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.

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.

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.

Fabian's Adventures

I love reading travel blogs and personal experiences of every travellers or backpackers around the globe. With that, it inspires me to daydreaming more of going to some places that I wish to visit. Backpacking involves money but not so much so long as you know how to budget your finances while on the road, unlike travelling in style and staying in an expensive hotels. Some backpackers worked in a country where teaching is the most lucrative specially for English native speakers,yet, even those who aren't native speakers of English took the advantage of grabbing the opportunity so long as you are blonde and white and speak English well surely the school in Asia would rightly hired you. Some backpackers joined some voluntary work abroad to start their trip overseas just like me. But I am not gonna tell my voluntary story here but to a person who voluntarily assisting a certain organization by soliciting funds through his travels. I came across on his blog page and thought of posting it here, it's a long line but worth the read:
Down are the pics of Fabian and Vivien and their video promotion of their cause.
   

Fabian, before we talk about the trip and your motivation to do it, let´s start with the basic facts. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your education and what you did so far in your life.

I grew up in Detmold, a small and quiet city in Germany, a very rural place near to the Teutoburg Forest. I spent the half of my childhood in the countryside: small forests lakes were my playground, building river dams and carving my own slingshots my favorite activities Paradoxically, I was also a computer kid, growing up with the Commodore-64 and the Amiga computer of my older brother. When I was twenty I moved to cologne and started to study computer science. To earn a living, I always worked as a web developer for internet startups and other small companies. On a backpacking trip to Thailand in 2001 I developed a huge interest in traveling to far away places, meeting people from other cultures and learning languages. In my third year of studies, in 2004, I went to Santiago de Chile to do an internship. It was supposed to be 3 months long, but I loved Chile so much that it became a year. I returned to Cologne, and very motivated from my experiences in Chile and the desire to see more of the world, I finished the last courses of my studies and went to Madrid to write my thesis and to improve my Spanish. Again it was supposed to last 3 months, but since I fell in love with a woman from Chile and with Spain´s capital it became a year. Again. One of my friends whom I met in Thailand had just moved to Berlin and was talking about it in the best ways. My Chilean girlfriend also liked the idea of moving to Berlin and so in 2006 I went from Spain´s capital to Germany´s capital. In Berlin I studied again: A master in the science of “Human Factors”, which opened the world of Psychology to me, which still is, a very interesting area for me. In the last year of my master and after finishing it, I worked for the Berlin based non-profit organization betterplace.org.

What is it that you like about traveling?

To answer that question I will give you an example of something that happened to me during a trip to Morocco, but first a little background: When I lived in Madrid, from several sides I heard bad words about the people from Morocco or Algeria. The Spaniards would call them “Morros”, and say that I should watch out for the Morros during the night, that they steal and whatnot. Three years later I went to Morocco the first time. In Tangier I met Monir, a Moroccan guy, who became my friend and whom I visited every time I went there since. One evening we were sitting on a wall on a viewpoint in the northern part of the city watching the lights of the Spanish city Tarifa, which is only 20 km away, it was there where Monir revealed his incredible story to me. “Fabian, I am only here with my body, my mind is over there”, Monir pointed to the Spanish side. “I never no chance to have my own place and have a family here in Morocco. I will not even try it. Since I was nineteen all I do is trying to escape. At night my friends and me go to the harbor and watch out for the big trucks. Monir escaped to Spain for the first time when he was 19 years old and stayed for three years until the police caught him and sent him back. He met his girlfriend there in Barcelona, they are still together, they are still in love, but they hardly see each other. Monir is now 26 years old, but every time he manages to escape he is send back. See, this is what I love about traveling, my prejudice about Moroccan people, which was placed in my head by the Spaniards, was replaced by a personal encounter with an actual Moroccan person. I developed a deep empathy with Monir and his personal story. Whenever I see somebody from Morocco now, my first reaction is not fear or distrust, it is curiosity and interest in their story. I need to see the world with my own eyes and meet people myself. Reading about politics and immigration issues in the newspapers does not make me feel, it doesn´t touch my heart, it only let me rationally understand things. On the other hand, if I meet a person whose life is affected by these issues I understand the importance of affairs like that and start to care about them in an emotional way. After that I can read the newspaper, not before. Traveling, in a way, makes me see the world from all perspectives: I had the chance to learn about the perspective of a clandestine from morocco, the perspective of a veteran who lost his leg in the vietnam war, the perspective of a prostitute from Thailand and many more perspectives. Traveling also lets me see the relativity of luxury and material possessions. Sometimes you meet people who have near to nothing, but still you have the impression that they are not less happier than people in Germany, I also often think the opposite is the case. Traveling is dissolving boundaries. Boundaries between countries and boundaries between people. You meet people from all around the world, from all sorts of social backgrounds and you realize that we all want the same: We want a roof above our heads and something to eat, we want to be happy, we want to love and be loved. Some of us are “fortunate” and are able to reach this things without violating a law, others not. But these others have the same right as we have, no matter if they were born in Morocco, Cuba or Malawi. By establishing personal connections to all sorts of people from this planet, one includes these people in his moral circle. I think that is what we need, realizing that we are all inhabitants of this planet, that there are no boundaries, that we are one global family.

Why should somebody try to make the world a better place? What is your motivation?

Wow, this is not an easy question, I will first answer it for me personally and later try to give a generalized answer. First, let me tell you about a dream I had a year ago. It is one of the most impacting dreams I ever had, with a very clear message, I have no idea where it came from. Immediately after waking up I spoke the whole experience onto a tape recorder, that´s why I remember so many details about it. This is my transcript: I am surrounded by darkness and complete silence. No floor, no ceiling, I am floating in the void. In the left bottom corner of my visual space a being, which I would describe as from “out of space”, appears, a little alien. I feel anxious.

Alien: “Don´t be afraid, we are your friends, no matter where we take you now, don´t be afraid, you are save, let´s go!” I find myself underwater, looking at a great coral reef, surrounded by crystal clear water, rainbow colored fishes and thousands of corals.

Alien: “Think of this ocean as the cosmos, the great universe, infinite and eternal with all it´s beauties, like the fishes, the flowers and the mountains, the human brain, the internet, and the never ending cycle of evolution. This ocean is the miracle of life. Do you see these corrals over there? This is you, the human beings”. I watch the corrals and see how they swing from the left to right, back and forth, totally in tune with the waves of the cosmic ocean.

Alien: “See how amazing and beautiful this ocean is? See how big it is and how little the corrals are in comparison? Now, look at the one little corral over there!” The alien points to a particular coral which seems to try to stand against the waves and also to be bigger than the other corals. I realize how stupid and impossible it is trying to resist the strong waves.

Alien: “Life is about being one with the ocean, accepting what it gives you. Life is about trying to appreciate every moment of existence and take it as a gift that you can be one of these corrals, that you can take part in this crazy project called ‘life’. You are just one of billions and billions of beings in this universe, why should this corral try to be higher than any of the others?”

Alien: “The most noble, the finest way you humans can live on this planet is by using your hands, your feet or your voice to express the miracle of live. No matter if you write poems, dance or sing songs. A great artist is someone who tunes in, into the cosmic waves of the ocean and acts only as a channel to express beautifulness. For this he needs to leave his ego beside, he cannot be this corral who tries to stand out. The mission of the artist is to, through his artwork, help other humans realize how amazing it is to be alive.”

I think to myself: “Not everybody can be an artist”

The alien replies: “Not everybody is an artist and that is ok. No matter what you do, it is good as long as you use your wealth to maximize the moments of awe in front of the miracle of life, for yourself and for others.” That morning I woke up very, very happy and inspired. You know, sometimes I can be very selfish and egoistic, like the one corral trying to stand out, but I know, that somewhere inside me the message of this dream is the essence of my values and what I believe in: We all should worship and appreciate what it means being alive and help each other remember this. We all have to awaken and maintain our “divine within”. Now, in order to be able to look at life this way, I think some basic necessities have to be covered: Somebody who is struggling for survival, or a mother who has to see her children dying from a malaria infection, which could have been avoided by using a 5$ bed net, is probably not really in the mood to appreciate life. But theses people have the same right to experience the beauty of life as we have. My personal, logical conclusion of realizing these things is: I have to do something about it! This is only my answer to the question and I understand that there are people with different perspectives. Still I think there is a general answer to the question why somebody should try to make this planet a better place: In the “west” we live in luxury, but our comfort rides on the back of people who do not have the same privileges as we have. Nowadays, we have the technology to lift up the people in extreme poverty among us to at least an acceptable level of comfort and freedom, we though have a moral obligation to act, we have to take action!

How did you discover your way “to act” and what can you suggest to others about finding ways “to take action”?

I can´t remember who said it, but somewhere I heard the phrase: “Ask yourself the question: Which passion or interest of mine could contribute to the great project of creating a better living on this planet?” I also like this phrase which I noted down at a ted conference: “Do what makes your heart sing, to make a better world for all”. Steve Jobs, in his Commencement Speech at Stanford, put it this way: “You’ve got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. [..] If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle.” That´s what it´s about: Think of your passions, your interests, the stuff that you love and makes your heart sing, and then see how you can use these things to make something good out of it and convert it into your daily work. In my case, I love traveling and meeting all sorts of people. I am also fanatic about the internet and social media. I like shooting and editing videos and don´t feel uncomfortable speaking in front of a camera. I also like playing the guitar and singing songs. So my way “to act” for the following year is combining all these things: Travel the world, raising money for people in need of support using the power of social media, making it entertaining by singing songs together with many people and hoping that we also inspire others with our actions. For me this is a dream coming true. There is nothing else I want to do more. I have no idea what happens after the trip and how I will make a living when I am back in Germany, but to use Alejandro Jodorowsky´s words: “I believe in miracles, or rather in the existence of a law that if my intentions are pure and I do what I must do, the money will follow, in some way or another”.

Interracial Marriage in Poland

According to wikipedia - Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. I am not a newbie anymore of this mixed race marriage since most of my (women) kins had successfully found their happiness to their respective foreign husbands. Let me clear, when we say interracial marriage - race issues have come up specially if the color of the skin is the main point to every talk and blah blah around here or anywhere. Better yet, what matters most then is the focus of the marriage is LOVE, commitment and respect each other irrespective of the color of the skin. The other week, I went to a wedding because I was invited & they happened to be my friends, whom I just met here in Poland not so long ago. Practically, the girl is originally from Jamaica and the guy is from Poland which their love story began when the guy went backpacking to Jamaica & the rest of that ended to a so called "husband & wife". Aside from the obvious reason that they both comes from different countries the wedding rite was done in a modern-Polish wedding if I may say so. Moreover, it has also been my childhood dream to marry from or to a different race so long as not from Asia. I find it more colorful and lovely when you marry to someone far different from the color of your skin, language and belief. In fact, I had been to an interracial relationships while I was still in the midst of my studying in college. There are some undeniable truths, but a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding this issue that why I preferred marrying someone outside the canopy of my country or outside the vicinity of Asia? Well, that's gonna be a long discussion to talk about, the point is I don't see anything wrong on interracial marriage, to say the least, the pictures below are proving of a success relationships from different origins.


 

It's More Fun in the Philippines

My country has a new form of promoting the Philippines. With its new campaign, hoping it could tempt and invite a lot of foreigners to come to the Philippines.
"It's More Fun in the Philippines", is the newly campaign of the Department of Tourism, finally, after some arguments and war in the DOT office it has been cleared and decided. It is a perfect platform of introducing the island to the world.

Check the website to see its full image:It's More Fun in the Philippines

Poland Second Winter Experience

This has been my second winter here in Poland, and I am now learning to deal with the whole snowy winter like the depression and the winter sickness. Just enjoying most of it while I still can.
Aside from that, snowy is only good on the first day but on the second to the third after then its annoying. The snow this time isn't as heavy as it was last year and it came just late of January which it suppose to be early of December the reason I didn't experience a snowy Christmas.