Life in (Flip Flops) Heels: Traveling for Work

Every now and then I would have to trade in my flip flops and my backpack to travel for work, and the experience is quite different from how I would normally travel in my own time (and out of my own pocket): the room accommodations are suddenly too big for one person (especially after having stayed with two friends in a tin can of a hostel in Hong Kong once upon a time. Good times!), and there's just too much concrete and buildings in my surroundings (especially compared to the vast, dusty plains and ancient temples of Bagan). I think there's plenty to like about work trips - for one, they're a great way to meet new people and to learn about how your counterparts in other markets work. There's also something magical about being able to do your work outside of your office - it's nice to be working somewhere else for once instead of on your desk, and sometimes the change in scenery is enough to get some good ideas flowing, as if being in a new place also gives you a new perspective of the work you've been doing.

The following are just a few photos I've taken from the work trips I've taken in my old job, mostly in Singapore and one time in Malaysia. They're a lot different from the photos I usually post here. Have a look!

Airport Daze & Other Drabbles (Laos Musings, Part 1)

Note: I've never actually kept a travel journal, and would only write about my travels after I got back from them. But the Laos trip was different - there was plenty of time to think and write, so I did: at the airport, the cafe, on a boat. I had meant to edit my little drabbles from the road and put them together in one neat post, but there's something more raw and real about reading through the actual words I wrote while I was on my trip, so the stuff you will read below is mostly unedited, and nearly exactly as I had written them on my laptop, my iTouch or my phone while traveling around Laos. 

Contrasting, 04 May 2012, NAIA 

I am sitting beside a man having a video call with his family. I gather that he’s bound for Singapore, most likely to go to work there. I can sense in the way he holds his phone in his two hands tightly, in his intent gaze on his wife and daughter on the screen, that the airport is the last place he’d want to be in at this moment, that he would do anything to come home and stay there. 

I, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to leave. 

There’s always a little tinge of guilt that taints my excitement to travel, right along that question that nags me more often than I would probably care to admit – why am I so eager to leave? Why so eager to go away? The guilt is especially tangible this time around, while sitting beside this man, who I’m sure feels exactly the way my dad does, because he too works away from home. 

The thing is, it’s not that I long to travel so I can escape – maybe I do, to escape the daily grind of everyday corporate life, but certainly not to escape home and the people I love in it. If anything, travelling makes me long for home, and how does that saying go again, about how distance makes the heart grow fonder? 

In a perfect world I would have a career that lets me frequently fly across the world on business-mixed-with-pleasure trips, a friend and family member in every corner of the globe and a home with every one of them, and the man beside me will be able to provide for his family in the comfort of his own country. 

But life is never quite as practical as the humans who live through them seem to be, or perhaps it’s practical in ways we are not always able to see. Doing something you love and doing something for the one you love can sadly mean two different things, and perhaps in those two is how we, the man beside me and I, are different.  

Airport Daze, 05 May 2012, LCCT 

I’ve had my fair share of flights in ungodly hours, of back-to-back, no-sleep flying from one destination to another, and this trip to Laos is no different. I left Manila in the evening on a Friday night, arrived past midnight the next day in Kuala Lumpur, and now have time to kill at the LCCT before my morning flight to Vientiane. I was wide awake at one point, but now everything feels a little surreal – it’s freezing inside the scarcely-populated terminal, the cold seeping through my jacket while it rains buckets outside. My eyes are threatening to fall shut, and it’s only the fast and free WiFi plus MGMT’s “Boogie Down” that’s keeping me up. 

Two Caucasian guys just sat a few rows across from mine, one holding a tiny green guitar (a banjo?), the other carrying a regular–sized one, and a book. I wonder what they’re doing so far away from home. 

I’m so sleepy that I don’t even long for a bed – just my seat on the plane so I can doze off even before takeoff. But it’ll still be a few minutes before boarding time, and Jen isn’t even around yet. 

Even with the lack of sleep however, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. This is the life – sitting sleepless in airports, amid strangers, with nothing but the thought of a strange new destination keeping you afloat.

Snapshots: Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I've flown into Kuala Lumpur four times, but can't say I've actually explored it, unfortunately. I'd been there once overnight for work, and the other three times during our KL-Sing-Bali trip in 2010, although we were only in Malaysia during the intervals between Singapore and Indonesia and barely had time to do anything but hang around at the airport. In a few weeks I will be flying to KL again to get to Laos, but hopefully I get to explore it a little bit, maybe try the food.

Snapshots: From Kuala Lumpur to Bali

A piece of clear blue sky to brighten your Monday. Because it's never a bad thing to have a pick-me-up on the first day of the work week, no matter how sunny and summery.

Snapshots: Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

It's been gloomy and rainy all week here, so I thought a nice, sunny picture of the beach would cheer us up some. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Snapshots: Carmeli's Glasses, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

My friend Carmeli's sunglasses on our trip to Kota Kinabalu. Cute right? :)

Snapshots: Monsopiad Headhunter Village, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Yes, those are human skulls, prized items from days and years past when headhunting was still being practiced in Sabah. Now the Monsopiad Cultural Village opens its doors to tourists who want to know more about what it's like to live in one of these villages. When my friends and I went, we got to watch a performance of a traditional dance by the young ones of the village, and even got to participate in the show (haha). We also tried our hand at their ancient weapons, which was pretty fun, after which we politely declined their offer/challenge to eat a traditional snack of living, breathing woodworms, which seemed terribly horrifying. (You can make me jump off a tower with just a bungee cord tied to my leg, but it takes an entirely different kind of balls to eat uncooked, living organisms. Except yogurt.)

Snapshots: Kokeshi Dolls, Malaysia

A favorite pasalubong or souvenir that I like to give to my female friends and family, in different forms - from actual kokeshi dolls, kokeshi doll pens, to even umbrellas that look like kokeshi dolls!

Snapshots: Friends Off To The Beach, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Carmeli, Edell and Dale in Tungku Abdul Rahman Marine Park in Kota Kinabalu, from our trip way back in 2008.

Farewell 2010, Cheers 2011!

This is coming to you all a bit late, my apologies - I was preoccupied on New Year's as my family spent it at the beach!

Anyway, onward to the customary year-end post, to bid goodbye to 2010 and usher in a new year. Four countries, a handful of amazing travel buddies, and too many awesome memories to count - it was a great and memorable year of travel, one I won't soon forget! To Mabs, Eds, Carms, Ris, Tiff, Jon, J-Anne, Jona and Bom - friends who travel are friends for keeps, so thanks so much for all the travel memories, and here's to more trips in 2011!

Travel Buddies! A Series of Snapshots

En route to Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

I didn't want to end our epic Asia trip in a sullen tone, because really, it was so much fun! And a big reason why it was an insanely hilarious trip was because of the people I traveled with. So I thought our craziest pictures deserved a post. Until our next adventure girlies! Fighting! :D

The futuristic version of the teacup ride at Universal Studios!

The crazy G-Max Reverse Bungy ride with Tiff and Ris!
We ate SEVEN KILOS OF SEAFOOD in Jimbaran, Bali!
Camwhoring at Legian Beach
In Far Far Away at Universal Studios Singapore!
Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur

More Than A Little Willing To Keep Moving.

Spending a lazy Sunday in a coffee shop in the unglamorous side of Kuala Lumpur (nope, no Petronas Tower in sight from where we are). It's the last day of our trip, and we're just killing (a lot of) time before our flight back to Manila at 11 pm later. It's cloudy today, and the gloomy weather coupled with the gray concrete-ness of our surroundings remind me of many of my Sundays from when I still went to university. Pearl Drive, the street where my school and dorm were located, would be a virtual ghost town on Sundays. I'd spend hours at one of the neighborhood coffee shops studying, reading a book or listening to music. It sounds like sad memories, but they weren't really. Living alone in the city teaches you a lot of things.

I really love to travel, no question about that. I don't find it at all difficult to pack my bags, book a flight, and just go. I enjoy spending days when my life is contained in a few bags in a strange new place that's so different from what I'm used to, but somehow manages to remind me of home too. It's a strange kind of freedom that I embrace wholeheartedly every chance I get - it scares me sometimes, how I'm so attracted to this kind of freedom, how I don't fear it at all. Because then, what of the days when I go back to my real life? What does this say about how I feel about most of my days and weeks and months, all spent trying to build a "life" - being able to buy a nice comfortable home, sticking to a daily routine that works so I can keep my schedule organized and all my tasks done, building a steady career to keep me financially stable? And which is my real life to begin with? Or are both versions of my life real? In which case, will I need to pick one? Or can I keep doing this, moving back and forth, because I think it's pretty clear to me now that traveling for me isn't just what it is for most people - it's not just about being able to get away for a couple of days to have a good time. Even if I don't know how or why it is the case, I think it's pretty obvious that the art of travel has so much more meaning to me. It's both a gift and a curse I guess, and most days I think it's the former, but today...today is strange.

Maybe I was a wandering free spirit in a past life, who lived La Vie Boheme in a time and a place in the world when that didn't mean running the risk of death by starvation. Maybe, as John Mayer aptly puts it, "It might be a quarter life crisis, or just a stirring in my soul". Maybe I shouldn't have listened to Fiona Apple's "Tidal" today (I didn't have the benefit of emo culture growing up, so I survived my teen years listening to Fiona Apple's poetry in "Tidal", among other things).

I'm flying home tonight, and maybe I should have just stuck to my cheesy, forever-happy KPop playlist.

Snapshots: Ion Orchard, Singapore

We're on Day 3 of our epic Asia trip for the year! Currently in Kuala Lumpur, getting a breather after our flight from Singapore. We'll be heading out to explore the city later.

Singapore was awesome! We got to go around the city on the first day and went shopping. Many thanks to Rox, our awesome hostess with the mostest, who took us around the city and treated us to great food (it was SO good it made Rissee cry - and I'm not even exaggerating!)! We capped our first night in Singapore by taking on the G-Max Reverse Bungee in Clarke Quay - which was INSANE! Shout-out to Rissee and Tiff who did the ride with me! Thanks for bearing with my unsexy screams. Haha.

On the second day we went to Universal Studios - which was also pretty awesome! A shout-out to Mabz who did the scary roller coaster rides (and the futuristic tea cups - she hates those tea cup rides, haha!) even if it was more than a little against her will. GOOD JOB!

Finally, a trip to Singapore won't be complete without the shopping - and shopping we did! Shout-out to Edell, who shopped her heart out at the Bugis Market and went with me to Cotton On and Rubi - cute 10-dollar flats for the win!

More pictures and updates soon! Heading out to Bali tomorrow. Yay!

Snapshots: Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

My friends and I are off to the beach for the long weekend for some much-needed R&R! On Saturday we fly to the esteemed beaches of Boracay - certainly not the quietest beach in the Philippines, but I am hoping for some quiet "me" time to reflect and think about life in general, chori burger and margarita in hand. :P

In anticipation of the weekend, here's a picture of a beach in the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. I remember swimming a few meters away from the shore here and being able to feed and snorkel among schools of fish. It's a lot of fun until they start nibbling on your finger instead of the bread you're holding out for them. :)

And this is completely out of topic, but wow, WAY TO GO JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO ON WINNING THE US OPEN MEN'S SINGLES FINAL AGAINST ROGER FEDERER! I loved how, when he was asked if he was going to buy something to treat himself using his US Open prize money, he answered "Maybe cheesecake for my [21st] birthday." Too cute! I'm still a Rafa fan but I have to hand it to this guy, he's got nerves of steel for sure, and so young at only 20 years old! VAMOS DELPO!

Snapshots: A Biweekly Photo Journal

It takes me a while to post entries about my travels, mostly because it takes me a long time to write, and to compound the issue, I don't always have the opportunity to just sit down and flesh out my journeys into words (you might then ask, "Why the heck do you still write a blog, then?" The answer, my friend, is simple - writing and traveling are my passions, and this blog affords me the luxury to put them together. So I might not have all the time in the world for them now, but someday I will, and until that happens, I make do with what I have...but I digress).

What I have a lot of, however, are pictures from my trips - heaps and heaps of them tucked away in folder upon folder within my trusty hard drive, gathering dust, or shall I say megabytes? So starting next week, I'll share two random travel photos with you every week for as long as I have pictures to post!

The picture above was taken in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia last year. I went on a three-day trip that cost my friends and I only PhP 13,000 each for everything - airfare, accommodations, food, shopping, and various activities. But more on that next time, and more pictures soon! For now, I leave you with this picture of my friend Carmeli's funky heart-shaped sunglasses - incidentally, it's her birthday today! Happy birthday Carmz, I miss you! And to everyone else, 'till the the next snapshot!

Blogging from Kota Kinabalu: Last Day!

(Note: this post was originally published on my personal blog)

We are flying back to Manila tonight! It's been a great trip. Yesterday was a blast - we went on a jungle trek and crazy things happened, the kind that only happen to stupid tourists like us...hahaha! We also went to the Poring Hot Spring. To cap off the night, we walked by the wharf where there is a strip of restaurants and pubs and we went and had drinks at the Shamrock Irish Pub. We drank pints of Irish beer and I also had a Shamrock Sunrise, which I guess was an Irish version of Tequila Sunrise, and all this while watching football on ESPN. Very Irish, yeah?

I'll post pictures another time, as we are headed out for a tour of the city, after which we'll be visiting the cultural village and possibly the wildlife zoo, and then we'll go straight to the airport.

Blogging from Kota Kinabalu: The Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park (Day 2)

(Note: this post was originally published on my personal blog)

Yesterday we went to the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and visited three beautiful white sand beaches:

Mamutik Island - my favorite island out of the three. Mabelle, Dale and I went snorkeling and there was so much fish! They follow after you thinking you would feed them bread. The sand was powdery white and the water was nice and warm.

Manukan Island - the biggest of the three islands, and it had the most people. Look, there are pine trees by the beach!

Sapi Island - they had huge komodo dragons (at least we think they were komodo dragons) just walking around the island!

We then had dinner at a restaurant a few doors beside our hostel.

Carmz and I got to walk around the city after dinner while the others watched Twilight. More on that next time, but here's a strange picture - they had these crustaceans trapped in mineral water bottles inside an aquarium and I'm thinking, how did they manage to fit those in there? My theory is they raised those crustaceans inside the bottle since they were very very small...which is kind of sad and cruel! Let's hope my theory isn't true.

Today we're headed for Kinabalu park...I love this whole free internet thing at the lodge!

Blogging from Kota Kinabalu!

(Note: this post was originally published on my personal blog)

We're here! Arrived early evening last night. Some pictures from the plane:

We are staying in a place called Lavender Lodge, a simple hostel of sorts for backpackers. It's my first time to stay at a place like this and I might even like it better than staying at hotels, because it's a lot like living in someone else's house as a guest. But no one brings your stuff around for you and we had to lug our bags to the fourth floor of the building, which is cool I guess - adds to the whole "roughing it" experience.

Today we are headed for the Tunkuh Abdul Rahman Marine Park - I hope I got that right. We're going island hopping and snorkelling yay! And tomorrow we go to the Kinabalu Park to do a bit of hiking, check out the hot spring and go on a canopy walk. Laters!