To be honest, compared to the many inspired and motivated people I know or read about, I don’t have a New Year’s resolution or a big, hairy goal for 2013. (These people have my admiration.) Perhaps later I will have one of those goals that so excite me I can’t sleep, much like the time…
I read somewhere that once in your life, if you are lucky, you will meet that person who will forever divide your life into the time before you met him or her, and the time after. Such is the impact of that person in changing your life. This 2012, it was not a person for…
One of the reasons I travel is to be awed by the new and unfamiliar – to walk on alien landscapes, get lost in small towns, and meet strangers – who might even become friends. That is also part of why I look forward to Christmas. It’s the time of the year where my everyday…
How do you end a 7-week backpacking adventure that has changed you, humbled you, and left you in mute awe far too many times than you thought you deserve? I had no ready answer to that question. Just a little over 24 hours before my flight from Roxas, Capiz, back to Manila, I felt I had nothing…
I’ll be honest – Boracay was not part of my “must-go-to” list. I had always thought of Boracay as a party place, and partying, while appreciated, is not exactly my top priority when traveling. When it comes to beaches, I usually prefer unspoiled, sometimes even isolated ones – the likes of Danjugan Island, one of…
There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet. ~William Butler Yeats At no time did this saying feel truer in my life than when I traveled solo for nearly two months. Back then, I met strangers who accepted me as part of their family or as a friend. There were also strangers…
Our plane was about to land. I looked out the window, expecting to see city lights. Siem Reap was, after all, a city. Instead, I only saw blackness dotted with occasional yellows and whites. I later found out that the blackness was one of Siem Reap’s vast lakes. A tuktuk driver picked me and my…
“Come on, let’s walk barefoot.” I don’t remember who among my travel companions said it, but he/she said it as though we were going for a walk in the park, and not down a hill to a waterfall. On a muddy trail. And in rainy weather. I took off my trekking sandals. Our guide, still…
It was quiet, very quiet. All around me dark mahogany trees rose to the sky. I basked in the silence as I walked around and admired thick trunks and roots flowing like tiny rivers. The occasional patches of sunlight breaking through the canopy made the silent forest all the more magical. It was so beautiful…
Hot springs are love and therapy for the body, but aesthetically, sometimes they look all the same to me, especially when they are enclosed in swimming pools. Which is why I was in for a pleasant surprise when I made my way up Siraan Hot Spring in Anini-y, Antique. Siraan Hot Spring is on top…
Traveling Light 