After my euro-adventure, I was so high with travel that I bored the people around me to death with the only topic I’m interested in. It may even began to sound like gloating starting my sentences with “when i was in Europe…” so I decided to actively host couchsurfers. If I’m not traveling, I’m going to bring traveling to my house. I was particularly interested to host people on an extended travel and I would be living vicariously through their RTW stories. I was drooling with envy and dying of jealousy.

wanderlass cs world map
world map and the couchsurfers i’ve ever hosted

“If you so wanted it, why don’t you just do it?” they asked me.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”

Good question. Why not?

These were my top 3 answers.
1. I have work. responsibilities.
2. I’m no longer 25.
3. I have to get visas to everywhere.

I was raised in a world where work defines who you are, as well as your marital status, but that’s another story, ha ha. Anyway, nothing remarkable happened but one day I woke up and thought, why the hell not indeed? I’m not married. I have no children. What responsibility am I talking about? I work in our family business and my family have always supported each other. If we could travel for one to 2 months at a time, what is the difference of being gone for a year? If it means living one’s dream?

I thought telling my mother would be my biggest hurdle. I was short of making a powerpoint presentation to go with my spiel when I went to tell her. But it took me 30 seconds to say I’m planning to take a long trip. Then she so matter-of-factly asked for how long and what’s my itinerary? I was thrown off-guard because I was ready to deliver my 10-point argument. Somehow my mother have become open-minded and modern and I missed it!  It was me who was stuck in the past, the perpetually guilty daughter.

The average age of people in couchsurfing was 25. That’s where I got my number. But with its recent popularity with over 2 million members, I think the average age now is 30 or even higher. And over the past 4 years, I’ve hosted round-the-world travelers who are older (than 25). I once hosted a funny guy who at 45, quit his job, sold everything, and went traveling because he hated their incumbent president. He will go back after his 6 year term. So obviously, I have also gotten over not being 25 anymore. ;-)

While I love the Philippines and have considered nowhere else home, I have to say, the Philippine passport is the single most annoying reason I hate being a Pinoy traveler. We need visa to almost everywhere and all restrictions apply. This is the main reason why I’m still here.

world map

For my big trip, I want to circumnavigate the world! I want to leave for the west and come back from the east. And possibly hit all continents except Antartica. But who knows, maybe even Antartica if I stumbled upon a bag of diamonds or something. The plan was Asia(Manila)–Europe–(side trip: Africa)–North America–South America–Australia–New Zealand. But with my frustrated and procrastinating nature, I have changed my direction 3 times over! Ha ha. When I failed to leave in 2010, I decided to change direction and start in Australia beginning January, 2011. But some schedule monster came disrupting about that I can only start my planning today, March 1, 2011. And with all these visa business, my guess is I can leave mid-April the earliest. So with the season changing again, I will have to go with the earlier plan of heading west. I’m a tropical being and a sun chaser. I’m so scared of cold weather.

In the course of the next few days, weeks, I’ll be documenting the progress of my visa applications and the rest of the preparation. It’s a reality show at this point as I don’t know what’s going to happen. Will I get them? Will I not?  Once again, I needed to put my thoughts in writing to sort my head out, as I mentioned in wanderlass turns 4. Follow me on my quest for the title: Most Visa Applied in 30 days! ;)