Banana Pancake trail... Coming very soon!

I love pancakes but I honestly haven't tried any banana pancakes! It was only last night I surprisingly learned (in the Backpacking talk at R.O.X. High Street) that in our neighboring countries, this food is readily available almost everywhere... in guesthouses, cafes and restaurants catering to backpackers as a form of sweet breakfast.

Ooooohhh...

Hence, the South East Asia Mainland backpacking trail was given that unique nickname. There is no actual route or road to follow the Banana Pancake trail. It’s rather a growing list of places in Southeast Asia with rising influx of travellers and backpackers. It can stretch from the backpacking epicenter hub in Thailand (Khao San Road!), to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, and certain parts of India and China.

I can’t wait to taste the banana pancake and discover its trail really soon…

Apparently, there are other essential backpacking trails you can take, based again on Lonely Planet. I think I’d like to take the North to South Island trail in New Zealand next since my sister is now there. ;) Another dream trail is The Gringo Trail that refers to a string of places in South America (Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, etc.) normally taken by “Gringos”, a slang word for Americans and other foreigners in Latin America. This culminates to the Inca trail by visiting the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru.

From last night’s talk, it’s also interesting to learn that one of the earliest forms of backpacking trails was during the ‘60s and ‘70s which is called The Hippie trail—these were cheap travels taken by hippies from Europe overland to and from southern Asia, mainly India and Nepal. They journeyed then by thumbing (or hitchhiking) or through low-cost bus or train transport.

So we’re still part of this whole hippie movement even up to now… ;)

There was this newly-wed couple back in the ‘70s who wanted to cross Europe and Asia overland, up to Australia for their honeymoon. Back then everyone thought it was impossible. But they proved them wrong and it was indeed THE trip of a lifetime they will never forget. Right after, they wrote their first travel guide entitled Across Asia on the Cheap. This couple was Tony and Maureen Wheeler and that was the beginning of their Lonely Planet empire.

'All you've got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over. So go!' -- Across Asia on the Cheap philosophy

I AM going! So see you in the Banana pancake trail soon!

A rundown on preparing for the big backpacking trip

June is creeping its way in... And you know what that means to me.

Barely a month from now, I'll be doing my first ever backpacking trip outside the country. South East Asia Mainland to be specific. (I'll discuss this in detail after our trip).

It's been six months in the making. Together with my three other travel buddies, we've started planning for this trip since early January. Since one of them is based in the US (she'll be coming home to the Philippines for that), we've been mostly exchanging messages through our private Facebook thread. Yes, planning this way is possible. ;)

We had a lot of things to consider: our travel dates, plane tickets, itinerary, budget, things to bring. Here's what we've done so far since the beginning of the year:

1. Our travel dates - Why not summer? As much as we wanted to, one of us will only be regularized in her company by June so she could not take a vacation leave before that. April or May options were out. We also had to consider the length of trip. Given our work schedules, we canNOT take a month long.

2. Plane tickets - Three of us in the Philippines waited for Cebu Pacific's international route promos. We even lined up for long hours in the Travel Expo in SMX last February, thinking that we could avail cheaper round trip tickets, but we didn't get a good deal! Finally, we booked last March but just one way. We had to wait for another promo for our return ticket but we're flying out in another country. At that point, we knew our trip is definitely a GO.

3. Itinerary - This is the tricky part. I'm the type of traveler who wants a detailed itinerary planned though I know this is subject to change and I'm flexible to that. We've weighed whether we should squeeze in one more country or not; whether we should do a non-stop wandering, going to many places as possible or a slower-paced, dig-deeper exploration. (Here's an interesting article from Lonely Planet discussing this debate.)

I have a lot of sources to research from:

• Bought a book by Robert Alejandro: "The Sketching Backpacker." Described it here in one of my previous entries.
  
• Borrowed a book from another backpacker by Lonely Planet: "Southeast Asia on a Shoestring." The backpacker's bible for Southeast Asia. Reading this book is just making me dream about those temples, museums, monks, beaches, clubs, culture, Asian locals... Aaahh...
  
• Posted in groups in CouchSurfing. We may even meet up with fellow CouchSurfers along the way. :)
  
• Also posted in the Thorn Tree Forum of Lonely Planet. I got funny and interesting tips and hints, (and even violent reactions) from fellow travelers.
• As I was searching through the internet, I came across Seat61.com which explains how to travel by train to and from and within countries, recommended routes, train times, approximate fares, etc. Trains and buses will definitely be mostly our means of transportation.
  
• Thailand Train Ticket is another helpful site for checking train schedules in that country. I have yet to try booking for train rides here.
  
• The Guide to Sleeping in Airports is another noteworthy site since we might end up doing that. It has the latest airport reviews, showing which airports you can sleep in, with actual airport sleeping experiences and advice from airport sleepers and travelers.
• There's also an upcoming backpacking talk entitled "Wanderlass", on Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 7:00 pm at R.O.X. - Bonifacio High St. Lilliane Cobiao will talk about about her past trips and her upcoming round the world trip and Joncy Sumulong about his latest India and South East Asia Trip. I'll let you know what I learned soon from this talk.
  

4. Budget - From mid-year bonus to lunch baons, one pay-slip after another, I've been saving up for this long haul. What I learned through my research is that big trips are POSSIBLE for small budgets--a shoestring budget.

5. What to bring - I was actually planning to buy a backpack already but a friend offered to lend me his. (Though I would buy if this is going to be a regular thing already). As in my previous post, I have my travel shoes ready. I'm still contemplating if I should bring my DSLR and what lens to bring, how many sets of clothes, etc. I just want to be as LIGHT as possible. Here's an article from Lonely Planet on how to pack for a big trip.

Meanwhile, I came across this site: No Baggage Challenge. Rolf Potts travels around the world with no luggage! And I thought packing for a backpacking trip was hard!

6. Physical preparation - I HAVE to be healthy beforehand! Been taking vitamins and finally pulled myself together to exercise for endurance. :)

PLANS! PLANS! PLANS! These are all plans but we'll never know how it turns out until we're there.

I'm not that excited right? Hahaha!

And so the countdown begins. :)

I want to be featured in Lonely Planet someday.

I love Lonely Planet and its amazing travel community!

They've recently compiled their first eBook with content from 40 travel bloggers around the world who've shared their thoughts, ideas, and experiences from their different adventures.

Says Vivek Wagle, Lonely Planet author, "...(It) explores our beautiful world from street level through the eyes of travel bloggers. This eclectic group, whose tales range across voluntourism, family travel, expat life, long term backpacking and more, was born out of Lonely Planet’s effort to broaden its content. Lonely Planet wanted to shine a light on the very best travel writing and photography on the planet."

And guess what? Two Filipinas were part of this cool project! How fancy is that?!

Visit this link and download for FREE this e-Book: Around the World with 40 Lonely Planet bloggers.

Nina Fuentes of Justwandering.org

Claire Marie Algarme of firsttimetravels.com

I hope in their next compilation, I could be a part of it. ;)

Where I Get Helpful Travel Tips

Planning your next dream travel can be a daunting task. Whether it just be within the Philippines, across Asia, South Africa, or Europe, getting down to the details on where to go, your budget, itinerary, accommodations, air and land fares can be too overwhelming. So how do you finally get the ball rolling? Here's where I've been researching:

1. CouchSurfing - In my last blog, I talked about this community / forum where travelers converge and share hospitality with one another. You can join "groups" from different countries, share and post tips, experiences and ideas about previous or upcoming trips in specific countries. You can also email couchsurfers directly if you want to meet up or look for travel buddies.

2. Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree forum - This is where the Lonely Planet travel community get together to exchange travel information, advice, hints and tips. Lonely Planet IS your best resource. They also have a lot of books on different countries and continents (quite pricey though) but it would be a good investment for a travel bug (like me!).

3. Travelfish - Well, this one is specifically your travel intelligence for South East Asia. Rich info here from the message boards.

So I was doing some research for my next travel project and I came across Robert Alejandro’s site on his backpack adventures and sketches across South East Asia. He was the one I could relate to the most as it was a PINOY experience first-hand.

What he did was he took 3 months off from work, traveled to South East Asia and parts of China, with only around PhP50K, which was enough to cover airfare, food, accommodations, land travel and museum fees. From Manila, his group followed an itinerary through Singapore > Malaysia > Thailand > Laos > Cambodia > Vietnam > China (Beijing and Shanghai)> Macau > Hong Kong > Philippines. That's nine countries at P50K.

He has a book titled Backpack and I already got one. I bought it online through Papemelroti or you can also get it in R.O.X., Bonifacio High Street. He's got sketches and travel tips to guide you in planning your Asia travel in a cost-efficient way.

The internet's got loads of travel info, all you have to do is to take that first step and say "I'm finally going to do it!" to make your big trip plans come true... :)