HERE WE GO!!! I’ve been tremendously caught up in work and a lot of other extracurricular activities these past few days.
This is my introductory post on my #Project81PH journey. LOL! 😂 I always feel like I have to make an introduction every time I open up a new facet of my life here. That’s just me!😊 I just want to establish the foundation for my #Project81PH journey for this will be mostly the focus of my content from hereon.
I hope you are excited to read this as, perhaps, this is one of the most exhilarating parts of what I’ll be sharing here in Hive – my backpacking journey around the Philippines, of which the last parts I’ve done mostly solo.
Aside from organizing my life, if someone asks me what I do best, I’d definitely say traveling. Next to positive, the other word people associate to my name is traveler or to be more concise, backpacker.
In my introductory post, I’ve mentioned that I started exploring the Philippines back in 2017. In today’s write up, I’ll talk about the following:
(1) What is #Project81PH?
(2) How I ended up dreaming to travel the entire Philippines?
(3) Why explore the Philippines?
(4) The Big Plan
(5) How I ended up traveling alone?
Sounds invigorating, right? Let's start! 😍
What is #Project81PH?
The Philippines is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia located in the western Pacific Ocean. The last time I checked the Philippine Archipelago consists of around 7,641 islands grouped into seventeen (17) Regions and eighty-one (81) Provinces. For non-Filipinos who might be reading this, basically, the goal of this personal project of mine is to explore all the eighty-one (81) Provinces of my country — that means literally hopping from one island into the other.
This project is not new to a number of Filipinos. There have been few people who were able to explore all the eighty-one (81) Provinces. One of those who were able to finish the #Project81PH is a schoolmate of mine. Her name is Nicole del Rosario.
How I ended up dreaming to travel the entire Philippines?
A sacred contract with my mother.
This one is surely the best manifestation of the famous saying “The wrong train takes us to the right destination” Prior to graduating from college, I never dreamed of exploring places. All I knew was Cebu and Negros Oriental (my father’s hometown). All I had in mind is get the best job in the best company, climb the corporate ladder as much I could, and be the best in my field. I had an early “mid-life crisis” during the last months of my college life. I realized graduating with flying colors in the most prestigious school in the country wasn’t my dream afterall. It was my mother’s dream; it was my family’s dream. But I was a very kind daughter that I’d rather stick to rules than rebel. And I knew how difficult it was for my parents, who didn’t even make it to high school, to raise a kid and build her so she could fly high and be the best she could be. Without any complaints, I pursued my mother’s, my family’s dream.
Two months after my graduation, we had an informal conversation with Ma and I told her I’ll travel as much as I could starting that day. She said, “Okay, as long as you won’t ask for money from me”.
You may find it bizarre knowing that I’ve been to the farthest points of the country but believe me, I’ve never traveled outside of Metro Cebu with friends back in college. Well, aside from the fact that my friends and I don’t have the money for it before, I’m so used to being told by my mother “You stay in the house and study. You can do whatever you want after college." My mother kept her promise.
The naïve girl is out of her cage now. Her mother freed her. Finally.
I was heartbroken.
Nope, no need to read that again. You read it right, fella!
And just dropping a friendly reminder, if you’re planning to entertain a suitor or planning to engage in a romantic relationship, always have a Breakup Fund. I am not kidding here!😂 After breakups, we all go through the I-want-to-move-on-fast stage. Some people even told me to go back to the places where memories were created and make new ones with new people. At first, I thought it was a financially hilarious idea but apparently, heartbreaks strengthened my desire to explore the Philippines.
Travel used to be an escape when I had to move on from a 10-year almost love affair with my first love and a brief (but life-changing) romantic relationship with a flight attendant.
God knows how grateful I am to these guys for pushing me to go beyond my limits.
Why explore the Philippines?
Don’t be a stranger in your own country, that’s what we learned from school or perhaps heard from our elders.
The first time I traveled in Camiguin, I told myself, “Why did I explore just now?” I felt I was a stranger. I felt I came from another planet. How can I be missing a lot by not exploring more of my country?
I know I couldn’t give justice to this question. If you’ve explored with me and experience how wonderful the Filipinos I’ve met are, how delectable the local food is, how astonishing it is to discover that one barangay speaks a different language from an adjacent barangay, how priceless people’s smiles are, you’ll realize that there’s more to the Philippines than the irritating and hopeless news we see on national television. While we are here in the big cities, complaining about traffic, flood, COVID-19, and all the things you can think of, there are people whose lives are so simple that I’d somehow wish I live the kind of life they have.
And before I forget to mention, the fact that we’re so dispersed and geographically distant yet the values of strong family relations, genuine hospitality, resiliency, and courage is ubiquitous is nothing but an amazing thing to experience firsthand.
That’s what I see when I travel around the country. It opened my eyes to what truly matters.
You might call me a liar if I tell you this, but although Paris, Maldives, Iceland to name a few, excites me, I’d rather explore the caves in Batanes or meet the locals in Sitangkai and Sibutu. I’d rather climb Mt. Guiting-guiting and feel an adrenaline rush in Cagayan’s white water rafting. There’s this excitement that only exploring the Philippines could fulfill.
We all have dreams and our dreams may differ. What gives you thrill, might not even move me and vice versa. And that’s okay. We are all born to live different paths, to fulfill different goals.
The Big Plan
If you’ve read my last post about time management, you probably have an idea that I never start anything without a plan. The idea of not having a plan terrifies me. It feels like jumping on the 100th floor of a building with full knowledge that I will die. 😫
Last August 2017, I was sent to a seminar about goal-setting. The great thing about this seminar was that although it was company-sponsored they allowed us to have personal outputs for the seminar. What we did the entire four (4) hours is to identify the biggest goal we currently have in mind and draft our plan on how we are going to achieve it. That’s when I ended up making my Big Plan for my #Project81PH.
The goal is to travel the entire Philippines. In order to support this goal, I made the following objectives:
(1) To finish all the eighty-one (81) Provinces by the age of twenty-eight (28) or not later than thirty (30) years old
(2) To travel the entire Philippines at the lowest possible total budget or cost
In August 2017, I already traveled around eighteen (18) Provinces that left me with sixty plus more unexplored Provinces. With these figures at hand, I told myself I have to travel at least twelve (12) Provinces every year from 2017-2022.
How I ended up traveling alone?
“What? You’re on your own?”
I get that a lot from strangers. Even my closest friends will ask me “Are you sure you’re doing this alone?”
When asked how I mastered traveling alone, I could think of the training I got from work when I’ll be sent to different key cities in the country to meet our Sales Team, do store checks and open new branches. I’ve been extremely independent to the point that traveling alone is just an ordinary thing to me. This is on top of the inconcealable truth that I love being on my own.
How about your friends? Workmates? Believe me, we tried. I used to travel with my friends and workmates and I’ll be sharing all those stories here soon. I think it was in 2019 when I started to travel on my own and planning to do the same for the next trips. And here’s why:
We travel differently
My friends/workmates don’t have the same idea of adventure as I am. I like fast-paced, always-on-the-road kind of trip. Land in Roxas City, Capiz by morning travel to Kalibo, Aklan by noon, sleep in Iloilo by night, have lunch the following day in Antique, back in Iloilo by night, and fly back to Cebu the following morning. But some people prefer to do staycations, enjoy relaxing stays in luxurious hotels. Although I’d love but not going to exchange it for the smell of sweat in my skin when I’d be running towards the boarding gate when I’m already paged in the airport for being the last one to be on board a plane when I got stuck in a bad EDSA traffic. I take pleasure in canceled flights, sleeping hours in the boats in the middle of nowhere, etcetera etcetera.
They can’t take long vacation leaves
One thing I love about my work is that I can take vacation leaves for two-three (2-3) weeks straight without being questioned by my boss. Except when he told me “If I were you, I’d rather not go to Basilan first, it will be the last on my list.” I got his point though. 😂 Yup, I work an 8-5 job. Just your ordinary working-class lady after all.
I travel on a tight budget
When you travel twelve (12) days on the road, you’ll never think of getting a luxurious room to stay in for only 7-8 hours for sleeping. But not everyone would like the idea of getting a budget room or hammock for two hundred and fifty (Php 250) pesos (roughly $5.21) per night.
Some people wouldn’t get the excitement from sitting in a local jeep next to a stranger and would prefer traveling in a rented private van. But I like long rides on buses, the world feels so big and endless from the window seat.
Others would prefer to eat in a high-end restaurant but I like eating in carinderias or eatery. Mind you! I found the best Bicol Express in an eatery during one of our stop-overs from Sorsogon to Albay.
Schedule! Schedule! Schedule!
When you travel with other people, you have to consider every single person’s availability. It’s difficult to align everyone’s schedules sometimes. Let’s just say, I got tired of asking people around and decided to go for it without them.
I don’t want to park my goals until I find someone willing to travel the way I travel. So I told myself, this is my goal and I should probably just do it alone.
Guess what? I figured I don’t want to adjust. I want to travel on my own terms. 😊
That's it for my introductory post about my biggest and craziest personal project by far! In my next post, I'll be sharing with you where I'm currently at in my #Project81PH. I'm ecstatic to tell you stories about my travels. Allow me to take you around one of Southeast Asia's gems, the Philippines! See you! 💛💙💖
Living life intentionally every single day, she believes that there’s no limit to one’s potentials. Right now, she’s on the loose for the pursuit of endless holistic self-growth and development. She wants to light the way for others. She believes there’s no better way to leave a legacy than to pay it forward.
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