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It finally happened! Haha. 19 days ago I thought of traveling to somewhere far away. Actually I started thinking about it late last year but I was never able to decide until the middle of last month. Thanks to my last minute idea my first solo trip to Visayas finally happened! 🎉

I've never been a frequent traveler. Most of the time I get to be in various places because of work, family or friends. Usually I end up in tourist spots or beaches in Luzon and rarely get any further. The farthest I've ever been locally in my entire life was Boracay, that was it. Been there twice even. That's it. I think that's kinda sad when most people I know get to various places more often.

The Travel Envy Bug

Too bad I developed and got the travel envy bug. Ugh. Envy is such an ugly thing to have and experience. I used to not get envious of other people but somehow in my current age, it's finally caught up to me. Perhaps I am really not living the life I want to live so I'm getting envious with each travel post I see.

Yes it might have something to do with money and time before but now it's a whole different thing. I have the time and a bit of money but somehow I do not want to spend anything at all. 😢 Oh such a terrible feeling.

Real hustlers will tell me of course I feel this way since I'm not diversifying or doing everything it takes to make more sales or have more side gigs. Of course that's why I'm whining over here, yada yada yada. 😂 Newsflash! If you've been an avid reader of my posts then you'll know I do have/had several side gigs. I've always had side gigs where I earn a little bit of money. Heck I've even become a distributor of an amazing superfoods juice mix aside from my art and writing gigs, etc. That's how I can still eat 3x a day but it's not making me rich at all thank you very much.

I admit, I'm not doing everything it takes to make millions of money because it is tiring when your WHY is not strong enough. This is why I need to get out of my comfort zone more often or else I'll feel like this forever: I hate the feeling of wanting to just hold on to any remaining money I have because it's really hard to make a property sale. Seriously, I'm not kidding. Even Ryan Serhant cried about it on TV saying it's a tough market, but he still makes PLENTY of MILLIONS as compared to me!!! Me who cried over my first "out of the blue" condo sale and second when I tried so hard to get sales that weren't effing happening at all!

_{It's tough to NOT be a social butterfly. Stubbornness to change will not get you anywhere. I used to watch The Apprentice and believe it has helped me be a better person business wise. Almost two years ago I even watched Ryan's other TV show Sell it Like Serhant to see if I can be a top seller by watching it!.}

_{Selling is all about the personality and your willingness to be out there. We can sell anything if only we changed ourselves to allow the abundance to come into our lives. I can go on and on but that's a post for another day. Heck I even wrote something about it already.}

Hey I'm not in New York and I don't work the same way he does. No I do not even want to be famous at all just to make money. Haha. God forbid I suddenly become one now. Maybe when I'm 60+ I'd be fine with it but not now. I still got issues to work on. 😅

And so lately I often thought of how I will travel and spend the least amount of money. Really fcks up my mind thinking about it so finally I got fed up with not being able to travel and being afraid to spend what money I have left. That's how I discovered Dinagyang Festival. 💃

Overview of My Dinagyang Festival Experience

At this point I'd like to just post the 4 to 6 videos of my entire trip to Iloilo City and back but that'd be the shortcut version. Haha. If you haven't watched the first video I posted then watch it here. I just thought I'd post it and see if it'd get any kind of feedback but meh. Nobody seemed to notice it. Must be because it's from my YouTube channel? Who knows...

Anyway, let me summarize the blogs I will be posting soon. I will break down Dinagyang Festival into the events I witnessed within the three days I was in Iloilo City.

• Jan. 24, 2020 Friday, Day 1: Floats Parade of Lights & Fireworks Display
• Jan. 25, 2020 Saturday, Day 2: Dagyang sa Calle Real
• Day 2: Lighting Ceremony & Religious Sadsad
• Jan. 26, 2020 Sunday, Day 3: Dinagyang 360°

I posted these pics before (from the official Iloilo Dinagyang 2020 Facebook Page, including the main pic) but lemme just show them again for your reference.

Basically that's the schedule I followed. So now let me tell you about my trip to Iloilo City too.

Why Fly to Iloilo City When You Can Ride the Bus and Roro to Get There?!

Traveling is fun so why not go the long way to any destination? It would be too fast and easy if I fly straight to anywhere in Visayas. I mean come on how boring is it to travel places and get there in just an hour or two? I have the most time in the world than I ever did before so there's no rush to get there.

Since I already talked about the exciting ticket buying and what a Roro is in my earlier post, let me share the travel cost so you have an idea.

TRAVEL COST BREAKDOWN

• Alps Bus Fare Cubao to Iloilo City: P1,012
• Luggage fee (Araneta City Bus Port): P50
• Starlite Ferries, Total: P770 (includes below)
  • Batangas Port to Calapan Port: P160
  • Roxas Port Passenger Terminal Fee: P15
  • Roxas Port to Caticlan Port: P360
• TOTAL COST: P1,832
  ^{($36 based on today's currency exchange)}

Next, I'll show you what happened when I went there. Hehe.

Bus/Roro to Iloilo City

I left Quezon City on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. I rode the Alps bus in Cubao which left at 10 am. Guess what time I arrived in Tagbac (or Tagbak) Terminal in Iloilo City? Haha.

Check out my video and find out:

See how fun it is to go the scenic route? The videos do not do the views any justice. It's always better to see them with your own eyes, feel the air and smell the scents and all that jazz. ❤️ (The video does not include the bus route from Cubao to Batangas port. I started taking videos when we were already in Batangas.)

The bus/roro route actually has two ways of going to Iloilo. Either it's through Central or Antique. Alps bus takes the Central route, passing through Aklan and Capiz provinces.

One thing I just have to say is, I was sitting beside a guy who was sniffling and sneezing from Cubao to Iloilo City. I'm pretty sure he had flu or colds. Oh my goodness, fortunately I am not the sickly person I used to be.

Since June 2019 I have been drinking One Opti Juice and have never been sick from other people. Even when I sat for hours beside that sick person I never got the flu or colds at all! Hurray! Too bad for the rest of the passengers though. Before we got to Iloilo City I could hear 2 or 3 other people sniffling and sneezing too. Ah such is what happens when people don't cover their nose and mouth when they sneeze.

Anyway, traveling through Panay island is surprisingly not fast at all. I had thought it would just take an hour or so to get to Iloilo City but no. Hahaha assuming such when I didn't even check the map at all. Good thing I subscribed to 7 day internet data before I left home, otherwise I would not know where I was at the time. Lol.

Check out my screenshots of Google Maps. See, we were only past Kalibo early in the morning upon embarking. It took about 4 hours from the port to Tagbac terminal. It includes breakfast & break stops plus passengers dropping off one by one.

I've yet to compile my videos of going back to Metro Manila. That's the last one I'm going to upload but my phone's out of memory! Haha.

Hey, what do you think happened during my stay in Iloilo City? So far, do you have an idea how it went based on the things I've already posted? 😁

Stay tuned for more in the upcoming Dinagyang Festival 2020 travel blogs!

XOXO,
@artgirl

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Written by @artgirl for Steemit.
© Art x Stephanie Rue

_{@artgirl is a freelance writer/artist, online seller and real estate agent. My Steemit posts may contain referral/affiliate/merchandise links.
Contact me for your art, Writing/Research & Metro Manila (NCR) property needs.}

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