| Vintage Travel Time photos with Susan Calo Medina in the foreground |
Nowadays, with the proliferation of so-called travel and lifestyle shows the journey Susan Calo Medina took still stands out as a benchmark for other travellers to emulate. I can still recall how many years ago I would watch her thirty-minute program and wonder how it would be nice to visit all these places she would go to each week. I even remember her moving from one station to another after a few months/years of being on air on a particular network.
Twenty-five years later, our dear Susan Calo-Medina is still at it. Just this past Saturday, I watched the episode (part II) of her tribute to the friends and people she has met over the years on the road. Some have reached the pinnacle of their success as national artists, government secretaries, institutions in the travel and hospitality industry. While others remain simple folk... the "little people" as it were who continue to do their work with a passion matching her own: farm owners, her own TV production crew, hotel workers, resort owners, tour operators, cooks, weavers, musicians and the list goes on...
| The gregarious Susan Calo- Medina |
I remember being in Power Plant Mall many years ago with another friend Leslie Noble. We were having lunch at CIBO and when we went out of the restaurant after our meeting Leslie saw Susan having coffee al -fresco and introduced me. I greeted her and told her: "I'm a fan of yours"... to which she responded with nothing more than a smile.
| SCM's Travel Time Magazine |
Little would I have known that that meeting would lead to better things. After I had arrived from the States about five years ago, I was starting anew and doing the rounds of interviews at different call centers. Leslie had begun working for Edu Jarque and they were working on a program to upgrade the standards of the local tour guides under the directive of then Secretary of Tourism Ace Durano. Leslie urged me to fill out an application form online and apply for a slot in the training of the MABUHAY GUIDES. The rest is history...
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| The people behind the Mabuhay Guides training: (seated) SCM, Niccola Evans, Roger Rajah (both London Blue Badge trainors with coordinators (standing) Ms Goya and Ms Issa |
Susan Calo-Medina's knack for finding out-of-the-way destinations, her knowledge in the arts and culture, her mastery of telling a story coupled with unforgettable images of the landscapes made me want to travel myself. And I have been fortunate to see the country on some national tours with Ballet Philippines. But to see this country alone without the knowledge I gleaned from the Travel Time episodes would have been incomplete.
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| The Mabuhay Guides with Lecturers Felipe de Leon Jr., and Jack Pilar at the National Museum steps |
My history background, coupled with my London Blue Badge training would not have been enough to become a Mabuhay Guide had I not been influenced by that TV show hosted by a virtual unknown that started out in a lesser known channel (IBC 13) twenty five years ago. Today, Travel Time has set a standard by which other shows can only hope to equal. It has also branched out with a Travel Magazine that's sold in the more popular bookstores.
Travel Time has captured its own niche of viewers who have remained loyal over a quarter of a century. As for me, I look forward to viewing it on lazy Saturday mornings after breakfast and a few cups of coffee...
*photos taken from image bucket and Bryan Ocampo's Filipino Tour Guide blog
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