and still keep your full-time job!

In one of my blog articles last month, I discussed how I was able to travel to 4 countries within 4 months and still maintained my full-time job in a BPO company. I’m writing this entry as a second part of that blog post.

Seldom do people know that apart from those 4 countries, I also traveled to 8 local destinations in a span of 8 months. It started in August of 2010 and ended during the first week of March 2011.

“Ed, I have a question; have you resigned from Company X”?

Friends and former colleagues would ask me this question because it seemed like every Facebook status message that I posted within those months, I’d point out that I was in a different place. Even I couldn’t believe the feat that I just achieved.

In the previous article, I talked about Booking Ahead, Filing for Vacation Leave, Planning your Itinerary and Saving Money. Here are some more travel tips you might find useful.

How to Travel to 4 Countries and 8 Local Destinations within 8 Months
and still keep your full-time job:

• Combine your Vacation Leaves with Your Days Off. Given that I only have an average number of vacation and sick leaves every year, it would be crazy to think that all the days that I went out were filed using my VLs. Simple mathematics would show that the number of days is not enough to cover for the acquired spots. That’s why it would be wise to use your rest days together with your vacation leaves. If it’s possible, holidays can also be combined. Let me summarize my travels during those instances:

August 2010
3 days – Bohol (August 21-23)

September 2010
9 days – Hong Kong and Macau (September 1-9)
3 days – Boracay (September 11-13)

October 2010
4 days – Manila (October 1-4)
4 days – Malaysia (October 16-20)

November 2010
5 days – Iloilo and Guimaras (November 25-29)

December 2010
Was just spent in Cebu.

January 2011
8 days – Thailand and Cambodia (January 18-25)
4 days – Davao

February 2011
4 days – Zambales (February 28-21)

March 2011
5 days – Sagada (March 2-7)

Pretty extreme, is it not? If you manage your leaves, you’ll have longer time to travel.

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I’m back to work. I want another vacation though, just to catch up on a lot of pending posts.

First, there was Bohol; then my first trip abroad in Hongkong-Macau. Lastly was the free trip to Boracay courtesy of Seair and Microtel Hotels Resort. I don’t even have enough time to update my sites one by one. I’m cramming myself up into making sure that I get to post at least one entry each but I don’t know where to start.

I should probably stay calm cause I might end up getting no productivity at all.

Hongkong International Airport

Somehow, it seems that I’m just starting these trips and I have a lot more that are going to be available for me in the upcoming months. But I don’t want to jinx it. Will be talking more about my trips to these three places (two rural areas and one urban location).

For now, here are just a few pictures of the retreat from work.

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The trip to Bohol was great. Although among the 16 people who confirmed, only 10 joined, I still had fun. I’m actually a bit groggy from the travel and I haven’t gotten enough sleep so I’m posting some pictures of the places I’ve been to in Bohol.

Will be posting more in the coming days but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to create a good write-up. I’m still high with all the drama that has been happening in life and outside these days.

Bohol pictures.

 
feeling lost but not quite. stopover lunch

Alona Beach sand

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SoloflightEd will be going on a lot of trips from August, September, October and November this year! Also, I'll be having a few more on January, February and March next year.

One big problem -- where to find some money? I booked different flights due to Cebu Pacific's promo fares in different occasions and offerings but one thing is for sure, the discounts didn't cost me much. Only now I have to look for some cash for my budget. Here are my travels.

This Year:
August - Bohol
September - Hongkong, Macau
October - Manila, Kota Kinabalu, Singapore
November - Iloilo

Next Year:
January - Davao
February - Manila
March - Clark

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