That’s the way I want to travel.
This new zest for travel is wholly inspired by Cebu Pacific. Whenever they open a new route, there the Filipinos will be. Like that last trip to Vietnam and back through Bangkok only cost 7000 pesos (before that 1600 or so airport tax) because of their new route promo.
And it makes sense that we see Southeast Asia first, because they don’t require us to have visas. One of my friends just told me though that Mongolia doesn’t require visas for Filipinos either. Ulan Bator here we come! Hehehe.
There are even the islands lying East of us, from Palau up to, I dunno, the Solomon Islands? Westwards there is Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan. Beyond that Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the rest of the world.
Up through the rooftop of the world from Lhasa into Kathamandu.
Ivan even went to Kota Kinabalu and from there a quick trip into Brunei.
Down south we have Australia (Monkey Mile! Adelaide!) New Zealand and unto South America where we even have Easter Island and Galapagos.
Petropovlask, Kamchatka with it’s majestic volcanoes only accessible by helos.
The Trans-Siberian railway (which ironically, Lonely Planet has a guide book).
I want to drive down through South America. Drive across the United States. Eat Mexican food.
Maybe even go to Svalbard. Trondheim. Greenland. Reykjavik, Iceland.
And then unto space, the Martian mountain. Antarctica.
These are all dreams, but Why Not?
I also want to drive from Hong Kong all the way to London. Heck, even just drive from Manila down to Gen San. Madagascar.
Uzbek, Kazakh, Khyrgy, Turkmen.
Walk the Amalfi coast and Liesten something in Turkey.
Petra. Timbuktu. Machu Pichu. Lake Titicaca. The Caribbean Islands. Zanzibar.
Cuba and North Korea.
There are 200 countries to chose from.
The point is, the more countries you go to, the more tripod legs you have to stand on. You get a better grasp of the nature of man. It makes you realize all things are possible. And Why Not? When you only live once.
(the West African republics, Morroco, Tunisia (Star Wars!), Jordan, Damascus, Syria, Bethlehem, the independent republic of Palestine which shares Jerusalem with the just as independent republic of Israel, Bhutan with it’s limited visas. Western China and whoever it borders, following the route of Marco Polo. Angel Falls in Venezuela. Lions outside your window in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique? The dark jungles of the Congo. Great whites in South Africa. Dubai! Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Yemen, real deserts, the Persian Gulf with it’s 7-star hotels. The raj’s of India. The Dalai Lama and other yogi places. Peshwar. Shantaram. Kashmir. THE UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES!!! Bold-faced, underlined, major font. The Moon, weightless in space. STAR CITY! with salutes to Gagarin’s untouched office, the clocks left for the moment he died, before you lift-off (watch Primer). Lonely Planet. Our planet. Backpacking in our own beloved country. Converting Malate into a backpacker haven. Converting the Vito Cruz area of Makati into the same. There’s more. But I’ll take a breather.)
Ireland.
The Metro Manila Monsoon.
I wonder if all these journals we write online will remain in cyberspace for eternity. Will researchers trawl through them hoping to find gems? Seek secrets from the past. What will they find? What will my great grandchildren find. These blogs are a taste of immortality.
