Stories on the Road: A Lesson

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And here I go again. Yet another insight from another well-mannered fella has forced me to come-up with a random thought.

While browsing through my favourite blogs this afternoon, I came across a post written by Flipnomad entitled Why you and I should not be Afraid to leave everything behind for awhile. In this post, he listed down reasons which are born out of the lessons that he has learned in doing long-term backpacking. It was the first reason in his list which is, travel builds character and competence that loudly spoke to me and reminded me of an incident that happened during my first few months of living abroad.

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Favourite Travel Photos – My 7 Super Shots

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I am in no way a photographer. I do not even have the confidence to say that I love my photographs. But I thank the universe for letting DSLR’s be invented. Wannabes like me can now capture precious sights and moments whenever we travel which would not have been possible otherwise. Yes, naysayers (or laggards) would say digital photographs are just a fad, film photos are still better and owning a DLSR does not make you a photographer. I’d say calm down, it is just a camera dude! Taking photographs makes me feel good. I may not come-up with the best photos all the time but the sheer happiness that I get whenever I take photos is enough to make me think that I should go on and should forget about what others would say.

I felt really glad when Albino, a new travel blogger friend of mine tagged and asked me to respond to HostelBooker’s challenge to come-up with a set of my favourite photographs. Here’s what Albino came-up with: Albino’s 7 Super Shots. Unfortunately, mine will not even come close to the gorgeousness of his photos. But I was happy to answer to the challenge anyway. So for just this post, please allow me to call myself, the god of photography :D

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Marketing in Travel Blogging

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Another well-mannered individual posted this question in Facebook yesterday (darn those well-mannered individuals!):

“What are your strategies in building a brand for your blog? Kindly share!”

Obviously the question does not pertain to me as branding is not something that I consciously practice in promoting this blog. In fact, I do not promote at all. I go against the grain. But I accept the reality that social media is nothing without marketing so it is inevitable for bloggers to have to include marketing strategies. This is true especially in the oh so wonderful universe of travel blogging wherein the main purpose is to share and promote.

Being admittedly a marketing geek, the rusty wheels inside my tiny brain started spinning again upon reading this question and I immediately thought about the marketability of each of the various blogs that I follow. The voices inside my head would not stop asking me to write my opinions. They’ve warned me that they will eat my dog if I don’t follow. So for fear of losing a dog, I decided to come-up with a list.

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My Kind of Travel Blogger

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A well-mannered fella posted this question in Facebook yesterday:

“There are 2 types of travel bloggers: Those who write passionately about what makes them famous and those who write passionately about what inspires them and others. Where do you belong?”

Unfortunately, this smart inquiry was right away labeled as a loaded question by another fella. It made me hold back and decide not to join in the fun. I would have liked to leave a simple comment stating what kind of character I have but I worried that I would have to end-up defending my answer, which to me is unfair. In my opinion, the question was not at all loaded because it was simply asking what kind of personality each one of us has. There was supposed to be no right or wrong. There was supposed to be a sharing of insights and a sort of getting to know. Like asking which do you prefer, Vanilla or Chocolate? But because it got heated the moment it was posted, I decided to just watch from the sidelines.

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Salagdoong Beach and Why I will give Siquijor another try

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Before going there last Friday, I’ve only heard only nice things about Siquijor and sure enough most of the comments are correct, Siquijor is indeed such a paradise on Earth. The Azure coloured bay stunned me with its natural beauty the moment I stepped out of the fast craft. It was enough to get me excited and pumped-up for a relaxing and fun weekend. Until I took that tricycle ride going to Salagdoong beach.

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