Enjoy Backpacking with Hostelio

Backpacking is an art. It requires passion and commitment to finish your trip all the way from your first destination until you go back home. It would greatly help of course if you have already planned your itinerary and booked Cheap Hostels in advance. Hostel Booking can be easily done online without much fuss. This will help you make the most of your time going to exotic spots you want to explore rather than using your precious minutes looking for one of the Budget Hostels in the area, in the middle of the night, or dawn, or whenever you arrive at your intended destination. I found this site online which will greatly helped me and my friends and will continue to help us the next time we go backpacking around Asia again and hopefully around Europe as well. We just recently came from a backpacking trip in Vietnam and found one of the Ho Chi Minh City Hostels on their site. For those who would like to experience the same adventure, check out Hostel Reviews in advance to make your trip a more enjoyable one. Happy backpacking!

Setting Up Ads with OLX

One of the things that I want to accomplish this year is to be able to spread the good news about things that I am passionate about, like First Vita Plus and my mobile digital nail art machine for instance, as well as things that I want to sell like  the original and brand new Levi’s jeans we have been keeping in our closet for some time now, to as many people as possible.  A perfect way to do that is to post Classified Ads offline and online. I did just the latter with OLX.com.ph and here’s what my first online ad  with them looks like:

I plan to make some more. This one is so simple and with a little more editing and tweaking, I can make my ad look much better. What I like about OLX is that aside from being able to post classified ads for free, whether you’re registered or not (better if registered so I can manage my ads better in the future), is that they also have an Online Community of users for various niches inlcuding Art.  This means that not only can I post ads and find stuff here, but I can also look for people of specific talents and skills as well as find collectible materials too. Now, isn’t that awesome? Better start making some more to get ahead of the game. For those who are interested, try it!

New Year, New Blessings, New Do

I love this New Year!!! I strongly feel and believe that 2010 is going to be a much greater and better year for me and my loved ones. It helped that I started it with a blast by touring Southeast Asia with one of my bestfriends, Jem. I have yet to blog about it (I will, after I do my Malapascua travel blog post soon…) but let me just share with you now that more than anything else, the Asian backpacking  trip we did has been such a spiritual and enlightening journey for me. Jem said that with hardship, pain and sacrifice, I  will be able to appreciate more life’s blessings and let go of my  past angsts.  And because the month of December has been a trying one for me (emotionally, that is), both Jem and my hubby, Peter, believed that the trip will do my psyche some good. Indeed, going out of my comfort zone has enriched me well. I was able to overcome most of the fears that I’ve been nurturing all these years. To wit:

• 1. I was able to overcome my fear of flying. Yes, every time I travel, I’ve always had this foreboding feeling that something tragic will happen which brought me lots of anxiety and panic attacks in the past. But with this trip, in a matter of only 8 days, we did 6 flights. There was even one day when I was in three countries, flying in and out. I am proud to say that on my second flight, I already started feeling at ease and for the rest of the flights, I was already able to sleep and went through the whole process of  boarding as if I was just taking a cab. It was wonderful to be liberated from all those unnecessary anxiety and paranoia. Flying, after all, is still the safest way to travel.  With this realization, I expect to travel more from now on, discovering new places here in the Philippines and abroad. Who knows, I might just be approved for a Visa and start touring Europe and U.S. as well (*crossing my fingers*).
• 2. I was able to really backpack. I thought I was already an expert backpacker especially with having done several local provincial trips  with Peter in the past (e.g. Vis-Min trip in 2005: (Part I, Part II, Part III, from DUMAGUETE to BOHOL to SURIGAO to CAMIGUIN   to BUKIDNON to Cagayan de Oro). Well, this belief dissolved when I saw and experienced for myself what  a hardcore backpacker Jem is. I experienced sleeping and taking half baths in airports, I experienced traveling to three countries wearing the same clothes (no more time for vanity and fashion), Peter wasn’t there to carry my stuff nor to spoil me nor cuddle me. I experienced no luxury. I was on my own. We got lost. We talked to several strangers. We walked hundreds of kilometers. We scrimped. We blended with the locals. I got extremely exhausted, etc…etc.. I felt like I was in an Amazing Race and Jem said it wasn’t even extreme backpacking that we did. I am so proud of myself for going through all of that. Now, I feel like there is nothing that I can’t do. I am now more appreciative of all the simple pleasures and blessings that I experience everyday, I am now more in touch with the God and the divine in me and in other people. I am happier and grateful more than ever. Thank you Jem and Peter for encouraging me to do this. I am forever grateful to the both of you.
• 3. After ten long years, I had my hair cut short. No more pig tails, no more dry, sun-damaged hair, no more blow drying and ironing… for the next several months at least. My heart did skip a beat when they finally cut my hair in this posh salon in Kuala Lumpur but it was all worth it. I feel lighter and freer, as if all those baggage I’ve been carrying on and off the past years have been stripped down too. Yay!

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