"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us."
-Unknown

Sunday 5 January 2020

Travel Review 2019




2019.

It was a weird year for me, overall.

Weird because there were many surprising things that happened but were nonetheless pleasant; some twists and turns in 2019 served me right for my career growth.

But sticking to the niche of this blog, I’m surprised that 2019 has actually been a jam-packed year of traveling for me. It’s just that some of my travel stories didn’t make it to the blog because:

1. We’re valuing privacy and security and have opted to be shush about our whereabouts and,

2. If you’ve noticed, we’re choosing more tame itineraries that don’t involve whaleshark diving and cliff racing anymore because we’ve somehow become titos and titas of Zamboanga already. Our travel themes have somehow shifted from extreme to leisure. You can hear us talking about unplugging and detoxing already.

So here are the quick stats for 2019.


8- I left home eight times in 2019 for those personal travels. Including the official travel counts will undoubtedly increase and I can’t be bothered to count that too.

5- Of these are road trips. I’m surprised that people can withstand road trips that include crossing oceans just to get to island resorts.


In January, I spent New Year’s Day in Lakawon Island staring at the sunset wondering what’s to become of me and a huge task assigned to me in the workplace. Luckily, it all pulled off thanks to responsible people I can count on.



In April, C wanted to go to Samal Island so we made our way to Davao and Bukidnon and visited relatives in Balingasag and Jasaan. 



June was another out-of-town road trip to Cebu and Bohol with a special mission that involved taking my grandmother to Cebu in order for her to get home to Leyte. C drove us safely across with a crazy route, from Zamboanga to Dapitan to Cebu and we went as far as Bohol and vice-versa. Again full of stories but I didn't curate anything for the blog. (I'm still thinking about it though.)

In October I accompanied C to Manila and we (covertly) spent a few days immersing ourselves in the mountain city named Baguio. Our goal: detox. My goal: hoard succulents.



August is the highlight of my travel year though. It took us six flights, three cities, two countries and sooo many temples that I can’t again be bothered to count all of them in both Bangkok and Siem Reap



To end the year, my family went to Molave as an excuse to end the year and see the cold springs for ourselves-and we weren't disappointed. 

2020 has got to be another year of promise.

2020 plans for travel have yet to be cemented until after May, I’ve already planned out my vacations for the next six months, and for impromptu invitations, I always have to check with C and my family though- for reason number 1 and 2. And it’s always good to have company when traveling just in case something happens.

In summary, 2019 was about learning to slow down and unplug. I’m pretty grateful with the experiences this year, but I do know that there will be more to come in 2020. It’s a new decade after all and I trust the next chapter because I am the author.

Thank you for sticking with my travel stories. It’s going to be an exciting year ahead! 

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