Travel has never
been an unfamiliar word in my family. At a young age, my parents introduced us
to traveling even if it means motion sickness and plenty of travel
mishaps. We would frequently go to my
mom or dad's hometown and our relatives' place. But most of those trips were in
Mindanao and the farthest family trip we got so far was maybe Bohol via Cebu.
Basically, it was not of cityscapes and crowded streets but it's more of the
rural landscape and the panoramic view of the sea. The town where I was raised
is urbanized enough to give us more than the basics but it made me wonder what
life is beyond those huge mountains and the vast ocean. I have and will always
love my hometown but there's a part of me that had always dreamt of leaving my
comfort zone and see what the big city has to offer. After countless long talks with family,
friends and even myself, I set off with resources just enough for me to survive a week or two. But I was
and am still fully-equipped with
determination and success in mind that
even the threat of a huge storm and flood wasn’t able to stop me from
leaving.
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| Early Morning at BoniHigh Street, Taguig |
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| Night Life at Metrowalk, Ortigas |
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| The gates of the famed yellow house, Quezon City |
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| Malls abound the Metro and one of them is Greenbelt5 where you can find posh restaurants and boutiques. |
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| University of Makati is just a stone-throw-away from my workplace |
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| enjoying summer at Cavite |
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| Experience the thrill of StarCity, Pasay |
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| Experience Underwater Life while in the big City at Manila Ocean Park, Manila |
The first time my feet landed on the wet cement of NAIA's ramp, I said to myself that this is it! It was a sunless and cold day of June 25th. It was the month when rains and storms start to lash this part of the country. But despite the bad weather, there I was feeling excited, happy and sprightly. My feet felt so springy because I just couldn't wait to graze the streets of the metro. With that dream, I am crossing out some of the items on my bucketlist. Now I know how it feels to live in a highly urbanized city. Everything's fast paced but things turned out great for me that I didn’t realize it has been a year already since I had first caught the polluted yet full-of-promise smell of Manila.
