"I have a dream, and I hope it will come true that you're here with me, and I am with you," oops, I'm not singing a song for you, but it's going to be more of my story, my dream travel. Have you dreamt of a scene where you always find yourself in a place not known to you? Or have you seen yourself walking in your dream vacation? Well, I have been dreaming that since I was a child, an instance where I go to different places. In other words, I travel.

Fortunately, little by little, that dream came true. I have been to places I never thought I would be. I'm very thankful to people who help me experience this travels. It's a great blessing to be there, and at the same time, it is excellent to experience first-hand learning. Now, I'm not only reading books but actually experiencing it and seeing it with my own eyes.

There are still more places that I want to see and explore. My childhood dream probably had accomplished a little bit near fifty percent. I still have a long way to go to complete that dream travels.


During my college days, one of the places that ring a bell to adventurous explorers like me is the island of Palawan. At that time, Palawan is well known for its forest preservation efforts. I was glad that our organization chose the island to be the beneficiary of our annual activity, the Lakbay Aral, Sanay, at Gabay sa Barangay. It's on this activity, where I learned the value of budgeting and getting all ways and means to accomplish the project.

When budgeting, always have a back-up plan, and that's where I learned it. The group's initial plan was a thrifty ride using the Philippine Air Force's C130 plane bound to Puerto Princesa. A week before the flight, we manage to secure our names in the manifest. Unfortunately, there was a priority operation that day, and we got bumped-off. Not backing off with our commitment, the group manages to pull some resources, and we end up traveling by a commercial ship bound to Puerto Princesa. The travel may not be as fast as through the sky, but it compensates with the scenic view and fresh wind breeze of the sea. We landed in the afternoon of the following day.

That was the first time I landed on the island of Palawan. I almost kiss the soil after the thought sink-in that I was there already.


Then, the work started by immersing in one of the local families. It's more of a community-driven purpose rather than leisure. Consider it as an official business, and leisure time is on a tight schedule. But they have this phrase or saying the "come back, come back spirit." They said that you are bound to come back again to the island.

Well, it seems that they are right because a few years after, I found myself getting my discounted plane ticket bound to Puerto Princesa, Palawan. It may be natural to some people, but it seems mystical that destiny is fulfilling my dream to go back to the island where I missed a lot of places to visit during my first travel to Palawan.

It was less than an hour's flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa. The good thing here is that I have someone waiting for me. She's waiting to take me on my dream travel and to make it come true. The 'half' of my life that completes my whole being, my fiancee.

It's not wrong to go on a budget. It's one way of extending more of your resources to spend more time with that someone. And Puerto Princesa offers a lot of affordable things to do. The only problem at that time was you're limited to 36 shots of photos, but you can still enjoy the most of it. My fiancee and I did enjoy our time together. We did island hopping, spent some time at the beach, dined at some of the Puerto Princesa's famous and yet affordable restaurants, and of course, roamed around the city. The best part is that we had excellent accommodation to relax our tired souls. The experience was great, but it felt incomplete because of our limited time. I missed the opportunity to visit the Underground River, the Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park.

After more than a decade, I still feel the spirit and the longing to complete my dream travel. Though the situation now is much more different, the dream is still there. But this time, I wanted to share that dream with my whole family. Especially now that keeping memories and moments aren't restricted to 36 shots anymore. We'll make sure to bring a gigabyte of data enough to store photographs and videos of our family. It will be another keepsake to cherish.

If I were always on a budget before, I think now and more than ever that I need to be more economical. Like what my kids would always ask, "Pasok ba sa budget?" So Palawan wait for us because our family will be there very very soon!

Next to this dream travel, the destination will be Tagaytay. After that devastating eruption of the Taal Volcano, I think it's about time to go back and admire the beauty of the place aside from the lake and the volcano. I'm sure there are hotels in Tagaytay that we can lodge in perfect for a family like ours.

#RedDoorzPH, #LetsTravelAgainSoon