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Someday you'll get tired of being sad and all you want to do is to be happy. 😊

2D1N Malapascua Island
+ Kalanggaman Island Tour
|Travel Itinerary|

(Start of Day 1)
12:30AM - Arrived at MCIA
1:00AM - Taxi to Cebu North Bus Terminal
2:00AM - Depart CBNT via Bus to New Maya Port
5:00AM - Arrived at New Maya Port (~3-4hrs)
6:00AM - First Trip Ferry Boat to Malapascua Island
(Delayed Because ~10 Passengers Needed per Trip)
(Left at 7:00AM ~ 30min-1hr Boat Ride)
8:00AM - Arrived at Malapascua Island
(Breakfast at "Night Market" and Ask Accomodation if it is Free to Check-in Bags)
9:00AM - Assembly Time for Kalanggaman Day Tour
9:30AM - Depart to Kalanggaman Island
11:30AM - Arrived at Kalanggaman Island
12:30PM - Free Lunch
(Enjoy the Sandbar of the West and East Point of Kalanggaman Island)
3:00PM - Depart from Kalanggaman Island
5:00PM - Arrived back at Malapascua Island
(Accomodation and Check-In)
6:00PM - Early Dinner at "Night Market"
6:30PM - Free Time
10:00PM - Relax and Sleep (but you can go beyond)
(End of Day 1)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Start of Day 2)
7:00AM Breakfast at "Night Market"
8:30AM or 9:00AM - Call Time for Malapascua Snorkel Half Day Tour
9:30AM - Start of Malapascua Snorkel Tour
✔ Coral Garden
✔ Paradise Beach/Bantigue Cove
✔ Cliff Jumping
✔ Lighthouse
✔ Japanese Shipwreck
✔ Dakit-dakit Island
(Optional: Without Snorkel Tour)
✔Paradise Beach/Bantigue Cove
✔Langob Beach
✔Guimbitayan Beach
✔Lighthouse
✔Neverland
12:30PM - End of Snorkel Tour
1:30PM - Late Lunch at "Night Market"
2:00PM - Ferry Boat Ride to New Maya Port
3:30PM - Van or Bus Back to Cebu North Bus Terminal and Drop at Pacific Mall Mandaue (~3-4hrs)
7:30PM - Arrived at Pacific Mall and Taxi to MCIA
7:45PM - Arrived at MCIA and Dinner at MCIA
9:00PM - Departure
(End of Day 2)

|Expenses Breakdown|
✔Kalanggaman Day Tour (Free Lunch) = 900
✔Kalanggaman Environmental Fee = 150 (Locals)
✔Malapascua Snorkel Half Day Tour = 500
✔Budget Food and Water = 100 x 5 meals = 500
✔Accommodation = 400 (Price Range: 300-500)
✔Roundtrip Ferry Boat = 150 x 2 trips = 300
(Price Ranges: 100-200 per trip depending on number of passengers)
✔Roundtrip (Bus/Van) CNBT - Maya Port = 500
(Price Ranges: 200-250)

Total Expenses = 3,250 Pesos
(Exclusive of Snacks, Juices, Local Tips and Kits, Souvenirs, Other Needs, etc.)

📌 Travel Tips

✔Malapascua Island is known for "thresher sharks" and coral gardens. So if you are into diving or snorkelling, Malapascua is a great destination to dive in. But even without diving or snorkelling (you can skip these, and just visit its famous beaches), there are many instagrammable spots to relax, to chill, to walk along beaches, with the sun until it sets and reminiscing memories that you will surely love.

✔Kalanggaman Island is an island of the province of Leyte. It features its sheer white long sandbars and crystal clear, emerald waters at its east and west points. Drinking water is limited, no electricity, atm machines and weak cellular signal, so prepare for these conditions.

✔It may be best for you to travel in groups, but Malapascua Island and Kalanggaman Island both offers healing of hearts of those who want to travel alone. These island soothes your longing heart of its natural wonders. It's a little paradise here on earth. I highly recommend these islands for those who travel solo and wanted to search for their "self".
Be open and express yourself, and you will be amazed of how people of many different nationalities and personalities come and get to know each other, share with you their travel and life experiences together and become friends, just like I did.

✔ I had my accommodation at Be One Guesthouse. I highly recommend it. It is great for solo travellers and backpackers, too. I have met my foreign friends there. 💕😄 The landlady is very accommodating and responsive to my needs during my stay at the island for she just wanted you to experience the best stay in the island as she possibly can. But for a more luxurious stay, you can just see Agoda and Trivago prices. Accomodation near the ferry boat drop point of Malapascua Island is highly suggested for those who are time-restricted 👌

💭 My Personal Travel Story

I was too caught up with stresses at work. And my heart was just as heavy as it already is. I wanted to break free from it all, even for just awhile. I decided to take a day leave at work and another two days for that weekend.

So I had only four days left to prepare. I have no one but myself to travel, so I searched and had found an amazing destination to heal even just by myself.

It was Malapascua Island and Kalanggaman Island. I decided to visit these places because I have one day travel time and two days vacation time. So I have to make sure that I spent my "me" time, well.
(See travel itinerary and expenses breakdown below)

And my expectations were exceeded. I had the far greatest time of my life in just those two days.
I felt amazed at my self that even though I travelled solo, I was meeting and communicating with the locals as well as the tourists as I traverse around within those beautiful island. The most amazing part was that, I met a lot of foreign tourists who became my friends even in that short period of travel days.

To my new found friends, I was thankful for you accepted me as a part of that circle. We were so much of a strangers in that island but we became friends, right away.
To Abbie and Karen, I really loved our chitchats, our reflections on travels, in love and in life as a whole. 😊 To my roommate Carlos, I had a great time talking about each of our love stories. 😄
To Dries, Lauren, Patricia, everyone, thank you. I can only hope to visit your countries, if that could be possible, someday in this lifetime, too...

I am grateful that all of you, somehow, gave me a new perspective in life. All of you gave me an idea that there's a bigger and more wonderful world out there, beyond the horizon. It healed my heart for it gave me hope that there is more to life than just aches and stresses. Life is much more meaningful than that.

My friends, I have had the greatest time of my life that time. It was and will always be a fun-filled, lifetime, happy experience for me knowing and sharing with all of you.
Hoping to see you all of you again, someday, somehow, if ever the time and opportunity comes again. 😊 I hope all of you had fun, here in the Philippines.

It was a breaking free experience for me. New destination, new islands, new faces, new friends, new environment, new experiences. It was like I am facing a new chapter of my life.

I have had let everything out and in everything new.
It was a great hope as well as a great start for a better beginning.

It was an uncertain and unplanned trip for me just to break free from work but it turned out to be the best travel experience for me.

The best part was to have met these amazing people who I became friends with from all over the parts of the world, and share each other of our different but unique lives, careers, and experiences.

It was the best solo travel experience I have done so far. It healed me from the aches and stresses in life that I had gone through for the past months. It was the best gift I received from myself, this year. 💕
I hope you, too, will experience that healing, somehow, someday. This is just the start. Let us keep it up. ❤👍

To more travels. ✈🚀🛸🧳 Let's go! 😄

During my first year and second year in high school, I am but a shy, low self-esteem type of person, thinking that I am unworthy of attention from any beautiful young lady. I may be tall (~5'8"/5'9" that time) but I considered myself to belong in the ugly group. I am not special enough but I am a good student with good grades. I even don't have enough allowance (money) to somehow treat any of my crushes before. It was always a secret, unrequited love for me.

But, by the way, I am very talkative through text messages because I can explain myself well through text but not in actual words or conversation.

I am just like someone sitting at the corner and never the game-player of any conversation because I cannot even imagine how would I be able to communicate to a popular and beautiful lady because I felt like I am just nothing compared to all guys I am surrounded with.

But one day, it was month of April, school break, summer time, I attended a youth conference and was excited to meet this girl whom I had a conversation through calls and texts with, unexpectedly, by my friend's introduction.

Two (2) months before the said conference, I kept in touch with my friend through call and somehow along our conversation, she asked her roommate to communicate with me for she has to go somewhere for a little while. This roommate of her happily agreed and unexpectedly, we clicked. Topics after topics. Minutes went by, my friend got back right away so then and there, I asked for her roommate's number. I became interested about her. It was a first for me that someone was interested enough to hear and exchange stories, hobbies, likes, dislikes, with someone like "me".

She is kind and smart. She likes singing and listening to music. It was mutual. We have so much in common. I asked for her profile in social network site, "friendster", and there I saw and knew that I am communicating with a beautiful girl. Two months went by in a flash, yet our communication continued throughout that time.

Then, the youth conference came, it was a week activity, yet I was afraid and ashamed of myself to meet her on that 1st to 6th day because I felt I was not enough to be in front of a beauty like her. But time came, we met and it was the last day of the conference. I decided to meet her.

It was a first for me. A lady as beautiful as her showed up and meet me. She greeted me without partiality and prejudice. With a smile and gratitude, She, being interested in my story and in my life was a microattraction to me. Without looking at my awkward look and shameful self that I thought I am, she happily shared with me the story of her life, too and we exchanged ourselves openly. And we talked that day for hours until the break of dawn for they have to travel far back to their place. (But without the help of each of our friends, the awkwardness would really be overwhelming and it would be impossible to meet if it was just me and her.)

That youth conference ended. And we parted ways but still, we didn't lose our connection. Slowly I changed. And it was for the better. I was now able to express myself openly. I can now speak in front confidently. I was not that loner, sitting-in-a-corner type of person anymore. She gave me that hope and assurance that maybe somehow, someday, someone will accept me for who I am, just like how she accepted me for who I am, too. It felt like someone saw my undisclosed real self yet accepted me for who I am. It encouraged me most to show my real self. I gained not just my own esteem but the trust of other people around me, as well.

If I remained in my own shell, I would have not been able to find my real self and improve to who I am and what I am, of today. 💕

We saw each other a year after but unfortunately, it was only for a short while. But 10 years passed by since our first meeting, as technology helped us both keep each other in touch, we became youth leaders and another youth conference was held.

I really prayed and longed to see each other again. And 10 years after, since our first meeting, my personal wish came true. In between that 10 years, I wishfully asked her the thought of, "when will we be able to see each other, again?". She would always reply, "If God permits, we will." The youth conference came, and God permitted both of us to attend, as it was nearly impossible for us to meet again for both of us are young adults now, each with different resposibilities and career paths.

But we met, at that same place, reminiscing that same time both of us shared from long ago. Topics after topics. Time gaps. Career. About life. We walked under the pines, to the fields, to the parks, to the buildings, just anywhere the pathways may lead us. It seemed like 10 years was just as clear and vivid as yesterday. It was magical for me.

I, then, asked her about my humble wish, to capture a single moment with the two of us, in a single frame to just somehow prove that what I am experiencing is real. That the past was real just as the present is real.

On that last night, just like 10 years ago, we talked for hours until dawn that they have to travel back far to their place. I thank God that somehow, I have met, again, the person who encouraged and motivated me to improve and become the better man of what I am today.

Because of her, my shell of insecurity, awkwardness, and unworthiness was cracked down and changed me for a better version of me. As we exchanged our life through the conversation that we had, microattractions for me was the moment she looked at me, focused herself at me and showed interest by looking at me in the eye during the conversation, smiling and listening intently expressing that I am, somehow, important too, that I am being valued and loved without prejudice, even until this very day.

To that friend, I will always be thankful to God for the gift of friendship. I will be forever grateful. 💕

Thank you.

Until then...

💭






(Photo taken 2 years ago, today)

If you are not curious enough to learn. You will never learn enough. If you will not ask, your confusion will never be answered. Just be honest with the level of your understanding. You don't need to pretend you understand everything. Be like an empty vessel, willing to accept new things. - Anonymous

I wander, I wonder?
But wandering wonders me, the most.
Just like an empty vessel, little by little, I will learn to accept the realities I need to face each day as I go through this travel called life..

I believe I can, in His time.

Until then...

Too many of us look back over our lives with sadness and regret - wishing that we had done things differently. If only we had done this, or if only we hadn't done that - then our lives would have turned out better.

It's human nature when faced with difficult circumstances to react out of emotion, without weighing everything out. Anytime we have a knee-jerk response, there's a high probability we will regret it - especially we haven't had time to get all the facts.

Many times, when we hear the whole story, our eyes are opened, and we feel bad that we did or said the things we did. But there is a way to live without regrets. . .

And that is to walk with Jesus!

Allow God to lead, guide and direct, and we won't have to worry about if we are doing the right thing or not. Before responding in anger or forming opinions based on limited information, stop and pray about it. Ask God for discernment and wisdom. And don't forget to ask Him for an extra portion of His love, so that in all situations you can respond in a Christlike manner. With God in command of our lives, we can live without regrets.

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
- 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV)

In my travel flights, I always see this yellow paper;
"Hope you will feel better soon!"

I hope so, too...

I, together with the other young people, (I am considered young 😅) had a chance to visit a small church at Magsaysay, Quezon, Bukidnon when I spotted a hill with big rocks and I said to myself to hike/climb that hill.
So, during that afternoon, we climb that hill. And we were overwhelmed to see a 180 degree landscape of Bukidnon.
Although, the road toward this area is rough and is not paved, we were blessed to have this marvelous view. 〽️🍂🏞

And as we go home, we were blessed by a wonderful sunset. 😊

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"
- Genesis 1:1

I praise God for His marvelous creation.