Passion on Traveling

If there's a way I could travel the world freely without having to think of resources, time and obligations, then consider me the luckiest person in the world. It's not a quote. It's just me.

I love to travel. I love it so much that I've made it one of my top three goals for 2010. I want this year to be full of happy memories and experiences brought by traveling. I want to move around and rediscover culture, people, food, sights and places. I want to escape my life from time to time and recuperate. I always come out better whenever I travel. It's tried and tested. I've already gone beyond reading this time. Now I'm seriously moving.

It was just ironic that I was born in a family that aren't travelers. They are more identified as tourists. They don't like moving around that much. They are comfort zone eaters.. For them, traveling is intangible, a worthless piece of emotional and physical investment that is a waste of time and energy. That's why whenever we go somewhere maybe out of obligation or a need for a bonding moment, I take advantage of it no matter how limiting it's always been. I just make the most out if it and move around meaningfully. I try my best to encourage them to skip the usual activities and instead make our own, but sadly I'm always outnumbered. I just like to discover new things until I was old enough to plan and pay for my own trips. For the past couple of years, I had commendable self-initiated travel expeditions that introduced this hobby of mine to a goal then passion. For now, I've decided to go ahead full blast. Resources or with no resources, next to writing, I'm now fulfilling my destiny to travel.

I know now that traveling is not that glamorous. It's not about booking the first class hotel and scheduling yourself in the hands of a tourist guide. Although it helps sometimes if the need is to relax, disappear and if your mind is burned out, but traveling for me always starts from scratch. It starts whenever I search the internet. It happens when I study the history, sights and places that I want to see. It starts when I've decided on where to go and how I would want to go there. The road less traveled is always better. Commute than hire a guide. I may not be a fan of walking around my own neighborhood, but rest assured I would walk around, ride public transportation and get dirty when traveling. In traveling, one has to be vulnerable on these things to properly discover what we need to discover. Walking around the block and noticing how people talk and converse is something not included in the tour package. Walking at 6 am, riding the train and going to the other part of the island to have breakfast, is a surrender to spontaneity and endless discovery. Being in the middle of a crowded place in a foreign land is the best place to be. Traveling is getting to know the country, the culture and everyday life better and unfortunately it's not entirely about luxury.

Since traveling is not always glamorous, secure and predictable, it's enough to scare the penniless control freak any day. But traveling should be flexible. It need not be expensive. The demands make it more expensive, not traveling. The difference is, the traveler is flexible while the tourist only works and depends on a certain budget.

Traveling also opens my mind to rediscover new things and to rediscover myself. Traveling is more internal than external. It made me discover that I have the capability to walk 12 hours non-stop because I know that whenever I see new sights, breathe that scent of foreign land, see how people go about their normal lives, the pain automatically washes away. I know because it happened to me. Traveling makes me feel such a child who doesn't know anything, but coming out of the experience would make me wiser and more open to accept differences.

Traveling is also a certified therapy for me. There are days when I want to escape and expose myself to new and positive energy. Traveling has always been the answer. Other people might have shopping, some may have sports and racing, while I let off steam by Traveling. It occupies the mind with visuals and senses too much that I couldn't think of anything else. It transfers me to peek on a new life and tickle my imagination. It's always a liberating experience to be able to compare and learn your way in a land that isn't familiar to you.

If I could do this forever, I would. If I have a good amount of resources right now, I most definitely would visit even the remotest of places just to eat their local bread and embrace the scenery. I would resign from my job and entirely devote myself in making my own itineraries and I'm sure I would learn more than ever. Traveling may have started as a simple hobby, but now it's my new passion.

January 2010 Travel Kickoff

New Year means quarter-end for most companies; and quarter-end isn't fun for most of us. It's a matter of consolidating crucial reports, meeting deadlines and attending to things you happily and carelessly left last December. More work and more action should boost your January, at the same time you have this undeniably painful phase of transitioning from vacation to work.

Just as I have predicted, schedules have gone crazy since Monday. Conference calls are non-stop since people from all over the globe want to reconnect and get the job done. This results to late night office hours and sometimes pulling more than 12 hours shift. There's the intense pressure on reports generation just because the period is crucial. There's little room for delay and for mistakes. Saturday is even considered a workday for us, at least for this month. Now, I'm just enjoying my one day rest, my weekend or whatever's left of it.

But there are things that keep me up and constantly put me in a better mood. Splashing to a pool of ice is better once you know there's a happy end to it. And to kick off nicely for the year 2010, I have 2 grand vacations planned and sealed.


JANUARY 15 - 19: Cebu, 2010 SINULOG FESTIVAL



Ah, Sinulog, undeniably the most popular fiesta of the archipelago. It happens nowhere else but in my birthplace and second home, Cebu City. It's been a long time since my last Sinulog Festival. I always go home to Cebu every Christmas or Summer and literally miss Sinulog. It was just this once in Gradeschool when I had a weekend vacation with my mom that I had to experience old-school Sinulog full of face painting, dancing and eating like crazy. I remember my uncles letting me ride on their backs as we dance on the street with the beat of the drums. It was colorful, it was fun. It's a shame that I've constantly missed it.

Now is the start of my rediscovery of the new age Sinulog. They say it wasn't like before when people were just wild with happiness, minus the robberies and chaos. The officials had to regulate it somehow. I'm sure most people go there for the parties not because of the hot, crowded parade, the same thing that draws tourists. Although I'm really not particular with parties, I just want to experience the parade once more and go home to where I know I would be able to relax after all these post New Year work stress. If memory serves me right, nothing beats this fiesta. Nothing beats Sinulog Festival. I can't wait

PIT SENYOR!


JANUARY 28-31: Hongkong - Macau

And to officially close the first month of the new year, I'm scheduled to fly and have a fun vacation with my sister and a friend to Hongkong and Macau. I've been to this place before with my parents. Hongkong was my first overseas trip way before States, Bali and Singapore became possibilities. I remember Hongkong to be cold, full of walking, grouchy people and of course dimsum! It's a place that has a great language barrier, but a place I think I could live in. I love the fast paced environment and modernity and language could be easily learned.

remember my mom shopping non-stop in Jade Market, though I don't remember us taking trains. I remember Ocean Park and watching my mom as she punches a calculator in front of the salesperson. Now, I'm going to revisit it as an adult after so many years. Technically, I'm back to zero. I have to do my research.



Also, aside from Hongkong we are set to visit Macau, a neighboring country of HK. Macau is known to be the Vegas of Asia and that would mean lights and five star hotels. Intensive research is still to be done.

I don't know how we would fit everything in three short days. I even have no idea where to get winter clothes.

One of my goals this year is to save up and plan my travels accordingly. No more redundancy and no more getting easily swayed. This is my year and this year is full of meaningful vacations. May this be a promising start!