Charleston on a Budget

Here's a link to visiting Charleston on a budget (Charleston on the Cheap). Great city that also has "the most beautiful street in America". Enjoy the article.

More on this soon.

Why would anyone do that?

What to write... what to write? I haven't traveled or been somewhere in the past few months so I have no exciting breaking news to write. Then I came across this picture and remembered the afternoon I took this picture. This was taken around three years ago actually. With three other friends, we went around town trying to discover interesting places. Right across the CNN Center, we discovered this park, the Centennial Olympic Park, with this fountain on the ground shaped like the Olympic rings.

When I saw it, I thought it was really just a normal fountain. But these kids made it just a bit more interesting. They were out there in their bathing suits, playing around the fountain. What's weird though was their reactions. They would go to the middle of one of those rings, stand there and wait for the fountain to come blasting out of the ground. Then when all this water will splash around, they will scream at the top of their lungs, while still in the middle of the ring, mind you, then run across the splashing fountain to get out of the ring. Like, duh... I must be getting old.

Have you ever seen a child put a finger on a hot kettle just to know if what everyone is saying (that the kettle is hot) is true? Or the adventurous traveler try white water rafting to know what it would feel like if the raft tossed you high up in the air, or worse, capsized? Well, one of my friends went to Colorado and tried white water rafting. The raft capsized. :D Fortunately, they were all just fine.

Like a Spark

Great travel ideas come to us like a spark. Usually, they're not a result of so much planning and careful thought. They appear out of nowhere, like a bright spark in the middle of a dark sky and suddenly spread out like fireworks - bright, colorful and exciting. They call you to just go, not next month or next year, but tomorrow. It's a call at the back of your head telling you to start packing now.

This reminds me of an English guy who said he doesn't normally think so much about his upcoming trips. He just packs his things and goes to wherever it is he needs, or wants, to go. His favorite website? You guessed it -- Lastminute.com it is. :)

This is not a call to all of you to leave your jobs and pack your bags, like, now na. It's reminder that we don't need to "engineer" our trips so much, and even the way we live our lives. That where to go will come to you when you least expect it. That sometimes, places off the beaten track can actually define a trip.

Colored Jellyfish

Jellyfish inside color lighted tanks in a dark room at Ocean Park Hongkong.

Weekends

Good weekends, good travel experiences make you feel like jelly. They give you this bright, colorful, yet warm feeling inside, like everything's right with the world. Sometimes it's a matter of perspective, or the company you're with, or the place you're in. It could happen in any of the following ways:

• Under the sun, on the beach
• Under the water while snorkeling (off the coast of Batangas possibly)
• Inside a stupa in Bangkok
• Gazing up at the gigantic Wat Po buddha
• At home on a calm and lazy Sunday afternoon
• While feeding bangus in a fish pen on a river
• Having Southern barbeque with live country music
• Walking city streets on weekends
• Driving on a stretch of road to somewhere (no traffic!)
• Walking in Greenbelt in Makati
• Sitting at a table at Seattle's Best while watching "older people" dance the night away at Cafe Havana
• Riding a boat, with really nowhere to go
• Or, having a cheeseburger at a McDonald's with free wifi access :)

Hello

Boo ya. Yep, this site is still up. It's not going anywhere. I've just been too busy living life. Life hasn't been about traveling somewhere lately, but it's been about being present and looking at what's out here. The local attractions, so to speak.

Where are you all headed off to?

Happy travels.