Tips When You are Already Travelling

1. Try to remember the land marks while you are travelling. In this way whenever you are lost or you want to go back to that place, you can easily remember it.

2.    Always bring a guide map with you.

3.   Put all your important items like passport, money, camera inside your waist bag.

4.   Make sure that your waist bag should be tight enough so that it cannot be easily grab by anyone.

5.   Place your waist bag always in front of you.

6.  Always put a lock on your bag, back pack or shoulder bag while travelling at night.

7.   Don’t forget to have a contact number and address of the place you are staying just in case you encounter any problem you can call right away.

8.   Bring a copy of your passport and IDs always so you can present anytime when you are asked by the police or anyone in authority.

9.   Always bring your own water and vitamin C with you so that you won’t be dehydrated and easily get sick due to travel stress.  Children chewable vitamin C is best even if you are an adult.

10 .  Easily gets travel or motion sickness, always bring and drink travel sickness medicine an hour before travelling.

11 .  Don’t be ashamed to ask for directions from locals but make sure to ask someone whom you can trust to give you the proper direction.

12.  Be sensitive on the way of dressing, culture and traditions of the locals.

13. Learn some simple phrases of the local language to help you get by while travelling, like buying things, proper greetings, taking taxis and local transportation.

14 .  Know the exact rate of things and fares from one place to another to avoid overpaying.

15. For bargaining of prices when you buy something, always let the locals do it for you.

I’m Lost, HELP!!!

When I was in Hong Kong, one day, friend of my father invited me to visit their house and it’s an hour to be in their place. They had given me the instruction to get a train and they are going to pick me up in the train station.

As I went to the train station and waited for my train to arrive, all the instructions that was written in the station was in Chinese characters. So I was confused and I didn’t have any idea to which direction did I have to take. As soon as the train arrived, I quickly jumped in and watching the direction and destination I found out that it was an opposite place to where I am going.

By then, I decided to step down into the next stop and change another train. At first, I was ashamed to ask to anybody regarding the direction of the place where I was supposed to go. So you can just imagine from Hong Kong to New Territory, I changed train four times. I was embarrassed and ashamed to myself when I shared these to my host who waited for a longer period of time because of that long journey.

So when you travel alone, don’t be ashamed to ask for direction or make sure you have a map with you. That was my big lesson that I learned.

    

A Daring Travel to the Mountains

One day, I brought a youth group to the mountains on a paved road. Aside from that, it's also a bumpy one. The vehicle that I drove was an 18-passenger type. Aside from the passengers, we also brought our sound system equipments and musical instruments. 

When we were near to our destination, which was on the top of the mountain, the road was going uphill and zigzagging. I did shift to first gear while we were climbing. At first I felt nervous while I drove the car but my instinct to do a daring and courageous act, which made me to move on to my destination.  

At about 100 meters away from the top of the mountain was the hardest part of the road, with 60 degrees uphill and with two 180 degrees curve before reaching to the top of the mountain. Upon reaching the top, everyone made a deep sigh of relief. Unknown to me, all of us were very nervous.

All of the village people were surprised that a full packed vehicle were able to climb to the top of the mountain. For them, it’s their first time to see a driver like me who have the strong courage and determination.

Beach in the Philippines FOR SALE!!!!

Do you know that one of the tourist attractions in the Philippines is beautiful and white beaches? A place wherein you can relax and enjoy the quietness of nature.

Are you interested to buy a beach in Santiago, San Francisco, Camotes, Cebu? Just to give you an idea, the total land area is 5,640 square meters. It has an access road to the area, part of it have a high elevation that you can build a rest house. The owner of this land is my mother-in-law who is leaving in the US.

If you are interested, just leave a comment with your email add so we can contact you.

Dare to Cross the Flood

Bangladesh is another country that I traveled. This country is known of having floods every year. When you talk of floods in that country, the waters will subside for months. One day while I was visiting my project area with my CD80 Honda motorbike, I saw ahead of me that the road was covered with water because of the heavy rain. The water was 2.6 feet high and about 100 feet of the road was covered.

Some people will cross the flood on a canoe. Some even let their motorbikes and animals on a canoe. While I was observing the people and the hassle to load their things, I decided to cross the waters on my own with my motorbike and so I did.  People looked at me as they were thrilled and some also laughed at me but who cares, this is my journey.

I cross that area a couple of times but only few times that I got stocked in the middle on flooded roads. My secret was to grab the motorbike to a shallow area, started the engine quickly and drove as fast as I can so that the engine will not stop again.

 

Tips Before Travelling

When you go to adventurous travels, there might be problems that you will encounter unexpectedly. So here are some tips to guide you  to lessen the hardships you might face. If posssible, that you will not face any problem at all.

1. You need to have a strong determination to where you are going.

2. Research in the internet or to any guide books concerning the area you are traveling.

3. Choose what kind of travel you are going to make. Ex. Trekking or kayaking or mountain climbing or simply city tours.

4. Prepare the necessary things you need to bring based on the kind of travel you are going to make, and on the number of days you gonna stay.

5. Bring handy kits for emergency use, like:
                          medicine
                          first aid kit
                          sewing kit
                          all-purpose tool kit like swiss knife
                          handy flashlight
                          plastic bags (for garbage and protecting clothes from getting wet)
                          candies or chocolates (for energy giver)

6. Choose the right bag. For city travels, trolleys is better but for outdoor trips, back packs are the best.

7. Always bring an extra handy sling bag for daily trips. Your big back packs and trolleys can be left behind in the hotel or inn while the handy sling bag is a carry anywhere type of thing. Here, your passport copies, credit cards, and other essential documents you can bring. Sling or waist bags are really good to keep away thiefs or snatchers from stealing your things away.

8. Always put your sling bag in front of you. Never at the side or back.

9. Carry important documents with you always to avoid hotel theft. you cannot trust hotels or inns, most of all. Hotel staff can be interested with your things, too.

10. Valuable items can be stored in safe boxes or in your hand carry bags.

11. Always photocopy all your documents in case of theft or from being lost.

12. Always bring ID pictures. Some countries will asked even when you buy a simple sim card for your mobile phone.

13. Make a list of things to buy and things to bring to make sure that you will not miss anything.

14. Don't bring everything. You can always purchase simple things in other places/countries. Unless you are not sure, just purchase the smallest of every kind, like sachets for shampoo or deodorant, and etc

15. Secure a map and a tourist guide book. These are very helpful, most of all, if you can't speak the language. 

Dare to Travel Abroad with only $45 in your Pocket

1998, I was invited by my friend to travel Turkey. I accepted the invitation and I flew to that country. With all the preparations that I did, it so happened there was only $US45 left in my pocket. As the plane landed at the airport, I was cuing the line up of people in the Immigration area. I was a bit scared and nervous since I only have $US45 in my Pocket and my point of entry was tourist so in my mind I was thought that they will expect that I have a lot of money but in reality it was not.

So I flew from Istanbul to Ankara were my friend and his family live. I stayed to two weeks with them. By that time the exchange rate was $1=486,000 Turkish lira so I can budget more with what I had.

During my last night and few hours that I had with them, I asked my friend; how how do I have to pay for the taxi driver from downtown of Istanbul to the airport? He said, just give him two million, I was shocked and surprised. Back in my mind, I said WOW! I am a millionaire by that time then.

Will you dare to travel with only $45 in your pocket? Hope not.

My Early Travels

A 10 year-old boy traveled alone in a bus for about 86 kilometers. Then walked for an hour in the mountains that night without a flash light or compass. Yes, that was me and every time I watched the Spy Kids movie or adventure kid movies. It reminds me of this adventurous experience.

One summer, my parents organized a children's camp in the mountain where my father used to climb. There were around 300 children in that camp and both my two sisters and my older brother were there, too. So I was alone in our house together with my cousin.

With the loneliness of a young kid, while all of my family members were having fun in the camp, pushed and gave me a courage to go and follow them where they were having the event. So I packed up my things and I took a bus bound to the provinces wich is about 86 Kilometers from the city. I arrived in the market place at about 5:30 pm.

From there, I need to walk alone for an hour before I reached my destination. I was afraid while I was walking because it was geting dark. In my mind, I thought it was only an hour walk but because I was only 10 years old it took more than what I was thinking. So I tried to hasten my steps and sometimes I ran so I can reach the place.

At about 7 pm I was already climbing to the mountains without any flashlight or a compass but just only my instinct, courage and determinations. But, of course, with my prayers that God will guide me the way. After a while and passing by to several mountains and valleys, I was so happy that I saw two houses. So I ran just near to it thinking that they might see me and give me the right path to my destination. As I passed by, I did ask for help. They said that I was in the wrong direction. They gave me the correct path to my destination. One more mountain to cross then it will be the campsite.

With my strong determination and courage, God answered my prayers that I was able to reach my target place. How about you, do you have the same experience like mine? I am open to hear from your experienced, too.