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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...and still maintain your full-time job.

No, I didn't take my job with me when traveling in those months but I filed for vacation leaves in between. From October of last year to January of this year, I visited four countries within four months; all of which happened in different times. It was no easy feat considering that I have a day job in a BPO industry. I was apprehensive too, if all my plans would push through considering the number of vacation leaves that I had.

Hong Kong, Macau (Ok, Macau is not a country but just a region of China along with HK, but my passport was still stamped), Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand. I visited these five places which makes me wonder if what I did was a rare opportunity to achieve or if everybody can do it as well.

Friends would ask me if I'm still working in my current company due to my constant travelling. I tell them I'm just lucky to also have a boss that understands my needs to get away from the office environment once in a while. Sure, you may not be able to choose your manager but there are other circumstances that you can control.

KL Monorail, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Here are four basic tips that you can take note of so you can travel while keeping your job.

• Book Ahead - Check out budget airline websites for dirt-cheap promotions which they hold regularly. You'll be able to save a ton of money because of booking in advance at ridiculously low prices.

My trip to Hong Kong cost me 1200 Php and those are round trip tickets already. (Cebu to Hongkong)
My trip to Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia cost me 850 Php; and that's riding four planes! (Cebu to Clark to Kuala Lumpur and back)
My trip to Bangkok cost me 6000 Php; actually it's 5200 bucks more because of a huge mistake of being late at the airport but you understand the point of booking during promo fares.

Suggested websites are CebuPacificAirlines.com and AirAsia.com once in a while to what they're offering. Better yet, subscribe to their feeds to notify you on their next big airline ticket sales.

Venetian Hotel, Macau

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You might’ve thought that after my bungy jumping experience in Macau, I wouldn’t dare do anything extreme for awhile. However, when I visited Kuala Lumpur a month after our Hong Kong trip, I was able to do another bungee jump at Sunway Lagoon in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I don’t really have any wishes to die early but blame it on my adventurous personality when the opportunity presented itself to me. This time I got to dip my head in water which was another treat.

October 17, 2010
Sunway Lagoon, Petaling Jaya
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bungy!

We were at the Sunway Lagoon theme park when I saw a banner of their bungy jump attraction. I was excited but I didn’t really go crazy about it since the bungee in Macau already put my pockets to rest for quite a while. I thought that it would cost me an arm again. Upon further inquiry, I was really hyped since I realized that it’s not as expensive as I thought.

still smiling and waving

Others might think that the height of the jump is already a piece of cake for me considering that I already did the world’s highest bungy at 233 meters. However, I was trembling more during this jump because I had more time to think. At 21 meters, it’s still not something you can just easily shrug off.

 
I started shaking.

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I realized I’ve been wrapped up in writing articles about my recent trips that I haven’t been able to provide updates about my life and the things that have been going on so far. This is still a personal blog and before I get caught up with writing a bunch of entries about my travels again, let me post a few random nothings – travel and non-travel related.

Money Play

Been playing with money the past couple of months – NO, I haven’t been wasting it. I’ve been looking for ways to  squeeze time in order to maximize the situation of funds and whatever’s left of it. This is not something I’d recommend to everyone because you’ll go crazy if you can’t keep up with your payables and receivables. Heck, I’m going nuts trying to figure out how I’m going to manage. But I still like to think I can.

Terra 60 Backpack

Photo courtesy of Doi

As you might have noticed in some of my previous posts, I have a new back pack for travelling. It cost me an arm to get this despite the discounted rate. There was a sale on outdoor items and because I was so curious about the items being displayed, I had to drop by the place. I wondered why the hell I did. Now I’ve conformed to The North Face backpack. But I’m not complaining as I know this proves to be useful in my trips. Besides, the Deuter bag that I have cannot accommodate the things I bring during my long journeys. I still need to work on my packing skills though.

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