The Travel Peoples

Goodbye, 2020! You are the most unfriendly when it comes to travel. Yet, you are the best in bonding people confined at home. (Or you could also be the worst in breaking bonds between family members who are annoyed at each other. 😁) If there was an award for "the most anti-social," you got the grand slam! You even used Zoom and other new platforms to your advantage!   Nevertheless, 2020 is a bitter-sweet year for me. Downs and ups, it left a lot of new memories and discoveries. It also brought in some milestones and achievements that I could never imagine happening during a pandemic.  My heart breaks for those whom we've lost due to COVID-19. Some strong souls survived, but they still feel the lingering effects. This disease will never bring anything good, especially to the affected individuals. But when it comes to life lessons, there will always be something beneficial for the soul. And somehow, I cannot accept that these life lessons would have to come from a teeny we...

  At Baltimore's Inner Harbor  The Spirit of Baltimore offers a three-hour dinner cruise. Two decades! That's how long it took for me to see again my third-grade seatmate and close high school friend, Anton (or Doc Anton as we fondly call him), at his home in Maryland. The last time that we saw each other was at our clique's out-of-town trip to Tagaytay City after high school graduation. I will not mention any more numbers here so as not to give you an idea of how young we are. Haha!  But it was such a sweet reunion. Both of our families met. I got acquainted with his two cute kids. I am particularly charmed by Emma, the little girl. The other one is Kenzo, the older brother. Emma's quiet demeanor, at least when with guests, gave that mysterious vibe that challenged me to make her come out of her shell. I hope I succeeded with our short bonding time!   We drove for about three hours from New York City and arrived at his home late at dinner time. Anton has not ch...

  ( Photos and story by mentor/inspirational author Lia Ocampo. A frequent traveler and sunset fanatic, Lia has visited almost all major tourist destinations in the world. Find out more from her blog site  A Diary of World Travels . ) Germany is a country with a landscape of forests, rivers, mountains, and beaches. The Capital is Berlin, which is home to nightlife and art. Munich is known for its Oktoberfest and beer halls. This story will only talk about Munich and my Oktoberfest experience. There is nothing best than to experience the real Oktoberfest with your best friend.  Marichu was my college best friend. She beat me with the “Ms. University of Batangas” crown. We have many wonderful memories and I love her. We don’t see and talk as much as we used to, but we are still great friends.  Her family traveled to Europe, so we decided to meet up in Germany.  We made it happen.  Oktoberfest is the world’s largest Volksfest held annually in Munich....

  (Photos and blog by Jay De Jesus, a community manager of an embassy in Singapore. He is an online expert or a “social media DJ” as he calls himself, Google Local Guides contributor, and blogger. Follow him on Twitter @jaydj and his blog sites jaydj.net and aidemlaicos.net) Accidentally added and ticked this off my “Travel Bucket List.”   Sentosa is one of the most visited places in Singapore.  Known as an entertainment destination with the likes of Universal Studios, Resorts World, Sea Aquarium, and Madame Tussauds Museum, this island located in the southern part of Singapore, is also a good destination for nature lovers.  There’s a coastline you could check out from Siloso beach to Palawan beach and all the way to Tanjong beach, each with their own features. I took the Sentosa express, the tram that takes you from the main island to Sentosa Island. I got off Beach station, the last station. I leisurely walked towards the left not really knowing what to expect...

  ( Photos and article by inspirational author and passionate flight attendant Lia Ocampo <authorlia.com>. Read more of her travel blog on  http://flightattendantworld.blogspot.com/ ) It was my first layover in Ottawa, Canada, so I explored the city. I took a bus from the hotel to downtown. It was a bit far but an easy relaxing ride.  Byward Market is a famous place to walk, eat, and shop. Benches were available for people to sit and enjoy the sun. So why not sit with the crowd and enjoy the nice weather.  Did I say I finished the whole 12 inches pizza? Yes, I did! I ordered my favorite pesto pizza which was really good, plus it was half the price, which made it even better.  I was planning to take half of the pizza for my lunch the next day, but it will be oily and messy, so I ate the whole pizza! It was thinly sliced anyway, so it wasn’t really that filling.  I call this day my “splurge on pizza day.” The bad thing was, I couldn’t aff...

  Living abroad makes me miss my favorite quick weekend escape. That is Tagaytay City. It often took me 1.5 hours from Makati City if traffic was not bad. Double the time or more, if otherwise. Nevertheless, finally getting there was always worth it. This small mound is not Taal volcano. It’s called the ‘Binintiang Maliit,’ one of the many small cones of the volcano. The actual volcano sits on a caldera surrounded by Lake Taal. There came a time when I drove there not just on weekends, but every other day. I had to visit our mini-farm, Cabutihan Orchard, in Alfonso. We had a great variety of trees and plants in it. I’d often go home with bananas, mushrooms, coconuts, potatoes, banana blossoms, leafy vegetables of different kinds, chili peppers, mangoes, chicos, papayas, and more in the back of my SUV. Thanks to the hardworking “kuyas” (male caretakers) who diligently planted and cleaned the whole 2,000-square meter lot. (By the way, because we do not have caretakers anymore and we ...

  (Article and photos by Rysa Alenzuela, PhD. Rysa worked and lived in Central Asia for more than a year before moving to Vanuatu also for work. She is now back in the Philippines indefinitely because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.) I went to Uzbekistan because I was invited to speak at a conference and I also wanted to see it. Uzbekistan,  dubbed by  BBC as The Land of the Thousand Shrines , is famous for its ancient cities  – Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Shakhrisabz, Termez, Tashkent.  Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan. The name Tashkent, which means “Stone Village” in Uzbek, was first mentioned in the 11th century. Tashkent, Uzbekistan Railway Station Bukhara is an ancient city in south-central Uzbekistan, located about 140 miles (225 km) west of Samarkand. Founded not later than the 1st century CE (and possibly as early as the 3rd or 4th century BCE), Bukhara was already a major trade and crafts center along the famous  Silk...