Travel Experience

You don’t have to be rich to travel well (Eugene Fodor), just be wise! Traveling is not always money, sometimes it mostly need to appreciate little things that we have around us.

You don’t need to go miles away from where you are to travel. COVID19 is still around the corner and you don’t want to be infected by this virus. Try to walk around near you. Maybe you haven’t discovered yet some places around. Walk. Jog. Feel and try to appreciate your own place and you will be able to see the beauty and hidden treasures that you haven’t seen yet.

In the middle of the rubber tree plantation.

Let’s just appreciate a few of the best and simplest things you can experience in Tayawan Negros Oriental.

Maybe it is because I am from Baguio, a highly urbanized city.

Tayawan is a barangay in the city of Bayawan province of Negros Oriental. It is situated at approximately 9.5095,122.7420 in the island of Negros. Elevation at these coordinates is estimated at 305.3 meters or 1,001.6 feet above sea level. Tayawan shares common border with the other barangays just like San Miguel, Minaba, Narra, Kalumboyan and more.

It is more or less 1 hour from Bayawan and 62 miles away from Dumaguete City (capital city of Negros Oriental).

The main revenues of Tayawan come from land farming, livestock production, buy and selling (selling dry goods, livestock, vegetables, ready to wear garments and others).

Tayawan is a rural area with huge and wide sugar cane plantations around the corner. In this area you will see the beautiful sunset. You can enjoy the peaceful and calm environment with the greenery sugar cane, walking with the wind while touching/feeling the rough leaves of this sugar cane. Have a good walk, then jog. Take some photos for souvenirs and as a remembrance with crazy moments and memories.

On the other side of this place, we enjoyed walking with the beautiful scenery and discovered a huge stone on our way. It is really huge. We try to climbed and reached the top (wow overview of the whole field with the beautiful sunset) had a selfie and take some photo with the gorgeous background of clouds and the never ending plantations.

Great view at the top of the huge stone.

Aside from these, Tayawan also has a rubber tree plantation. (I am not sure how many hectares of rubber trees grown in this place) I don’t have enough knowledge about this rubber tree. Out of curiosity, it catches my interest when we visited the area because of those cups like with milky thing on it so I ask what this rubber tree all about and how they make it in farming. This crop is used in reforestation initiatives. The crop extract is called the latex which flows from the back of the tress and served as income source. The income of this farming is high. Rubber farming generates year round. These rubber tree also generates quality lumber and can be used in furniture industry, help reduce ground temperature and helps mitigate climate change.

Latex, the crop extract from rubber tree.

According to the article from Rainforest Alliance, rubber tree was first discovered by the ancient Olmec, Maya, and Aztec. The latex sap from rubber tree was once used to make rubber balls, to waterproof clothes and even to form homemade shoes. The rubber tree will grow to heights of 100-130 feet and can live up to 100 years. Its most famous feature is the milky white sap known as latex which flows freely from the tree when a silver of bark is removed. A rubber tree is also referred to as rubber wood can be tapped for latex once it reaches approximately six years of age….

As I stay longer in this place, there’s plenty of experiences to enjoy that don’t have to cost a single centavo. Walk around and feel the place.

One day at a time. One simple beautiful stay in Tayawan Negros Oriental. Looking forward to explore and discover more.

Have you experience to have a trip without any plans at all? You just decided to pack bags and go?

Unplanned plans will be one of the best memorable journeys. It is more challenging, it cures boredom, it could turn stress into happiness, expect the unexpected, you learn how to explore and discover new things/places and you can be more creative in different ways to survive on the road. Best memories happen when it’s unplanned.

You will be on the place you’ve never been before and you will experience things you never do in your entire life…. you will be lost but it will give you the feeling of satisfaction.

Philippines is known of its beautiful tourist attractions and one of the best to go to unwind is the beach. Visiting the beach is part of summer vacations for many people.

The vast ocean has its own beauty that we can never resist.The beach is one of the chance to be away from stress and to avoid unforeseen circumstances.

This is the chance to spend more time with friends, relatives, family and even neighbors that you hate the most who have the guts to join the trip (peace) haha!

A chance to enjoy the sand, water and sun rising and setting off the horizon. The beach has its own natural beauty, calming and peaceful effect on your mind. It also improves person’s mood, relieve stress and anxiety.

Before the CoVID-19 strikes we had an unforgettable memories and moments with friends. We never expect that this beach hopping (CORDING CORDING according to a friend going to the beach without paying entrance fees haha!) will be the last thing to do before the lock down due to CoVid pandemic.

We are still lucky to enjoy the summer of 2020, we had a good time in different beach nearby provinces of Cebu Philippines. Cebu was being known for its beautiful beaches but we just spent time nearby just to glimpse the local beautiful scenery of the province.

Travelling with friends is always a good idea to have fun, make memories together, more secure with numbers, more planning tips/ ideas to develop and contribute while on the road.

Every friends we have has individual differences. Some are funny, makes funny moments even the topic is serious and interrupts the conversation in a funny way. Serious one – well I think that’s me, but sometimes funny in corny way haha! Quiet person – a good listener, observant and just keep on smiling to give reactions on what you say. Talkative–a friend who talks too much without thinking of what is coming out on his/her mouth.(sometimes I’m irritated to this kind of people, peace) and others are just going with the flow.

Different behaviors and characters of every person when travelling will make the journey more memorable and memories unforgettable.

In a group of friends (we call it barkada) we always do sharing in expenses so we can buy foods, rent videoke box(we love singing even not in tune – sintonado in tagalog), gasoline bills – we usually use private car and other expenses.

COMPOSTELA BEACH

Our first destination. Feel and chill at compostela. According to the geography, Compostela is bordered on the north by the city of Danao, to the west by Cebu City. Estimated time is 1 hour from Cebu to compostela by private car (depends on traffic).

There’s a lot of private beach resorts in this area where you can break away get away from the city of Cebu. This place is one of the most visited beach becuase it is just an hour away from the busy and hectic life in the city. This is perfect for family bondings/outings, romantic get aways, or just a break/holiday.I will not recommend any beach resorts in this place because we just spent an hour and we didn’t have the chance to enter in this resorts (we don’t want to pay entrance fees haha) but there’s a lot of beautiful resorts around the corner.

First thing we did when we reach compostela Beach, we eat our food packs “baon”. Had one hour swimming, run around the ground, take photos and videos, feel the beautiful and peaceful scenery of the place. Due to unlimited time we need to pack up so we can move and see other part of Cebu province.

DANAO

Second destination, Danao, a third class in the province of Cebu. There’s a lot of things to do in this place just like climbing peaks, hiking mountains and others but we didn’t have a chance to do those adventures because this is not part of our trip. I hope someday we will have a chance and more time to do trekking for more experiences and fun.We have an unplanned plan so during the trip we are always in a hurry to see the different beaches on the province. I can say that this is the craziest things we did this 2020.We don’t even know how to spend and budget our time wisely.

CARMEN

Carmen is Home to famous Cebuanos during the Spanish period but I will not talk about history here haha. This popular place has its natural water resources including falls, streams and rivers. You can try to visit the place so you can enjoy its nature and attractions. We enjoyed the natural views of the sea and rest under the coconut tress. We had fun playing basketball under the shades of the coconut trees. This is one of the most unforgettable beach hopping because all of us had our own space.Spent time in our own. Do whatever we want to do in a limited hours.

Some are playing basketball, reading books, others listening music while talking to their friends/family on social media…… and don’t forget about me – enjoying the view of the beautiful sea, feeling the sweet natural sounds around me,watching the waves of the ocean and playing stones/pebbles on the seashore.

This is what I call life-away from the noisy and busy city.

What a day trip.It is a time well spent. Before going back to the busy city of Cebu, we had a stopover at one of the selfie Corner on the top of the hills. We never expect that it’s too far from the route that we supposed to follow. One of our friend (driver) had a wrong turn so we just decided to proceed and see what’s on that place. It’s almost 2 hours on the wrong way and don’t know where to go. It’s good some locals helped us to reached that unknown destination. At last we’re here, yehey….. Selfie! Selfie! Selfie!

Collect beautiful memories everyday because we don’t know how much time we have left. It can be good or bad. Unpleasant or embarrassing ones, still a moments to remember and a moments to share. These memories makes us stronger, wiser and it inspired us to grow better and makes us more positive as we move forward in life.

Unplanned plans will always be the best way to make friendship grow, trust each other more and that friends will become a family. We may encounter ups and down but if you find true friends that will stick around, then you are the luckiest one.

All the memories we had with true friends will be cherished as we go along our separate ways.