11.25.07
davao leg
the one thing i could not forget on my way to davao was the taxi driver in cdo reprimanding me. when i hopped on the taxi and the driver learned i went to valencia, bukidnon the previous night, he gave me his two cents. he belatedly advised me that i should have checked out from VIP hotel the previous day and should have spent the night at valencia. since my destination was davao city, he told me that i would have been 3 hours away from davao then. but since i went back to cdo from valencia, i was back to square one. meaning – my travel time from cdo to davao was back to six hours.
right. that’s why doing some research and preparing an itinerary is a must when traveling.
ticket stub: cagayan de oro – to – davao city via BuDa Route [AC, NO stopover , fare @ PhP 305 back in sept. 2003] bus terminal: agora bus terminal - click on the link to view info on bus routes and bus companies serving the different provinces of mindanao. 
on board Rural Tours bus. the bus leaves on schedule regardless of number of passengers on board.
cagayan leg
my mindanao trip back in september 2003 was shouting “newbie traveler!!!!!!!!!!!”.
for someone who’s lived in the city all her life – i fell into the trap of checking out the malls. yup, with no idea of CDO’s places of interest – the next destination for me was CDO’s limketkai center. the center then was under renovation, which proved inconvenient. as if checking out limketkai wasn’t enough, i proceeded to checking out the newly-opened SM Cagayan. going there gave me a little scare as it turned out, SM was located at Upper Carmen Cagayan de Oro City. the mall was on the way to the airport and was to me very far from the city proper.
checking out the malls clearly showed my lack of an itinerary for this trip. on top of that, i was my usual self during the whole trip. i’m a creature of habits and doing something different from the ordinary is something you could not expect from me. thus, this trip as my college teacher ms. lee said, “was truly life changing”.
11.11.07
mindanao trip 2003 [1 of 3]
call it impulsive but when i had enough of my adeno’s symptoms, i headed straight to robinson’s place. i went to one of the travel agencies there and bought myself a boat ticket to cagayan de oro city and a return ticket to cebu from davao.
this trip afforded me a lot of firsts: first solo trip, first time in mindanao [cagayan de oro, bukidnon, & davao], first time to check-in a hotel, first plane ride, first time to taste durian, first time to defy my adeno symptoms.
11.10.07
wanderlust trigger
i once thought that my beautiful uterus is the bane of my existence.
for many years, it dictated how i lead my life. a lot of my actions were done after serious consideration of my beautiful and complicated u.
since my last year of grade school, i’ve come to accept the irregularity of my period. i’ve learned to manage episodes of profuse bleeding as well as of extreme pain. at 24, i decided to consult an OB once and for all [hehe, at age 12 - i vowed to accept death than go back and consult an OB regarding my condition]. it was then that i had a label to my constant profuse bleeding. dr. lourdes poblete-chan requested an ultrasound and the lab report indicated “adenomyosis”.
the ms. g student that i was, i hit the Internet cafes and reviewed the literature on adenomyosis. although i learned that my adeno was not life-threathening, it’s the negative things i’ve read associated with this condition that stuck in my head. i couldn’t contain my extreme sadness as my overly active imagination webbed a lot of bad scenarios in my future. it was after shedding bucketful of tears that i came to the
conclusion to NOT let my adenomyosis ruin my life. it was at that moment that i took control of my life.
little did i know then, my beautiful u’s condition paved the way to my unquenchable thirst for traveling. consciously deciding to put a stop to my pessimistic thoughts regarding my beautiful u, i ended up buying a boat ticket to cagayan de oro city and a return-plane ticket from davao to cebu.
the cebu-cdo-davao-cebu trip is what i consider my first real travel experience. First real travel in the sense that it was me and myself who had an active hand in the plan.
11.02.07
first trip
my parents both hail from the province of balamban. both sides of their families are cebuanos, purely “bisdaks.” vacations are unheard of in our family. thus, going out of town is not a frequent occurrence. the only time we leave the city is when it’s fiesta time in the barrio where my mother grew up. however, as soon as i entered high school going to balamban became few and far between until it stopped altogether.
though i’ve read a few books telling me about beautiful places on earth, the idea of traveling simply didn’t occur to me. heck, i didn’t even think that it was UNUSUAL.
NOT traveling is simply IT.
it wasn’t until i was 23 when i first had my first travel experience. it was then that i had my first ever boat ride. [and yes, at that time i haven't even ridden a ferry boat going to mactan]
and i have this person to thank for. she tapped the wanderlust in me.
michelle torres-mabatid [with husband bagloi]
my first ever trip was actually chelle forcing me to come with her, bagloi, jasmine, joshuani, and jude to go to bohol. she quipped that i got no reason to refuse because bagloi had already bought tickets for the six of us. although scared about traveling by boat, i eventually relented with chelle’s incessant prodding. in the end, it was only bagloi, jasmine, chelle, and me who went to bohol.
unfortunately, all four of us didn’t have a camera with us. thus, my first ever trip was undocumented saved for these two tickets:
Cebu – Tagbilaran [July 19, 2003 22:00:00] via Sr. San Jose de Tagbilaran… Tourist B-0297 … Fare: PhP 230.
Tagbilaran – Cebu [July 20, 2003 22:30:00] via San Ramon de Bohol… Tourist B-0026… Fare: PhP 230
Travel Highlights:
“Pwera bisita, pwera bisita… the boat is now leaving the ship.” — this was what the boat ‘announcer’ said when the boat is about to depart from cebu to bohol. no kidding.
Boat Ride at the Loboc River
Meeting chelle’s lola diva [as jasmine called her].
Breakfast with chelle’s family from the States at the MetroCenter Hotel.
Meeting jasmine’s family at Loay, Bohol
Attending a local concert sponsored by San Miguel Corporation. First ever taste of San Miguel Draft Beer straight from a keg.
This trip was mostly jeepney ride as I learned that points of interest in bohol are real far from each other.
there's no special reason for the name except the love of putting my foot in front of the other until i'm breathless. traveling is a new found love for me. though i'm not blessed with beautiful-looking feet, i've gotten the habit of taking photos of my feet every time i set foot on lands outside of my beloved cebu. THANKS FOR VISITING!!! leave me a note or two. send it to vetlongwalks@yahoo.com or drop me a comment here. would love to hear from you!
BE WARNED: i'm no seasoned traveler nor a professional travel writer. contents here are purely accounts of my own travel experience.
[photo taken @ the palawan butterfly garden - feb.08]
-chocolate hills [carmen bohol]
-underground river palawan
-dapdap beach [anda bohol]
-el nido, palawan
-club fort med [boljoon, cebu]
-murcia, negros occidental
-dumaguete, negros oriental
-taal volcano [view from tagaytay]
-sunset in cavite
