I am a B- Traveler

My Lakbayan grade is B-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

I was happy and disappointed at the same time with the result. At least I have been to more than half of the 79 provinces in the country, but then I realized I haven't been to both of my parents' hometowns in Masbate and Sorsogon. But this inspired me to travel more often next year. Below are the five provinces/ place I will target to visit next year:

(1) My Nanay's hometown - Palanas in Masbate
(2) My Tatay's hometwon - Casiguran in Sorsogon
(3) Camiguin Island
(4) Sarangani Province (it has great dive sites & the second cleanest river in the country, san ka pa?!)
(5) Coron in Palawan

I am only targeting five new provinces to visit (although there are still 32 provinces I haven't set foot on) because I am intending to revisit these great places.

(1) Batanes
(2) El Nido, Palawan
(3) Sagada, Mountain Province

Wish me luck and Bon Voyage!

Why I travel

I saw the first paragraph of the essay below more than a decade ago, posted in a friend's office desk. Needless to say, this essay inspired me to explore the world. By posting this, I hope you too will see the great benefits of travel. Thank you Kent Nurburn for writing this.

"This is the magic of travel. Any travel. You leave your home secure in your own knowledge and identity. But as you travel, the world in all its richness intervenes. You meet people you could not invent; you see scenes you could not imagine. Your own world, which was so large as to consume your whole life, becomes smaller and smaller until it is only one tiny dot in time and space.

Slowly the memories of the familiar recede from your mind and you find yourself adrift in the experience of the world around you. Your thoughts and concerns change. Your emotions focus on new people and events. The world makes its claim on your heart and mind, and you are free, at least momentarily, from the concerns of your everyday life.

…When you move on, you will have grown. You will realize that the possibilities of life in this world are endless, and that beneath our differences of language and culture we all share the dream of love and being loved, of having a life with more joy than sorrow.

And when you have tragedies or great changes in your life, how else will you truly understand that there are a thousand, a million ways to live, and that your life will go on to something new and different and every bit as worth as the life you are leaving behind. These lessons and more will have etched a new element in your character. You will know the cutting moments of life, where fear meets exhilaration...

…because I have traveled, I can see other universes in the eyes of strangers. Because I have traveled, I know what parts of me I cannot deny and what parts of me are simply choices that I make. I know the blessings of my own table and the warmth of my own bed. I know how much of life is pure chance, and how great a gift I have been given simply to be who I am.

…..That is why we need to travel. If we don't offer ourselves to the unknown, our senses dull. Our world becomes small and we lose our sense of wonder. Our eyes don't lift to the horizon; our ears don't hear the sounds around us. The edge is off our experience, and we pass our days in a routine that is both comfortable and limiting. We wake up one day and find that we have lost our dreams to protect our days."

- From the book Letters To My Son by Kent Nurburn

Travel Notes: Angkor Wat

Why I wanted to visit Angkor Wat – I first saw the temples of Angkor Wat in the film “In the Mood for Love” (starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung). In the last three minutes of the movie, Tony Leung was in Angkor Wat “unburdening” his secret to one of its holes – “I have heard in the old days, when people want to unburden a secret, they go into the mountain and dig a hole to bury their secret there.”

I went there to unburden me of my secret. Naks, madrama.

Where we stayed: Angkor Voyage Guesthouse – It had clean, presentable twin-sharing room with air-con and TV (na may Knowledge Channel, mabuhay ang Pinoy!). It was near the Old Market of Siem Reap and the Night Market. Rate was USD 16 per night. Not bad, not bad at all.

Where we ate: There were lots of food stalls around the temples, but not to be missed were Viroth’s Restaurant and Khmer Kitchen Restaurant. We made it a point to order dishes that had “Khmer” or “Cambodia” in its name or any dish that we had no idea what was on it. Masarap naman lahat at hindi naman sumakit tyan namin.

Top 5 highlights of our Siem Reap Tour:

1. Going around the temples – Siem Reap has 290 temples and we were able to visit seven temples in one day, and that was enough to become fully amazed of the Khmer Civilisation, one of the greatest in the world.

1. Angkor Wat – the largest of all temples, not to be missed of course. 
2. Ta Phrom – the temple being eaten by the jungle, featured in Tomb Raider. 
3. Ta Keo- a temple  built out of sandstone.
4. Bayon Temple – marvel at how the 261 giant faces around the temple were carved.
5. Baphuon
6. Preah Khan –a very quiet temple because it receives very little visitors, worth dropping by if you want to get away from all those tourists.  
7. Phom Bakheng – a hill temple overlooking the whole Siem Reap including a nicer view of Tonlesap Lake.

2. Tasting Cambodian dishes – We ordered dishes that have “Khmer” or “Cambodia” in their name. And we weren’t disappointed at all and no stomachache either. We tasted a Cambodian soup, which is like a combination of Tom Yum and sinigang.  Don’t miss the amok fish dish being served at Viroth’s Restaurant.  

3. Tour around the Tonlesap Lake – This is the largest lake in South East Asia. It’s different from all the lakes that I have visited because an entire village leaves on the lake. Everything here is on water – the houses, the hospital, schools, the talyer, grocery stores, restaurants and souvenir shops. I can’t imagine myself living here though, I’d get nauseous everyday.   

4. Watching the sunset from Phom Bakheng Temple – Phom Bakheng was the last stop of our one-day tour around the temples. Phom Bakheng was a hill temple so we had to walk for 15 minutes to reach it. It was also the last stop for the day of most tourists, so there were over 100 tourists who congregated in the hill temple to watch the sunset, a nice moment to end a wonderful day.

5. Riding the tuk-tuk to go around the temples. The temples of Siem Reap are surrounded by forest so going around the temples is a breezy and cool experience. Next time I visit, I will bike around the temple, masaya yun!  

How much we spent (in Siem Reap): Air fare: Less than USD300 for a round-trip ticket, Air Asia flights from Manila to KL and Siem Reap, and back to Manila. Food – we allotted USD 15 per day for food, nabusog naman kami. Lodging: USD16 per night, twin sharing room. There are of course higher end accommodations in Siem Reap pero di kaya ng bulsa namin yun, hehe. Tours: The tour around Tonlesap Lake costs USD15, one-day pass around the temples is USD20, and USD25 for a one-day tuk-tuk ride around the temples. Travel tax and terminal fee – PhP2,250 (Clark aiport) USD25 (Siem Reap airport). 

For more info, visit these sites: 

http://www.siemreapcambodia.org/ and http://www.lonelyplanet.com/cambodia

Enjoy your trip!