Am I Ready for Extended Solo Travel?

8.21.2011 AM

I spent a good part of yesterday looking and trying to book flights during Cebu Pacific’s seat sale. Though it still didn’t come out as cheap as my trips to Japan and Coron, Palawan last year, I think it was a pretty decent seat sale compared to their other “seat sales” as of late.

Travel dates were perfect as they ran through January to mid-March 2012. I think this is the best time to travel (and November, in tropical regions, but this is not an option for me this year since I still have to attend to the business…though I did sneak in a 4-day trip to Singapore to watch The National).

I decided I wanted to book a trip with some friends, and then a trip alone.
So after finally settling on a location and date with some friends, and after the kilobyte battle to book the flight, it was settled. I’m going to Cagayan de Oro with Karlo, Bea & Andrew on January 19-23. Not too exotic, I know.

But I had planned on having Karlo/Bea take home my extra luggage from Cagayan de Oro upon our return to Manila, then I’d take a connecting flight to Catarman, then book a flight back to Manila from Calbayog 5 days later. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the promo fare was gone after I had resolved myself to this decision.

I think some part of me was also really hesitant to:
1) Go to a relatively much less popular destination (as compared to pop tourist places like Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, CDO, Boracay, Palawan or even Laoag or Sagada)
2) Go alone
3) Go right after another trip and thus be: a) Unable to attend to the business, and b) Away from the comforts of home and basically anything familiar for 10 days straight

I just realized in booking the flights that it’s not just the people around me (i.e. Nica/future PdP local management team) that I have to prepare for my departure, but myself. I think I was almost relieved when I had run out of the supposed connecting Catarman flight from my Cagayan de Oro return.

But I’ll get there by 2013.
I just need to make money.
And find couches to surf on.
Spent a bit of time updating my couchsurfing profile yesterday. :P