Is travel the new love?

It's been days since I went on the road and I haven't stopped thinking about going on the road again. I have been thrust into work with a new project plus I have been doing the usual stuff with the airing show. I have been reading blogs, travel blogs, and   I have been inspired altogether. Especially by those female solo travelers, and the budget travelers who really keep their travels on a super tight budget, and even the ones who keep a wonderful balance between their cool jobs and then hitting the road. I am just in awe. I bought travel books, researching new places to go, urging some people to come with me and actually contemplating traveling alone.

When I looked back, before, some free time will have to be spent on movie download, or going to the malls, shopping, or reading a book, obsessing on gap enders, but recently it's all about travel travel travel for me. I'm getting lost over this. I used to be all chill. But now I'm thinking of getting rabies shots and inquiring for travel insurance. Is travel my new love?

Like love the infatuation stage is the most dangerous, most heady. And as young romances go, I am already losing a lot of sleep over it.

However it's still too early to tell.

Some people have travel as their passion and life and truth is I don't really blame them. It's hard not to get lost in traveling. One of my greatest dreams is to travel alone in some remote local province, or continent or the whole world for a whole year.  

It's actually easy to just pack a bag and just go. Money is no object. There are always going to be ways. 

It's the spirit that has to be readied .

"Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from." -Seth Godin

True. But I hardly think of travel as an escape. It is a reward - a reward to be amazed, to marvel at something bigger than myself.  And I got to work hard, create more programs and  fuel my passion for writing  for what the majority of people wanted to watch. I have to keep the momentum in check so I can reward myself with good life and  more travels. 


photo source from here

food and travel articles

Aside from the currently airing Judy Ann Santos medical drama Habang May Buhay , (and power-pointing and drafting treatments for upcoming programs) here are some of the stuff i wrote - food and travel articles for Yummy magazine...and writing these almost felt like writing for pleasure, it's almost like a hobby!

Writing for food is fun, plus I've always loved to cook. My father loves to cook but our family's cooking consists of following the time tested family recipes of native Pinoy food. My mom bakes well too and she knows the fancy brownies and cakes recipes while I stuck to simple recipes like salads, some pasta and desserts. But writing for yummy meant delving into all aspects of food by the balls. haha. or what i meant was sampling or even (yes!) preparing fancy global food. The tip here is recognizing and using spices. I believe they make or break a recipe. Or they make dishes distinct from one continental fare to another. Like putting paprika makes recipes more Middle Eastern, and basil and rosemary more Italian. Though I'm not an expert yet but let me say I know my bouillabaisse from my seafood chowder. 

check these out:
Best Local Food Blogs 1
Best Local Food Blogs 2 
Best Local Food Blogs 3 
General's Lechon
21 Plates Restaurant
Sweet Sally Desserts
Taste Traveling
and interview with French Cooking Chef Laura Calder

And in March, we will go juicy! yum

i am a flashpacker

 

Okay, so in my field I know what a "flashback" is, but not "flashpack". Looked  it up on the net and found this!

This isn’t about backpacking-lite. As much as their low-budget cousins, Flashpackers are looking for authentic and challenging experiences, and they’re quite happy to rough it with the best of them if that’s the best way to achieve that goal. But unlike your average gap-year student, they can afford to splash out on some luxury when the going gets tough — and just as importantly, they will spend what it takes to get the experience they’re after." For me, "when the going gets tough" means 3 days without a shower, and I'm not afraid to admit it.

A flashpacker is someone who wants the independent experience of backpacking, but has enough money to pay for more creature comforts. That sounds like me. I want the freedom of independent travel, especially traveling with one bag, but I also like my comforts. Unless it's part of the experience I'm going for (like camping), I want a nice bed and a shower with warm water and some pressure.

Some of the articles associate flashpacking with a lot of technological gear. While I like the idea of traveling with a small laptop and a digital camera, I'm not much into other tech gadgets. I don't want a phone or GPS system and the only time I use an mp3 player is on the plane. I love music, but sometimes headphones take away from my experience of traveling. Probably music but only in transit. And a book. I'd love something to read while traveling.

And apparently now, there are different types of flashpackers, including the gadget loving Geeky Flashpacker, that I found interesting. He's someone who reads books, gets to know history before setting foot on a place to enjoy the whole thing. A culture nut who also probably wanted to capture everything through a lens or a poem, or a song or an essay. Geeky.

That definitely sounds like me. What about you?

(reposted and edited from http://www.ramblingtraveler.com )