing of Francisco ( 2012) is placed within the backpacker type.Backpacking, usually done by young people, is distinctive because it accounts for how backpackers 'travels changed them.In the case of Francisco, backpacking changed her previously held notion that "strangers" are not to be trusted and, thus, she should not socialize with them.Another created category is "pilgrim" under which the travel writing of Sun-Cua (2018) belongs.This type of writing accounts for the writer's intent to pilgrimage to any religious or non-religious sites (Mendel, 2010).
An additional category established is "life writings," more speci�ically, escapee/ convalescent.The travel writings of Roque (2021), Ledesma (2000), Panlilio (2000), Ordońez (2000), and Certeza (2012) are all placed under life writings since they focus more on the writer's introspections of what is going on with her life.These "life writing" essays are further grouped under the escapee/convalescent category because their travel intent is to escape their emotional predicament and be able to heal along the way.For Roque, she traveled to escape her grief after her mother's passing; for Ledesma, to escape others' expectations of her after a divorce and heal from her emotional hurt; and for Panlilio, to heal the pain of her husband's loss.Although Ordonez's (2000) essay is identi�ied as life writing because of the episodic arrangement of the narrative related to a "whirlwind romance" memory, her writing is, nevertheless, classi�ied under the traveler category because her travel intention is related to her work.Certeza's (2012) essay is also identi�ied as life writing but categorized into the labor worker group because her intent of travel is to seek employment.
Fussell's categorizations of travel writing proved to be quite limited, unable to accommodate the more contemporary travel narratives in the selection.Employing Grounded theory allowed the researcher to create classi�ications for these contemporary narratives.Travel writing is a protean genre, and considering globalization, other types or sub-types of the genre can be explored.The study only dealt with travel essays yet there are travel poems by Filipino poets and travel blogs by Filipino professionals, journalists, and