Places Visited

The world is incredibly huge but like most people I know, it is also my dream to travel around the world. It is just interesting to see how many places I have already visited and found this in the internet. I have yet to cover a lot!

The entire country may be shaded but I have only been to some states/cities in that country, especially US (please see US map below for the actual states I have been).

Some states I have visited in the United States

How It All Started

I grew up without even a tiny thought of having the opportunity to travel because of the fact that life was hard and flights were deadly costly. However, my eyes were opened during my first job in a semiconductor company, which was located around 300 kilometers south from my hometown, called Baguio City. I used to go back home on a monthly basis with around 10 hours of traveling one-way and taking 3 types of transport:

I take the Saulog bus from Baguio City, my hometown, to Bacoor, Cavite.
Then take the jeepney to Dasmariñas, Cavite and then another jeepney ride to Trece Martires, Cavite. I stop at a junction in General Trias, Cavite.
Then take a 15-minute ride via tricycle to my apartment.

I would have to admit that was really exhausting but I did it for more than 2 years, for the love of my family! ❤

Baguio-Cavite — The distance between my hometown Baguio City (Rigde View but this should be Ridgeview Street) and my first job location in Cavite.

The opportunity that time was risky because the company gave me only 3 months worth of contract. But my parents told me it should be a good try. And so I packed my bags and traveled to Cavite. I was not nervous but I was excited to see what was out there and I mostly traveled alone back and forth. I never had any negative thoughts in my mind. Instead, I told myself ‘this is a good chance for me to test myself how good I am in managing things by myself.’ Well, not that I was pampered by my parents but the feeling of being far away was what changed. And a really big change at that.

Because of this huge move though, I came to know about my love for traveling, not the 10-hour traveling, but the exploring of neighboring places within and outside Cavite, most especially Tagaytay.

Taal View — Looking at the Taal Volcano, the smallest active volcano in the world, surrounded beautifully by waters.

In 2006, my second company gave me the chance to travel to New Jersey in the United States and that was my first international, farthest, and longest trip (around 21 hours including layover in Taipei). In this same period, I had my first point-and-shoot camera, Casio Exilim z750. Fortunately, my camera had manual settings so I was able to play around with the settings while enjoying the summer season. This likewise motivated me to start a blog called “A Glimpse of What Is” and posted one photo at a time.

Glimpse — My very first photo post when I was in the US using my first point-and-shoot camera, Casio Exilim z750.

Together with traveling, photography has been my hobby and still learning a lot. At the end of 2015, it was in my heart to start a photo-blog about my travels but it took a while because I could not decide on the blog name (this stage was indeed the hardest). And now, finally, in a snap, the name came to my mind and without further delay, I signed up and started blogging away.

So while the memories of 2016 are still a little bit fresh in my sometimes-forgetful brain, I would like to start with my 2016 adventures and then backtrack my older journeys later.

Go ahead and click on either the country or photo to see what I mean. Enjoy! =)