THE SOLITARY PANDA

Gateway to my Travels

The following post is my entry to win a free two-week all expenses paid trip to Costa Rica. Sponsored by Nomadic Matt and Gap Adventures. Click here to enter or read the details.

Why do you want this trip, and what do you hope to get out of it?

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The cacophonous sounds of horn honks greet me as we navigate through the streets of Jaipur by tuk tuk, a three-wheeled auto rickshaw. They speak to each other with machinery. The intersections jam together with cars, motorcycles and rickshaws all trying to cross at once, in this tunnel vision of mufflers and wheels. I hold my breathe as the driver navigates his way across.

So this is India.

The gateway to my travels.
With its hustle and bustle and street haggling tricks, India is no doubt a cultural challenge for even the most seasoned traveler. Yet India is my first major travel adventure and my gateway to Asia. India, with its rich history and cultural treasures. India, with its poverty and caste systems that I witnessed through volunteering at a slum school. India, one of those things you can’t really describe, but just have to experience for yourself.

I’m here in Asia, now residing in the Philippines with my family, in hopes of traveling to other Asian countries. In hopes of (re)learning Filipino. In hopes of finding a direction for my life and career.

I’ve got the travel bug and the only thing I wonder is why hasn’t this happened sooner?

Six years ago, I told my tita (aunt) that I wanted to travel by myself next time I visit the Philippines and here I am. In college, during my Indian art history course, I told myself it’d be the first country I’d visit (outside of the Philippines, which doesn’t count since I was born here) and there I was. In high school, I told myself I would see a Metallica concert at least once in my life and a year later, I dated someone who happened to be obsessed with them and there we were, making out amidst the hordes of people in the crowd while over-the-top pyrotechnics lit up the stage.

I’m no prophet, but without even meaning to, I get what I want. Things work out. I had long since forgotten my comment to tita until she brought it up recently. A simple awe and wish to see India as a college student came true in only 5 years after graduation. And this calm assurance that I will see Metallica happened after randomly meeting someone who would soon become my lover.

A trip to Costa Rica would be exactly what I want at this exact time in my life. Sometimes, I feel like I’m cool for traveling and living in my home country for a year, and other times, I feel like a loser. It’s this ruse of put togetherness that I don’t feel I quite have. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do with my life, and no one to call my love, so here I am. Single and living life to my fullest.

Blogging through Costa Rica, in essence, travel blogging and photography, are exactly what I want to get into based on my fused interests and the skills I offer. If India is the gateway to my travels, Costa Rica would be the gateway to what the hell I’m going to do with my life. A great portfolio piece. And a proud face for environmental and sustainable tourism.