YEAR ENDER | More than Sixteen for Twenty Sixteen
Saturday, December 31, 2016
I just read my previous year ender, which, uhh, let me check, is eight days late in posting last year. This year, the Lakad Pilipinas annual report is posted even later! Like twenty-four days later! But better late than never. And yes, I’m recycling my previous year’s title. If you don’t like it, post your own one. Kidding. Lol.
Okay, so I’m about to run down sixteen of my favorite trips this year. But first, let’s see where I’ve travelled the past 2016. Hold on, need to check my image database, which is kinda hard now since it’s now location based, ditching my previous High Fidelity-ish autobiographical arrangement.
Sh*t. This is really hard.
Okay. After some minutes of clicking through folders, here it is.
January started in Central Thailand, exploring the lesser known provinces of Samut Songkhram and Nakhon Pathom. Then a quick getaway to my mom’s province in Cabanatuan went into the works. Then to C’s province in Zambales with a quick one-day jaunt to Binmaley in Pangasinan to eat roasted catfish (yep, you read that right). Then before the month ended, I was sent to Bicol for an assignment, revisiting Albay and Sorsogon, and finally setting my foot in cowboy country, Masbate. Then. Then. Then.
February started off in Leyte, my second time in Tacloban (this time with money on hand and friends to laugh with) and my first at Kalanggaman Island. We went further south, Mindanao particularly, a week or so later, checking out the lakes of South Cotabato and the beaches of Saranggani.
March, I was home and working my ass off on backlogs.
April to May was summer trip time! Our two-month escapade, dubbed as Beach Hop Asia 2016, kicked off in Malaysia, running through KL, Melaka, Langkawi and Penang. We then took a flight to Thailand to meet up with the then, still complete, Team RH gang to party at Koh Phangan’s infamous Full Moon Party. Right after, we chilled down at Krabi before the gang went their separate ways.
With C, we continued our journey through Koh Phi Phi, followed by Phuket before flying to Sri Lanka. We spent two weeks in the country, taking a loop through Colombo, Sigiriya, Dambulla, Polonnaruwa, Kalkudah, Arugam Bay, Ella and finally, back to Colombo. Hmmm, Sri Lankans seem to love ending their places with the ah sound.
The last two legs of the trip involved Maldives and Singapore. I still can’t get over the fact that Maldives has bested the Philippines when it comes to beaches. And Singapore, I appreciated it better this second time around.
June came with another trip to Zambales. July was raining, so I didn’t leave home.
Then August rolled in with a reunion with my favorite city in the PH, Baguio City. Then a Boracay quickie, where we weren’t really able to party that much. Then an even quicker trip to Hanoi in Vietnam, which I absolutely love. I’m giving it a hundred percent more love than Saigon. I can’t wait to get back and spend more time on this crazy place.
September rocked the house with an almost two-week trip across Indonesia. Jakarta. Bandung. Jogjakarta. Lombok. Flores. Bali. Indonesia is amazing. Their beaches can rock and roll with the best the Philippines has to offer too! An assignment landed me in Bacolod and Iloilo right after.
And because there’s just too many going ons during September, my mom didn’t let me out the whole October. Kidding. On the tenth month, I boarded a cruise ship and revisited Singapore and Malaysia, going back to Langkawi and Penang. I don’t mind revisiting Penang over and over and over again. In fact, we’re going back there next year!
Cold November (spawned a monster) found me in Taipei, walking until my feet died, and a long December saw me climbing the mountains of Bontoc. Well, we really didn’t climb that much. We sat at the veranda of the inn we’re staying in most of the time and ended the year with nothing but beer.
That totals to eight countries outside the Philippines and fourteen provinces within.
Hmmm, and apparently, this article has gone overly long with me forgetting to list sixteen of my favorite trips this year. Oh well, I’ll do it next year.
2 comments
Super tight! More to come pa! :)
ReplyDeleteHahaha, true! Pero medyo slow down na nga :)
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