The Tao of Travel

< the credit goes to, Mr. Leo Babauta of www.zenhabits.net>

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

--Laozi

I’m not the world’s most seasoned traveler, but I have made a number of trips lately and have learned a few things that work well.

This year I’ve traveled to Guam for a month, to Portland, New York City, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Southern California. They’ve all been beautiful trips, and I’ve never taken more than a small backpack.

Travel lightly, with no set agenda, and you’ll have an amazing, stress-free trip.

Traveling doesn’t have to be stressful. It can be simple, if you keep it so.

Essentials

1.     Pack little. I take a small backpack, and don’t pack it too heavy either. I’ve found through experience that I just need a pair of jeans, 2-3 T-shirts, 2-3 quick-dry boxer briefs, 2-3 pairs of quick-dry socks, maybe a light sweater. I wash things in the shower if they get dirty and hang them to dry overnight. I bring my laptop so I can work for 30-45 minutes every morning. A paperback novel, maybe a small notebook. Minimal toiletries: deodorant, toothbrush, razor, Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap (for washing clothes in the sink, and shaving), dental floss. I never wait to check my back or get the bag after the flight, and I can pack in 5 minutes.

2.     Have no agenda. I often ask for recommendations from locals, and get a list of incredible things. I’ll also put everything on a Google Map, so I can see where everything is. Then I toss all that out and let the day lead me where it will. Having no set agenda means you aren’t pressured to get anything done each day, which means you can enjoy yourself fully.

3.     Walk a lot. The best way to explore any place is to walk. Walk all over, with no set directions. Get lost.

4.     Eat lightly. Eat anything you want, but don’t eat a lot. I like to mix fruits and veggies in with the heavier stuff, so I don’t feel so heavy.

5.     Find space to relax. Most people try to do too much, and rush around all day. Stroll casually, find good coffee shops or tea shops to relax in, or a good sidewalk cafe with good wine. Find parks and enjoy them. If it rains, walk in the rain. Read a lot.

6.     Be present. Don’t be on your smartphone or laptop all the time. Don’t always think about what you’ll be doing later, or work stuff. Be fully present, and you’ll have a great time.

7.     Smile at people. Talk to the locals. Ask for recommendations. Find out about their lives.

A Few More

·         Do bodyweight exercises. I do a mix of pushups, squats, lunges, burpees in my hotel room or apartment.

·         Don’t just stay for a day or two. If you really want to see a city, stay for a week or more. I could have gone to Europe and hit up 10 cities in three weeks, but instead I split that time among just two cities (London & Paris) and really saw those cities.

·         Get a short-term apartment if you can. If you can stay for a week, get an apartment if you can afford it. It’s cheaper than a hotel and much more comfortable.

·         Read a good novel.

·         Bring a metal water bottle. I learned this from my friend Scott: pack an empty water bottle, so you can get through TSA security checkpoints, and then fill up the bottle at the airport water fountain after the checkpoint. I carry the water bottle around everywhere I go so I’m never thirsty.

·         Keep a journal. Don’t stress over the journal. It doesn’t have to be daily. Just write out your thoughts, impressions when you have some spare time.

·         Travel locally. For years I never traveled, to save costs. I was content where I was, and that’s still true. Be a tourist in your hometown — see the sights, walk the area, explore and try to find new things you’ve never seen before. You don’t need to spend a lot to travel locally.

‘One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.’

~Henry Miller

A Game of Thrones.... I am H-O-O-K-E-D!!!

Read it, and see for yourself!

The glimpse of the installment:

Seven hells, may i just say, "Winter is Coming!" :)

Envious. Unsettling. (2 August 2011)

In 29 days, my boyfriend will be back from a four-month long working assignment from Ireland.

And he expects much has changed. Health, finances and our outlook.

Well, that's because, I promised him that. At least on the "health" part.

I am not at ease with him coming back. I am scared that he might see how much was unchanged; that the distance between us never really did me any good. Honestly, it did me a favor on one important area, at the least. My independence.

I know now that I can handle anything despite our distance. I have learned to tame the pain and that I learned to take care of myself, hone my interests, without any of his involvement.

I found a way to enjoy life afar from his presence.

I can be happy without him.

I don’t deny one bit, that I am now unsettled with his return. Yes, I longed for it, but now, I am quite unsure. I value the strength, dependence and serenity that I had earned when he left me. Perhaps, I had it in me from my past breakups; but I paid a price to gain it back.

 I am afraid to go back to the woman I was when he was with me… dependent, insecure and clingy. I don’t want to make plans with his consent or approval anymore. I don’t want to accomplish things to impress him; I don’t want to prove myself worthy of him, any longer. Yes, my heart thirsts for him… but I am proud that I can handle this freedom, just the way I wanted it to be. No more crying; and no showing of any weakness at all.

I’m just, what normal people call, “fine”.

I am unsettled that when he comes back, I expect more. More, yes, an “engagement” to be exact. I am not in the position to anticipate such, I know that. But at times, hearts are folly. They risk themselves of getting hurt. I know, Fred loves me. But to leave his youth and freedom for me is another issue. I know, this is not a part of any of his plans. He plans to succeed. With me being a part of that plan, hell, I’ll never know.

I am envious to the man that he might become when he comes back. He’s got more of me and experience now, perhaps. Stronger and more independent than before.

Now I wonder, is there any silent competition between lovers? Do we have to prove that one is worthy of the other all the time.

I hate questions. Open ended questions.

29 days. Changes can still surface. I can still clinch freedom until them.

On the 1^st of September, I guess, I have to brace myself. A new perspective begins. I will need my insanity and strength. Of course, it’ll be different.

It has never been the same with Fred.

Six years, low and behold, I still have to learn that.

My Bucket List: Living in Switzerland 2

I found a very talented photgrapher in flickr... his name is Abdullah Al-Qadeeri


he is sooo good, here are some of his Switzerland shots:

He is sooo good!! I want to meet him so that i can ask him about his photography and travel adventures!

Way to go Buddy! :)

My Bucket List: Living in Switzerland

...Yey! My first day of French classes at Alliance Francaise de Manille will be on 13 August 2011!!

.. cant believe that I am heading for the first step of my plans for migrating to Switzerland! :) Learning French will be a very big help since, a lot of regions have it as their Language!!

Je suis tellement excitée!

Suisse, j'arrive!

Commitments (29 July 2011)

"...stop it now!

I say, stop it now! It’s tiring. Exhausting. It’s not fun anymore."

Guess who that is? That's my inner self! Smacking me right in my head, telling me to stop accepting stuff, and learn to say NO the next time. 

Oh mighty God!! Please take my itch of taking all the responsibilities that can be given to others... please help me learn to say NO!! < and please help me tell it to their faces too!>

I used to love commitments. I love it, cause I love the feeling of having a jam-packed organizer... having a full schedule from as early as 6am to 1:00 am the next day. Oh, i love the feeling of getting my butt out and being busy all the time... being "needed" most of the time!

I used to love it all. Busyness, crankiness, bossiness, pressure and organization. But now that I feel so out of balanced, unfocused and fuzzy cause of too much commitment, I feel that I’m about to give up, any second. I didn’t know actually when it did start happening... the feeling that my insides are killing me because I kept on missing deadlines, unsatisfied with my results, and having a very “at the drop of a hat” kinda life. 

Like everything is either last minute or substandard.

The last time I drenched myself in this kind of mess was when my heart was broken.

But I don’t see anything broken in me now, except, i guess,  my sense of balance and inner peace. It’s weird that I just let this happen to me for the past few years. Three or four… Geez, I don’t really know. All I know is that, my hands are so full; and I’m losing my sanity, each and every day. <not much really... but a "little", every passing day>

Pero, hindi ko naman kaya bitiwan ang very thing na nakakapagpa-exhaust sakin! Seriously, I really can’t give up Toastmasters. Not now. Not ever. This organization (club) had really given me a lot. Relationships, satisfaction, reputation and endless opportunities.

I guess, what im saying here is, Im so tired of waking up “tired” all the time.

Do I really need to go away to do some soul searching? Hehehe I kinda feel im losing my soul a bit at times… it’s so much worse than those days when I’ve stuffed myself with so much food and looked at the scale afterwards… believe me, it’s Mardi Gras compare to the emptiness Im feeling when I get too much commitments and never make them at the end of the day.

I feel like I fail every time. I fail me. I fail them. When did failing ever became my routine?

Oh God, yes, I got to go and search for something… Peace and balance, perhaps?

I'm gonna go do some boating and feed the swans just like Noah Calhoun (The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks)

  

Currently Reading (July Book List)

1. The Help (Kathryn Stockett) --  < also shown here is the movie poster> 

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope,The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't. 

2. One Day (David Nicholls) -- <also shown here is the movie poster>

Emma and Dexter spend the night together following their graduation from Edinburgh University in 1988. Though they do not become romantically involved, they become friends and in subsequent years, their lives take them in different directions, but they keep in contact. The novel visits their lives on 15 July in successive years in each chapter.

Emma becomes a waitress in Kentish Town at a horrible Tex-Mex restaurant, while Dexter becomes a successful television producer. Dexter becomes increasingly addicted to alcohol and other drugs, and is often presented as a wreck. Gradually, Emma fulfills her ambitions, first as a teacher and then as a bestselling novelist. Conversely, Dexter's career collapses, going from presenting a mainstream television show, to cable TV, to being fired from a late-night video games review show.

Each of the main characters have relationships with others, such as Emma with an unfunny stand-up comedian boyfriend Ian, and Dexter is with a fellow TV producer. By 2001, Emma has broken up with Ian, and Dexter has divorced wife Sylvie with whom he has had a daughter, Jasmine. The cause of the divorce is Sylvie's infidelity with Callum, one of Dexter's college friends. After the divorce Dexter goes to Paris to visit Emma, where she is writing her second book.

When they meet in Paris, they confront their relationship and whether becoming lovers is the right choice, after all the years they have been friends and with all the complications such a transition would make.

3. The Historian ( Elizabeth Kostova)

The Historian interweaves the history and folklore of Vlad Ţepeş, a 15th-century prince of Wallachia known as "Vlad the Impaler", and his fictional equivalent Count Dracula together with the story of Paul, a professor; his 16-year-old daughter; and their quest for Vlad's tomb. The novel ties together three separate narratives using letters and oral accounts: that of Paul's mentor in the 1930s, that of Paul in the 1950s, and that of the narrator herself in the 1970s. The tale is told primarily from the perspective of Paul's daughter, who is never named.

4. Impossible (Nancy Werlin)

Lucy has nine months to break an ancient curse in order to save both herself and her unborn daughter.

Inspired by the ballad "Scarborough Fair," this riveting novel combines suspense, fantasy, and romance for an intensely page-turning and masterfully original tale.

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child's birth. But Lucy is the first girl who won't be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents and her childhood friend Zach beside her. Do they have love and strength enough to overcome an age-old evil?