SOUTHEAST ASIA – The Start of the Beginning

SOUTHEAST ASIA: The Start of the Beginning

Countdown to the Bad-Arse Year Starter.

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“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

We’ve been planning a trip like this for as long as we can remember and it was only on the 23rd of April 2011 that Jake finally scored cheap plane tickets for Singapore from Cebu Pacific through their infamous Piso Fare. Technically, each amounted close to P1,800.00 back and forth including the 15kilos baggage allowance— yet excluding the b*tchin’ Travel Tax.

We were to depart from the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport from Clark in Angeles City, Pampanga for the Changi Budget Terminal in Singapore as where all budget flights go. He was so stoked that he booked for a return flight 10 days later.

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Jake: I am fully aware that you still need your “Parental Nod of Approval” stamp before you can disappear for extended periods of time. So 10 days of backpacking is all we have.

Belle: I’m in my mid-20’s and— (SULKS). Okay. So what are our options?

Jake: Either we milk Singapore for what its worth for 1 and a half weeks or—

Belle: ROADTRIP!

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And with that we consulted everyone we knew about getting from Singapore to the rest of Southeast Asia. A lot of friends and colleagues suggested 10 days was crazy short for moving from one country to another.

“You’re just not going to fully experience the full experience, you know? You get what I’m sayin’?”

Oh we get what you’re sayin’. We knew things would zip by like a scene from ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ if we did decide to push through with countries like Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia but it was a gamble we had to take. Expense-wise, staying in Singapore for 10 full days is totally irrational for us.

Everything else (pleasant and otherwise) followed after that… mostly on the later half of the year since we have the awful habit of cramming. It didn’t necessarily mean everything fell into place as the itinerary was left open for a multitude of additions and eliminations.

A series of plane bookings, online accommodation expeditions and greenhorn research followed and we were up to our necks in a whirlwind of organized chaos. I even started mutating into a control freak obsessed with telling Jake irrelevant and close to paranoid “did you know’s” about practically everything.

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Belle: Did you know Malaysian customs only allows you to bring 3 pieces of clothing when you enter the country?

Jake: If that counts underwear you’re in deep sh*t.

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Obviously, that was bogus. A year later, we flew from Cebu to Manila and jumpstarted our adventure from there… constantly expecting the unexpected.