Category: Travel
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Trouble in Hong Kong (A short travel story)
We were arguing in the middle of the street. My younger brother, Mark, loomed over me and fixed me with a withering stare. I looked at him with incredulity. Dani, our 10-year-old sister shifted nervously between us and tried to referee. “You should stop fighting,” she pleaded. I ignored her appeal. “I brought you all…
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Recovering from El Nido
Pat was sick. She was in bed, bleary-eyed and feverish, close to tears due to a general feeling of crappiness and helplessness. “I can’t go out today,” she said on our third day in the island. “I’m just going to stay in the hostel.” She did just that, while Monica and I ventured out into…
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Luck at the Playground of the Gods
What does it mean to be lucky? On my first trip up Pulag, luck was finding two friends last-minute to join me on the trek with a random group of people. Luck was having strong brakes that prevented our jeepney from falling off a ridge. Luck was having a raincoat. It was having an emergency…
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The Last Morning of 2016
On the last morning of the year, we woke up to a dark sky and drove up a mountain in search of the sunrise. There were five of us in the Ford Everest: me, John, Jess and her two friends from grade school, Jap and Arielle. We approached a PNP checkpoint cautiously, hoping that a sleepy guard would…
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Missing Siargao
It’s raining outside and the sky has been grey since early morning. My planner is lying open-faced on my desk, reminding me of the Super Important Things I have to do today, but my mind is somewhere else completely. The other day my brother asked me why is it that there are people like me…