Tuesday, February 28, 2012

On Being Stuck

Ever have days or times in your life that you want to go out & bring your feet somewhere else? Throughout my stay in Poland, I never got the chance of travelling to the nearby countries. The sad part is I am practically being stuck in the four corners of Warsaw. That's what I hate about my stay here, so boring so to speak (in a backpacker's mind) and literally imprisoned to the same routine and monetarily shortened.
I guess, that's the disadvantage of a Southeast Asian volunteer when you try to make meet ends. My world right now has just revolving around Warsaw, school, home vice versa. Just want to escape and see different environment for a while & do some adventures.
Spring is almost there and hopefully I could plan my itinerary, eventually I already planned of visiting the nearby city and did my research, can't wait for that moment to come soon.
Below, are the usual buildings and sites that you could see around the capital city through the lens of my camera.


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Friday, February 24, 2012

Why Travel?

I was (a little) blog absent for a while, it's not that I didn't have much time to blog at all but the unneeded busyness held me to pause and stopped chronicling my stories for a while. School has been so draining these days that prevented me to update my blog.
Just entitling my blog Why Travel? Yeah, why travel? what's in travelling? Some may have strongly disagreed on someone to travel especially these days that money is so tight and economically hard. My family had been travelling the Philippines since back then, even before I was born. When I was a kid my family frequently travels from central part of the country going to the north down to the south. That's when the passion of travelling started to come out. After that, curiosity have bothered me of questioning what its like to be in the other side of the world, and the wanting of seeing the famous landmarks of the world that I'd only see in the pictures and in television.
My first travel abroad was in Thailand when a certain opportunity of teaching came. I saw a lot of travelers mostly backpackers in Thailand, that keeps me motivated to travel to the nearby places and see the world.
I just realized from my travel experiences that we are all the same despite of our differences in culture, language and belief, that there are still good souls around who are nice within though we are far differ from each other. The world is just a small planet when you start a single step & waited to be discovered. Traveling is incredibly exciting on different ways, so as gratifying more. There's nothing more satisfying materially by learning the world & discovering its beauty. What makes it more so adventurous is it helping me to rediscover of myself and expand the horizon of my minds by understanding other people & becoming less judgmental.
The thirsty of learning other cultures and knowing their history has made me motivated also that life defines on what we see literally & making it more real clearly through our travels.


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Monday, February 06, 2012

Travelling Differently

A good travel advice from a world reknown Novelist and lyricist Paulo Coelho: as a traveller, I profoundly agreed everything what he said except on number 1, yet, he had good points there but visiting museums is one of the great connections of knowing the past.


Travelling differently

by PAULO COELHO on FEBRUARY 7, 2008
By Paulo Coelho
I realised very early on that, for me, travelling was the best way of learning. I still have a pilgrim soul, and I thought that I would use this column to pass on some of the lessons I have learned, in the hope that they might prove useful to other pilgrims like me.
1. Avoid museums. This might seem to be absurd advice, but let’s just think about it a little: if you are in a foreign city, isn’t it far more interesting to go in search of the present than of the past? It’s just that people feel obliged to go to museums because they learned as children that travelling was about seeking out that kind of culture. Obviously museums are important, but they require time and objectivity – you need to know what you want to see there, otherwise you will leave with a sense of having seen a few really fundamental things, except that you can’t remember what they were.
2. Hang out in bars. Bars are the places where life in the city reveals itself, not in museums. By bars I don’t mean nightclubs, but the places where ordinary people go, have a drink, ponder the weather, and are always ready for a chat. Buy a newspaper and enjoy the ebb and flow of people. If someone strikes up a conversation, however silly, join in: you cannot judge the beauty of a particular path just by looking at the gate.
3. Be open. The best tour guide is someone who lives in the place, knows everything about it, is proud of his or her city, but does not work for any agency. Go out into the street, choose the person you want to talk to, and ask them something (Where is the cathedral? Where is the post office?). If nothing comes of it, try someone else – I guarantee that at the end of the day you will have found yourself an excellent companion.
4. Try to travel alone or – if you are married – with your spouse. It will be harder work, no one will be there taking care of you, but only in this way can you truly leave your own country behind. Traveling with a group is a way of being in a foreign country while speaking your mother tongue, doing whatever the leader of the flock tells you to do, and taking more interest in group gossip than in the place you are visiting.
5. Don’t compare. Don’t compare anything – prices, standards of hygiene, quality of life, means of transport, nothing! You are not traveling in order to prove that you have a better life than other people – your aim is to find out how other people live, what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and with the extraordinary.
6. Understand that everyone understands you. Even if you don’t speak the language, don’t be afraid: I’ve been in lots of places where I could not communicate with words at all, and I always found support, guidance, useful advice, and even girlfriends. Some people think that if they travel alone, they will set off down the street and be lost for ever. Just make sure you have the hotel card in your pocket and – if the worst comes to the worst – flag down a taxi and show the card to the driver.
7. Don’t buy too much. Spend your money on things you won’t need to carry: tickets to a good play, restaurants, trips. Nowadays, with the global economy and the Internet, you can buy anything you want without having to pay excess baggage.
8. Don’t try to see the world in a month. It is far better to stay in a city for four or five days than to visit five cities in a week. A city is like a capricious woman: she takes time to be seduced and to reveal herself completely.
9. A journey is an adventure. Henry Miller used to say that it is far more important to discover a church that no one else has ever heard of than to go to Rome and feel obliged to visit the Sistine Chapel with two hundred thousand other tourists bellowing in your ear. By all means go to the Sistine Chapel, but wander the streets too, explore alleyways, experience the freedom of looking for something – quite what you don’t know – but which, if you find it, will – you can be sure – change your life.

Saturday, February 04, 2012

Photo Diary: Kc Concepcion's Gone Rogue

I could freshly still remember the time I posted a short blah blahs about kc Concepcion, the daughter of the Philippine's showbiz celebrities.
Because showbiz is in her blood, not long enough she'd venture in the Tinseltown and follow the footsteps of her parents. Aside from the pretty obvious looks, she has the brain and a girl of substance. Recently, she post sexy in a magazine in my country revealing how sexy she could be aside from the sweetness of her face. Hoping, that she did it not because of the brokenness she felt right now from a relationship she breaks up to a closet-gay celebrity too.

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Thursday, February 02, 2012

Inspirational Story

I love reading inspirational stories, whether it's fictional or based on a true story, as long as it brings lesson and values in life.
Among the stories that I have had read a couple of years ago was this one. It had been circulated around the net by email and there being shared around in Facebook. Honestly, I am a type of person who is a cry baby,  I shed tears right away & it doesn't matters to me if it's a movie nor a plainly story being told. The story below is a tearjerking one, it'll surely move your heart thought it's kindda long to dig out but worth the read.



I was walking around in a Big Bazar store making shopping, when I sawa Cashier talking to a boy couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 yearsold..
The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have enough money to buythis doll. Then the little boy turned to me and asked: ''Uncle, areyou sure I don't have enough money?''
I counted his cash and replied: ''You know that you don't have enoughmoney to buy the doll, my dear.'' The little boy was still holding thedoll in his hand.
Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to givethis doll to. 'It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted somuch . I wanted to Gift her for her BIRTHDAY.
I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to mysister when she goes there.' His eyes were so sad while saying this.'My Sister has gone to be with God.. Daddy says that Mommy is going tosee God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll withher to give it to my sister...'' 
My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up at me and said: 'Itold daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until Icome back from the mall.' Then he showed me a very nice photo of himwhere he was laughing. He then told me 'I want mommy to take mypicture with her so my sister won't forget me.' 'I love my mommy and Iwish she doesn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to goto be with my little sister.' Then he looked again at the doll withsad eyes, very quietly.
I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. 'Suppose we checkagain, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?''
'OK' he said, 'I hope I do have enough.' I added some of my money tohis with out him seeing and we started to count it. There was enoughfor the doll and even some spare money.
The little boy said: 'Thank you God for giving me enough money!'
Then he looked at me and added, 'I asked last night before I went tosleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, sothat mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!'' 'I also wantedto have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn'tdare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the dolland a white rose. My mommy loves white roses.'
I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when Istarted. I couldn't get the little boy out of my mind. Then Iremembered a localnews paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in atruck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. Thelittle girl died right away, and the mother was left in a criticalstate. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on thelife-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able torecover from the coma. Was this the family of the little boy?
Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the newspaper that the young woman had passed away.. I couldn't stop myself asI bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home wherethe body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and makelast wishes before her burial. She was there, in her coffin, holding abeautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy andthe doll placed over her chest. I left the place, teary-eyed, feelingthat my life had been changed for ever...
The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister isstill, to this day, hard to imagine. And in a fraction of a second, adrunk driver had taken all this away from him.

My Favorite Instrumental Music