When will we be traveling again?

One thing we truly missed this year is traveling. Both the Clairvoyant and I love traveling and we've had more than our fair share of travels, official or otherwise, each year before the pandemic. I read somewhere that one should try to go to a new place each year, whether its local or abroad. I have done so the past so many years as I try to go somewhere where I have never been since I started working in 1995. Last year had so much potential as we had projects in Cebu, Bacolod, Davao and Zamboanga as well as a conference in Baguio City. I wasn't sure about an overseas trip but the wife and I could easily go to Singapore or Bangkok (two of our favorite destinations) or other places in ASEAN where we didn't need a visa to travel. In fact, we were thinking about heading to Hanoi together. But that was not to be. Instead my only technically new place I visited was Lipa City. Surprising as it seems, I have only passed through Lipa many, many years ago. In late February 2020, I was able to go there care of an invitation from the city government for us to take a look at the traffic situation there. As such, I was able to go around the city mostly on foot in the city center where we inspected intersections, overpasses and traffic schemes. I guess that would have to count as a new place for 2020.

We miss going to the beach. Every year, we had at least one trip to the beaches. The most recent one was Mactan, Cebu but I wish we could go back to Bohol again. The photo above is over a decade old from our first trip to Panglao Island.

I miss traveling around the country. Perhaps one of the perks of doing projects is the opportunity to go to parts of the Philippines where I haven't gone to. I guess among the more memorable trips are to landmarks like certain waterfalls or beaches. Photo above is of the Maria Cristina Falls in Iligan City. What is not seen here is that we had the chance to take a photo of the falls in full flow as the plant manager opened it for a few minutes during the summer when they regulated the flow of the falls to conserve water.

Of course, we miss our overseas trips. We loved our travels in the US, Europe and Asia. The photo above was taken in Napa Valley where we had a wine tasting excursion with friends back in 2011.

 

Our last foreign travel was to watch U2 live in concert at Singapore's National Stadium in late November 2019. That's one thing out of the bucket list. We also celebrated (in advance) our 17th anniversary in a city that we called home for a couple of years after we celebrated our 10th.

With the pandemic still here. I wonder when we will be able to travel like we did before. Perhaps we won't be able to go back to some places. Or maybe we just have to follow protocols just to be safe. Nevertheless, we hope and look forwards to traveling again.

[Note: We actually went on our first long road trip yesterday. I will write about the trip to Tiaong, Quezon soon.]

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