Where to next?

Just Wandering was created with the intent to be monetized — traveling doesn’t come cheap (it *can* be done in the cheap, but with the way I travel, I need lots of moolah). I needed all the help I can get. I’m not earning millions off the blog, even after 5 years, but it did a lot more than give me money. Just Wandering paved the way for several opportunities for me to travel: Mt. Daguldol with Columbia Sportswear; Boracay, Batanes, Coron and El Nido with Seair; Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, Benguet, La Union, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Zambales, Pampanga and Bulacan with Lakbay Norte of the North Philippines Visitors Bureau and the Manila North Tollways Corporation; Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Cameron Highlands with Tourism Malaysia; Macau with the Macau Government Tourism Office, and; Hong Kong and HK Disneyland with Nuffnang.

The five years that passed was more than just the traveling. It was about new experiences and new friends. I’ve meet a lot of characters in my travels and even just in Manila. They made life a lot more exciting, frustrating and all the more enjoyable.

The past five years was also about growth and discovery. I’ve changed. Traveling is still something that I want to do, but I’ve also come to realize that there are other things I want to do. There are other goals that I want to achieve aside from traveling to Europe or Africa. It’s been a great journey. I’m looking forward to what the next five years will bring.

Luang Prabang, Laos

While the main theme of 2009 travel is Southeast Asia, 2010 so far have been mostly domestic travel. I’ve only been out of the country once this year, but I’m looking forward to my travels around the region come May (and June. And August).

In 2009, I was able to cover 18,027 miles (29,011 kilometers) on my flights alone. In 2010, the figure stands at a paltry 2,253 miles or 3,626 kilometers (distance based on MyFlightMemory.com). Of course, these statistics does not include the overland travel: From Siem Reap to Bangkok, then the long journey overland from Luang Prabang to Vientiane in Laos, onwards to Bangkok, Thailand and down to Malaysia. The overland trip in Malaysia is a story on its own: the first stop was in Penang (even got to go around the island twice, thanks to Wei), then I crossed over to the East coast to go to the Perhentians. Then there was that epic bus ride from Kuala Besut to Kuala Lumpur, where the bus I was in ended up in the ditch. From Kuala Lumpur, I took the final bus ride to Singapore. Of course, that’s just for my month-long Southeast Asian backpacking trip.

I miss this view in Kuala Lumpur

The Lakbay Norte trip last January was pretty epic as well. We did not cover as much distance (the entire trip was pegged at 1,798 kilometers), but we saw, tasted and experience a helluva lot in just a week. Interesting to note that after that trip, I ended up going back north a couple of times.

Taken during one of the many, many trips to Enchanted Kingdom

In the year that passed, I’ve been to places I’ve visited plenty of times in the past (Singapore, Tagaytay), places that have been visited twice or even thrice within months of each other (Malaysia four times since June 2009, Baguio twice since January 2010) and places that are entirely new and can’t wait to visit again (Tuguegarao, Ilocos Norte, El Nido, Calaguas).

There were actually more cameras in this group than people.

Of course, it wasn’t just the places that made the trips memorable. It was also the friends I’ve traveled with and the people I met along the way: Ming who took me to the best places to eat in Bangkok, Wei who fulfilled his promise and toured me in around Penang, Martin and Marie who endeared me to Malaysia, the crazy tennis girls Rotch, Cla and Rael who made Bangkok so much fun, with or without the tennis (but with the copious amounts of equally crazy doll shopping), the organizers and volunteers of the Philippine Blog Awards who made the Cebu trip one grand eating adventure, the Lakbay Norte peeps who made life so much more interesting than it should be (still can’t decide if that’s a good thing or bad. I kid!), and of course, Chyng and Leidy (and Leidy’s sister), who, like me, can’t quite get Calaguas out of our minds.

Waah, I miss you Sayuri.

The first quarter of 2010 will be ending in a couple of days, and from the way it’s looking now, the rest of the year is going to be quite exciting. To say that this travel blog that I’ve started four years ago has changed my life is an understatement. Justwandering.org is simply the best decision I’ve ever made.