Marking a 14th year

It was only when I retired from my full-time job as Lifestyle Editor of this paper that I started to take stock of the things that I have been doing, as a matter of course.  It helps that I like doing the things I do so that I lost track as to how long I have been doing these things. One item in the list is Travel Update. I am observing 14 years of writing this travel column this year, 2014!

As the then Food & Travel Editor of the Lifestyle section, I remember that I felt hemmed in with my numerous unwritten travel data, so I asked the then Business Editor Maripal Sandiego if she would add a travel column in her section. She happily agreed. Thus, Travel Update appeared in the Business pages.

This column began as a conduit of the various press releases from airlines,hotels, resorts, and restaurants. I would make comments on the latest places launched or the latest offerings from the various hotels and resorts both here and the rest of the country.

Then its contents evolved as a following of readers formed and started to give me feedback.  I complied and Travel Update began to touch on the wise ways to travel -- short and long haul; what to expect in some places, as a first-time visitor; when to travel and how to make most of your travel time (on board a bus, an airplane, a domestic ferry boat, a cruise ship, etc.).

The current editor Joefel Banzon "inherited" me when Maripal left for the U.S. Joefel and I have established a casual working relationship with her reminder of my column deadline at the start of the week when my column falls due. Happy to report that I have almost never reneged on my twice monthly responsibility. When the huge earthquake took place in the week of my column, I failed to submit as even my editor forgot to send me my reminder. Before then, I have no recollection of my last failure to submit my column article.

In the times that I found myself abroad when my column fell due, I would make sure that I either make an advance or look for an internet cafe or the Business Center of the hotel, to be able to submit it in time.  Since there were time differences, especially if I were on an extended tour in Europe or the U.S., I would rather make advances than miss out on my deadline. I am serious about my deadlines because, as an editor, I was quite strict with my writers' deadlines. I walk my talk. I never give my editor any problems. ( In the rare instance that I could not submit, I would tell her the week before, to give her time to insert a filler.)

Like in the making of my Lifestyle column during the time of AJR, Warmth, I have been shaped by my Travel Update writing through all these years.  I have learned to be more observant and appreciative during my travels, to be more curious and adventurous, to love traveling alone as a time for myself -- to think and write wherever, whenever I want. This column has opened doors for me through invitations to visit places that I would not have gone on my own: Kenya (East Africa), Cambodia, Bandung and Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia), to name a few. Consequently, I am more exposed to cultures far different from our own -- and yet, I have come to realize that the thread of similarities exists, if only we care to look deeper and understand well the peoples from other lands.

I have long crossed the threshold of my first decade in writing this column, yet it feels like yesterday when I had that talk with Maripal regarding a travel column in the Business pages. It is really true that traveling is a never-ending adventure that surpasses a lifetime. On this 14th year of my Travel Update, what better month to celebrate than in my birthday month of March.  And this will be the anniversary month henceforth.

Here's a toast to my readers and industry colleagues who have shaped me and Travel Update through the 14 years of its existence. Cheers and happy travels, everyone!