Little Boy

This is my version taken from the original script that I saw online. As an experienced traveler, I have seen some parts of the world which we thought it's bigger than we can imagine, but smaller than we think.

Dear Little Boy,

Someday, you will experience heartbreak.

You’ll go through a messy break up.

You’re dream job won’t work out. Someone you care about will pass away.

When this happens, little boy, you TRAVEL.

See the world. It’s bigger than you can imagine but smaller than you think.

You’ll come home a new person. Everytime. That’s a promise.

-Eric-

Travelling in the Philippines | Interview with Flip Nomad

An interview done by Nomadic Samuel to Flip Nomad among of the blog that I regularly check every now & then, for the freshest & meat to devour in the world of backpacking world. Nomadic Samuel, is also one of the bloggers that admire because of his passion to teach abroad aside from travelling.


Here's the series of interview he made to our own top blogger Flip Nomad:

Q1) What are some of the most popular places to travel in the Philippines?

A: The most popular destination as of now for both local and foreign tourists alike is Boracay. The island offers a wide shore of blinding white sand, crystal clear water and fresh seafood and of course great parties at night.

Q2) Conversely, what are some under-rated places you think a traveller should consider when vacation in the Philippines?

A: Ugh, quite hard to tell which one as we have 7107 islands. But for the places I’ve been to, I guess Palawan. It’s getting popular now though, but a lot of Filipinos have not seen the beauty of this island yet. For me, this would probably be one of the Philippines best kept secret. The island is abundant with wildlife. The locals are very friendly. And the beaches and islands of Palawan are breathtaking.

Q3) Sometimes in the media, which tends to propagate fear, the Philippines has a reputation for being dangerous in certain areas. Do you feel this is justified? Given your experiences and first hand knowledge would you suggest avoiding any areas?

A: I think all places in the world can be dangerous. The bad rap about the Philippines is blown out of proportion by the media. There are quite some places though that are considered dangerous in the country such as the islands in the far south of the Philippines due to reported cases of violence. I’ve never been there though but I know a few travellers who travelled there and went home unscathed.

Q4) You have extensive travel experience in SE Asia. How does the Philippines compare to other countries in SE Asia in terms of affordability? What would you recommend as a daily or monthly budget for a backpacker?

A: The Philippines is teeming with gorgeous islands and awesome beaches. We still have a lot of unspoilt and pristine islands that nature lovers will definitely enjoy. We lack though modern infrastructures in those islands in comparison to Thailand. But I think it’s a blessing in disguise for us because it means that we could still enjoy the rawness of nature.

If you’re travelling in the Philippines with a tight budget, $10-$15 a day is doable for accommodation and food as long as you don’t stay in pricey hostels. Hostels though in mainland Southeast Asia are cheaper than what I’ve found in the Philippines. San Miguel Beer is definitely cheaper in the Philippines.

As long as you stay away from the city, you wouldn’t really spend that much.

Q5) You’ve recently released an ebook on the Philippines. How can one get a copy of this great resource?

Thanks for mentioning! The Ebook is my first collaboration with the Pinoy Travel Bloggers community. It has gorgeous (85) pictures of different places in the Philippines taken by 45 Travel Bloggers. It would be a great help for those who couldn’t decide on which place to visit in the Philippines. Check this link out to know how to get a free copy (http://flipnomad.com/2011/12/free-ebook-the-philippines-pearl-the-orient/ ).

Q6) I’ve noticed you’ve done some collaborative work with other bloggers based in the Philippines. Can you recommend a few of those blogs that would inspire others to travel there?

Sure! Here are five of them;

1. http://JourneyingJames.com – He blogs about budget travelling in the Philippines. A great resource for those travelling with a tight budget.
2. http://LakwatseradePrimera.com – She blogs about off the beaten paths in the Philippines including beautiful remote islands.
3. http://Ironwulf.net – One of the pioneers in travel blogging in the Philippines. Awesome pictures about places and culture in different provinces in the country.
4. http://EscapeIslands.com – Another great resource for travelling to some distant places in the Philippines
5. http://Lakwatsero.com – A lot of helpful posts about diving and snorkelling in the Philippines

Q7) How has being away from your home country changed the way you view it? Is there anything you appreciate more now than you did before?

A: Travelling helped me see the similarities of people despite of our difference in race, color, religion etc. It also helped me see and appreciate whatever I have after being exposed to a variety of living conditions in other countries. There’re so many realizations and the list is almost endless.

Plus, travelling is also fun!!!! Way better than sitting in my old office.

Q8) What kind of travel and blogging plans/projects do you have for 2012?

A: For travel, it all depends with the cash flow. If I earn enough to fly me back to Nepal and India then I’ll go there, if not, I’ll probably go to some islands in Thailand or Indonesia. I’m also considering travelling back to China.

For travel blogging, I started http://bananaroti.com which will be my food blog. I wish I had started it though at the onset of the trip. I’m also working on some niche sites that could help me generate some funds for my travels.

Q9) In the past year do you have any particular favourite destination or country that you’ve visited?

A: I love India, it’s like an entirely different world. I’d love to go back someday. I also like France but I know it wouldn’t be possible for now to travel to Europe since I’m working on a small budget.

Q10) Can you give some more information about your blog. How can others follow along with your journeys?

A: I blog at http://flipnomad.com about my travels in Southeast Asia. It focuses on budget travelling tips in various destinations.

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.

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.

A Travel Movie that Inspires Me to Travel More

Have you ever watched a travel movie? well, I did. Movies are great way to inspire us more especially if you are a traveller and the more it motivates you to bring to the unique places around the world.
As a neophyte backapacker of sort, I might have seen movies before about travelling but that didn't ignites me to carry my backpack and travel, as backpack word wasn't born in my vocabulary then. Backpacking really provides all unexpecting adventure which contribute to your unforgettable experiences.
A travel movie that inspires me to carry my backpack and see the world was the "Last Stop for Paul". That movie dropped my jaw that it makes me so emotional about travelling.
As what Paul says:

"Travel it gets inside of you, it touches your soul- the more I saw the world, the more I realize how little I knew, there's so much to learn & experience in life"

."
Well, see it for yourself so that you'll know, least try backpacking.

FLIPNOMAD BUDGET TRAVEL

Among of the travel blogsites that I read is http://flipnomad.com/about/ of Flipnomad. I learned so many things of his travel specially on budget trip 'coz I am a poor traveller or let say a budget traveller.
He posted his infos that we could use especially to those who travel, backpacks for the first time.
So here's what he wrote about his backpacking and the answers to your possible questions:


"Flipnomad.com is a compilation of my travel experiences around the Philippines and as well as other countries. I’m an ordinary and a typical guy who started traveling when I was a kid, together with my grandma and other relatives around Luzon, Philippines. I then ventured outside of my usual destinations when I reached the age of 25.
When I was younger, I thought it would be impossible for me to travel to far flung places. But as time passed by, I realized that I shouldn’t stop believing in what I could do but instead stay positive and optimistic that I could achieve whatever I put my mind into.

My way of traveling kept on changing, from going to the usual resorts when I was still in school, to going to nearby provinces when I started working. Then I started backpacking which changed my life forever. It opened my eyes to a lot of other cultures. It gave me a chance to meet interesting people that have interesting views in life. It even led me to the wonderful world of blogging.
We’re all travelers regardless of where we go. Traveling starts when we close our eyes and open our minds to all the possibilities in this journey called life. Let go and trust your instincts and don’t forget to have fun.
Smile and everything will just be fine and you’ll be surprise to where your feet will lead you to.

FAQs
When did you start travelling outside the Philippines?
I started travelling when I was 25 years old. I went to Singapore with my friends and then to Thailand.

Do you often travel alone?
Nope. I’ve only tried it last March – September 2009 when I backpacked for six months and I liked it. It gave me more freedom and flexibility in travelling.


Do you also travel locally?
Of course, I do enjoy going to different places. Actually, the destination is now just an excuse to keep on moving. I do enjoy travelling (going from point A to point B) regardless of where it is.

Why do you like travelling?
I just don’t like it, I love it. Travelling is the only thing in this world that makes me feel alive. It’s also fun!!!

Do I need a lot of money to travel?
There really is no absolute answer for the amount that you’ll be spending on a trip. It really depends on the choices that you’ll make. You could fly out on a promo economy ticket with a low cost carrier or you could fly Business class. You could even stay for free by camping out or staying on local people’s houses or you could pay $1000 room in a very exclusive hotel. The amount that you’ll spend depends on the choices that you’ll make.

Will I die out there?
First, everyone dies anyway right? And there’s a lot more scary things in this world than travelling. But of course there are some risks involve especially if you go to a place that you’re not familiar with or a place where people don’t speak your language. You might get lost every now and then but that’s what makes it fun and memorable. Take necessary precautions and exercise common sense when you travel.

Is it sad to travel alone?
Exactly what I was thinking when I first traveled alone. But based on my experience, I could say that you will never be alone when you travel by yourself. There are thousands of individuals travelling on their own and most frequently than not, these individuals meet each other along the way and sometimes travel together. There are also plenty of locals to hang out with. I’ve travelled with people that I just met on the road, I even shared a room with some of them to save money and a few of them became my friends that I still keep in touch with.

What would be your advice to first time travellers?
If you really want to travel, go out there and have fun (really). Life’s too short to risk it not doing the things that we love. If we couldn’t do it continuously, at least do it once. Let go and lose yourself for a moment. You’ll be surprise on what travelling can do with how you see things and even the way you live your life. Travel with an open mind and an open heart (but at the same time take necessary precautions and exercise common sense, but don’t overdo it). Enjoy! – Flip"

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