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Blue Soil Hills Wasn’t Instagram-Perfect, But It Was Unexpectedly Beautiful
The photos made it look like a fantasy movie. The online reviews called it iconic. But when I finally got to Blue Soil Hills in Sagada, it just didn’t live up to the hype. Maybe it was the weather. Perhaps it was the endless flocks of tourists, wearing down something that once felt untouched. But most likely, it was just me. I guess I’ve seen too much in recent years to be easily impressed. I didn’t feel awe. So, I just stood there, quietly, while tourists waited in line and struck poses around me. I let the crowd move around me. But ironically, I didn’t even feel disappointed. As unremarkable…
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Mount Manunggal: Why Getting Lost Is Never A Waste Of Time
There’s a fine line between adventure and disaster. Lost in the middle of nowhere after our Mount Manunggal climb, I was walking that razor-thin line with a heavy backpack and two other hikers. There was a time in my life when being lost felt deeply uncomfortable, like I was completely out of my element. Yet, here on this hike with my new friends, I feel oddly at home. Instead of panicking, I felt calm. I looked at my companions, and I saw panic written all over their faces. And who wouldn’t be? With the sun beating down on us, our water bottles were running low, and unmarked trails, it had…
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Musuan Peak: The Humble Volcano That Secretly Teaches Why Change Is Beautiful
The day they find you dead, they’ll write the sweetest things on Facebook. They’ll gather in comment threads, writing the regrets and love they never spoke. But when you’re alive, there will always be those people who quietly torture you for building a life without them. They’ll gaslight you and make your happiness feel like betrayal. They’ll turn your success into their wound. These were the strange, uncomfortably true thoughts running through my mind as I hiked toward the top of Musuan Peak. And this isn’t a story about a mountain. It’s about everyone I had to leave behind to reach it. You see. Hiking and travel aren’t all about…
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Mount Napulak: Lessons In Resilience From A “Minor” Hike
Have you ever had a fever that oddly felt like a sweet victory? That’s exactly how I felt, slumped in an airport, shivering as a fever slowly took over me. After weeks of stress, sleepless nights, and a grueling climb up Mount Napulak, my body finally gave in. That was the price I paid for pushing through. That was the cost of not slowing down, of pushing myself past the limit. But guess what? It was worth every shiver, every ache, and every twinge. And here’s the thing. Mount Napulak isn’t one of those enormous, towering 2,000-meter peaks in the Philippines. At just 1,239 meters above sea level, it doesn’t…
