Traveling is a very rewarding and enriching experience. However, it can also be a very expensive hobby – especially for most of us who might be overworked and underpaid or have other expensive hobbies. While still in University, I dreamed of having a job that would make me go around. I didn’t think that a few years after that, my dreams and prayers were going to be answered. It’s an exciting and dynamic industry that I’m working in, but the demands of the job also is a bit big, thereby making me travel almost 50% of the time.
In between my travels for work, I try and squeeze in some personal time to go and visit places of interest. I am very fortunate to be living in Singapore – which is a major transportation hub for most airlines. Traveling to nearby Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand is very easy, and there’s also a chance of land travel if you do have time to spare and you’d want to explore the whole of South East Asia.
Ever since I took being a working professional seriously, I’ve done automated funds transfer from my main account to another deposit account. Back in Manila, I was only paid a certain amount of money and a portion of that would go directly to another account for savings. I’ve carried that on when I moved here to Singapore because I wanted to be able to save. I can honestly say that I have been able to successfully save since January of this year.
I have all these places I have in mind that I want to see in the coming months. I am going to South Korea next month and will be spending 3 weeks in Australia in December and early January, 2012. As early as now, me and a couple of friends are already talking about visiting Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan by April of next year. This is in time for the Cherry Blossoms festival in Japan and to celebrate the birthdays of two of my colleagues, and the graduation from Uni of another. For me, it’s another good way of being able to go to another country, get a taste of their culture, take photos and be able to go inside all their wonderful temples, be able to wear traditional garb, and be able to partake in one of their tea ceremonies.
I also am thinking of visiting the United States next year (something that wasn’t really in my list, but I guess now I am interested in stepping into American and Canadian soil). All these traveling will be expensive so I will set up another bank account where the money that comes in there will solely be for travel purposes – pocket money, air fares, payment for credit card bills that involves my traveling, etc. It’s high time that I take control and be responsible of my finances and be able to prove myself that I am doing well at this stage of my life – being able to provide for my folks, being able to save for the rainy days, and being able to live life a little by enjoying what I’ve worked hard for.
Traveling makes me a richer and wiser person. It makes me a better person. My goal every time I travel to a foreign country is to be able to discover a piece of myself that I haven’t seen before. I would like to leave that country knowing that it has changed me and my way of thinking. I want to be able to enjoy and to affirm how wonderful God’s creations are.
There are so many places I want to see – Mongolia, Russia, China, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand. Life is too short and the world is to big to slow down – I want to do it while I’m still young and I still can. If I do settle down, it would be harder and much more expensive with the whole family tagging along – tailoring your itineraries to the needs and the wants of the other people around you.
For those who might be reading this, I suggest and urge you to also set up a travel fund. It may not be for international travels, it may just be for that getaway in Palawan you’ve been dreaming of. It might be for that plane ticket you wanted to buy to be able to explore the Southern parts of the Philippines. Or, it may just be your ticket to be able to go and see other South East Asian countries after getting a really cheap budget airline ticket.
