Travel Blog

The Travellers’ Prayer

To interrupt briefly our Philippines travelogue, we just had to reproduce this. On a weather beaten old sign on the edge of Sagada village, there sits a sign with a prayer. This sign is too dilapidated to be legible in a photograph, so instead we reproduce the text of the sign here in full. There’s no doubt that the words will absolutely resonate with every traveller,  particularly the independent ones amongst us, and I dare say give everyone a smile….

Heavenly Father, look down on your humble, obedient servants who are doomed to travel this Earth, taking photographs, mailing postcards, buying souvenirs and walking around in drip dry underwear. We beseech you O Lord  to see our plane is not hijacked, our luggage is not lost and our overweight baggage goes unnoticed. Protect us from surly and unscrupulous taxi drivers, avaricious porters and unlicensed English speaking guides. 

Give us this day divine guidance in the selection of our hotel that we may find reservations honoured, our rooms made up, breakfast included and hot water running from taps.

We pray that the telephone works, operators speak our tongue and remember our morning calls for the sake of others on our tour. And that there is no mail from our children waiting for us which would force us to cancel the rest of our trip. 

Lead us dear Lord to good inexpensive restaurants where the food is superb, the waiters friendly and the wine served complimentary. Give us wisdom to tip correctly in currencies we do not understand. Forgive us for under tipping out of ignorance and over tipping out of fear. Make the locals love us for what we are and not for what we can contribute to their worldly goods. 

Grant us the strength to visit the museums, the cathedrals, the colonial houses, national parks and convict jails listed as “must see” in the guide books. And if by chance we skip a historical monument to take a nap after lunch, have mercy on us for the flesh is but weak.

Amen

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