The Beginning of the Travel Journey

Let me share with you how did I start with this frequent & sustainable international travel journey of mine, considering that I have a passport from a third world country.

👉It started when I was a young child, at about 9 years old whenever we go to the houses and places of family friends seeing photos of their travels in the albums that are commonly available in the coffee table of every house hold back in the 80's. Coming from a poor family, we did not travel by plane, nor could afford such travels.  All I could do was just to look at those photos, feel it with my senses and imagine myself being in those places as well. 

I never felt envious being inferior to them, but rather I had a grateful heart at such a young age thanking them at the deepest part of my heart for sharing those photos with us. Otherwise, I would never have an idea about other places and the possibilities that life can bring.

Me back in 1997 (wearing beige hat) with family and friends and we could only afford to travel this touristy place in the Philippines through public bus transportation.

Having been born and raised in a tropical country , not to mention the incapability of travels, I only got to see the snow, the winter, the spring and fall seasons through the movies and magazines.  In my heart, I have always adored their outfit and also I got amazed with the background as well. I wondered what it was like seeing different colors of the leaves -- brownish green, reddish green, yellowish brown, and red. In my eyes, I had always only seen green and brown! I never knew what the beauty of spring meant.  The colors and tiny buds from the leaves waking up from their long sleep during the snowy winter.  And the winter! Oh my God, the snowy winter! It was white all over! I've always thought of winter as elegant due to its white color.  I had only seen green, brown and blue all my life. Green for the mountains, trees, grass and leaves; Brown for the tree barks and stems, also the mountains! and blue for the ocean. I had only seen colorful tropical flowers, but what about the blue flowers? I had never seen it in my life. Neither any tree without any leaves. Oh how they looked so adorable to me!

Not only with the environment that I was mesmerized, but even the outfits as well! Oh how lovely those scarves, gloves and boots were! They looked fashionable when put together! And those layers of clothes, thick jackets and beanies! How I loved to imagine myself back then how would I look like if I wear those? Living in a hot and humid climate, I had no choice but to wear only those cotton and thin fabric clothes. Not even think about layering or otherwise I will sweat to my death.

I could also imagine back then their faces, how they sweetly smiled altogether in all their photos. To me, they looked very happy and fulfilled. They had fulfilled every Filipino's dream which is to travel and see the other side of the world.

And I had carried this dream with me although out my life. Until I got married at the age of 25, and my very first journey was outside my home country, we flew to Hongkong for our honeymoon! It was a dream come true and since then I started to ask myself, how about the other countries? I'd like to see and experience them too in the future. I'd always wanted to see and feel the snow, the spring and the autumn. 

I kept asking myself with series of questions about how the other parts of the world looked like, felt like and what was it like to be there. I have always known in my heart that I will never stop until I get all the answers to my thousands of questions.

So my dear travel buddies, your travel journey starts here ... with me. 

You just need to fill your mind with thousands of questions about anything related to travel and possibilities. It does not necessarily mean that you have to live there or stay there or even think about spending huge amount of money just to be able to travel.  You just need to have a CURIOUS MIND, yes! Fill your mind with curiosity and slowly, the universe will slowly unfold its answers right before your eyes.

And in this blog, I will be sharing how I did my frequent travels, in different countries while having a third world country passport.  I will be sharing my proven techniques on how I managed to apply for visas, how I outsmarted them and some lessons that I have learned as well with the failures I encountered along the way in this journey.

So, my dear travel buddies, if you want a sustainable travel budget and still saving your savings, tag along with me in this journey. 

Until next time ;-) Ciao!