How Travel Changed My Life

Travel taught me many things

Back in the 90's I used to travel a lot just to go to places I have never been before. The feeling of being in a place other than home amazed me then. Without much regard to the tourist attractions and without much research on the places I want to visit to, my past travels were all about just being happy to be setting my foot on unfamiliar places. 
Bantayan sa Hari Liloan Cebu Philippines
Bantayan sa Hari - Liloan, Cebu

Travel taught me to be patient when my travel needed to be put on a halt, when my mother was diagnosed with diabetes in the late 90's. Traveling had to stop then in order to take turns on caring for her. Gone are the days where I long to be in distant places other than my hometown just to enjoy the scenery those places have to offer. I can quite remember how happy I was then joyriding from Bacolod to Dumaguete by bus and that Manjunod wasn't that popular then, as it is today.





Fast forward to late April and early May of 2016 where my sisters and I went to Singapore to visit my younger sister's husband who was then working in the aforementioned country. With us on that travel were my younger sister's children. Imagine how tiring could that be on the part of my younger sister but for the love of her husband and her children, she endured those phase in her life only to make her children happy to be reunited with their father. It was on day 3 where we were all exhausted but kids were not, that I offered to babysit them (while their parents were sleeping) and brought them to the nearby Pasir Ris Park to let them enjoy and play at the park to their heart's content. Travel taught me to be selfless and empathetic.

Pasir Ris Park - Singapore
My nieces and nephew having fun at Pasir Ris Park - Singapore

A few days after I and my older sister arrived home from Singapore, our mother passed away due to the complications of diabetes. The message was very clear then that our mother wanted us to enjoy first before saying goodbye. My younger sister and her kids who were supposed to stay in Singapore for one month had to shorten their stay just to be at our mother's wake. So, you can just imagine how fast our emotions had shifted from being very happy to being very sad for our mother's passing but life has to go on. Travel taught me that life is short that we needed to enjoy every moment of each and every single day.




In November of 2016, I and my older sister embarked on an overland trip from Vietnam to Cambodia to Thailand. On this trip, knowing that we have to cross borders, I made my research months in advance to uncover the what ifs and whatnots. Grateful to all the very talented travel bloggers out there who went the extra mile to give guides to unknown readers. On this trip, travel taught me how to plan ahead and be more systematic, embrace one's culture, be friendlier and travel also reaffirmed me that smile indeed breaks language barrier. Though most Cambodians know how to speak English, the tuktuk driver that we hired when we were in Siem Reap doesn't speak English but despite that, we were able to communicate with him through our smile and of course with the help of the friendly locals. Another experience we had was in Bangkok, Thailand. When we arrived at the terminal, we were greeted by a very smiling taxi driver who doesn't speak English at all, so we communicated with a smile and it worked very well. We just gave him our address and that's it. Travel taught me to smile more often.
Angkor Wat sunset
Angkor Wat - Siem Reap, Cambodia

In Vietnam, we were very lucky enough to be accommodated by my sister's husband's nephew and niece-in-law and experienced a taste of how it's like to be treated like royalty by an extended family. Travel taught me that there are just too many generous people in the world and that life is an echo, the more you share, the more blessings will come your way.

"Life is an echo. What you send out, comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get. What you see in others, exists in you. Remember, life is an echo. It always gets back to you. So give goodness." -Unknown

Travel also taught me the importance of friends and family time that no matter how busy we all are, we really SHOULD need to find time to disconnect to connect, bond, catch up and enjoy quality time with each other.
Sky Ranch, Tagaytay
Just some of the members and extended members of our big family at Sky Ranch - Tagaytay, Cavite

How about you, how travel changed your life? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.




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