Like you, I miss the freedom of the open road. I miss that feeling of discovery, of stepping foot somewhere new for the first time and knowing that there’s a beautiful world just waiting out there to be explored. As much as I used to complain about travel burnout in the past, there are simple things I miss about pre-COVID travels. Like riding somewhere without the fear of being stopped at a checkpoint; those sudden and unexpected trip assignments to cover events in another province; or just random city adventures and drinks at a bar afterwards with friends.
I know there are so many bigger problems out there. So many people have been left jobless and businesses everywhere are suffering because of restricted movements brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The uncertainty of this virus and the possibility of getting sick and dying is very real. Everyone has switched to survival mode and leisure travel should be the furthest thing from everyone’s mind.
For now, I’m just grateful to be alive and to have a roof over my head. But I still can’t help but miss travel.
How is everyone keeping sane these days? All we can do is just go one day at a time and focus on what we can do right now. What do travel bloggers do when they can’t travel? Aside from the usual routine chores, these are just some of the activities that I’m keeping busy with to cope with a life of no travel.
Table of Contents
Biking
Our long motorcycle rides have taken the backseat to quick urban bike rides. This pandemic has seen a biking revolution in the country unlike anything I’ve seen before. We’ve always been into biking and I’m so thankful that it’s one of the allowable outdoor exercises during the MECQ period. Biking is considered essential transportation and you can still easily practice social distancing while biking.
During the strict ECQ when public transportation was limited, we opted to do errands like picking up food and market runs by bikes. Once exercise rides were allowed during the MECQ, we shifted to urban rides within our neighborhood and nearby cities revisiting safe places to bike like Marikina River Park, Quezon Memorial Circle, and Balara Filters Park for exercise.
I’ve been scouring GoogleMaps for interesting features like green spaces, bodies of water, and historic points of interest that I can explore on quick trips. I haven’t gone on any group rides to keep with social distancing guidelines, but solo rides or biking with members of your household can feel like small adventures on their own. Biking can help you see places in a different light and stumble upon unexpected places you might not otherwise find.
Microadventures
Since travel is largely restricted, I’ve been rediscovering the neighborhood and trying to seek out adventures in the ordinary. “Microadventures,” a term made common by British adventurer and author Alastair Humphreys, refers to adventures that are short, simple, local, and cheap – yet still fun, exciting, challenging, refreshing, and rewarding. His philosophy is that “Adventure can be found everywhere, every day, and it is up to us to seek it out.”
The idea is to just go somewhere new and out of your comfort zone even if this means you’re just going to another neighborhood or district. Try to look at familiar destinations with fresh eyes. In my constant search for exotic destinations, I tend to take places nearby for granted. Just doing groceries in a Korean minimart you’ve never visited before, sampling the newest viral quarantine food trend, or hunting down a random but specific landmark on a map can bring that sense of adventure to your daily life.
What you do doesn’t have to be complicated, it just has to give you a break from the routine. There are still a lot of places in nearby cities I haven’t really explored or been to in a while. My main plan is to revisit other accessible urban nature spots, green spaces, and city parks by bike once they reopen.
Video Games
Last year, as a reward to myself for finishing the Project 81 Provinces Quest, I bought a PlayStation 4. It turned out the be one of the best investments during this quarantine period. While travel and tourism, hotels and restaurants, and sports industries have been suffering, gaming and eSports has seen a revival since most people are quarantined at home. My love for travel was actually born from playing video games, so it’s kind of nice to go back to my roots and have the time to level up again in virtual worlds.
I’ve enjoyed playing Final Fantasy VII Remake mainly because of the nostalgia. I played the PlayStation 1 Original Game back in 1997, so it’s been a very fulfilling experience that brought me back to simpler times. Aside from finishing the game, completing the sidequests and acquiring trophies gives me something to look forward to and a sense of fulfillment. Embarking on sidequests can be so time-consuming that you won’t mind living in quarantine, especially during this rainy season.
You don’t even have to go out or to the mall to get new games! DataBlitz does home delivery through its e-commerce site and you can easily download new games directly from the PlayStation Network by buying PSN cards and voucher codes online. PSN has been releasing a lot of free PS3 remastered games like the Uncharted series and Journey, which give that sense of travel and are always worth replaying.
Netflix and reading
Watching TV shows and movies and reading has also helped take me around the world straight from my couch. Netflix and HBO Go have been amazing. Lately, I find myself drawn to feel-good romantic series set in small towns (When Calls the Heart, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias, Chesapeake Shores) and lighthearted animated series as an escape from reality.
I just finished watching the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series (super fun!!! highly recommended) and am currently reading the graphic novel sequels. Recommendations on what to watch next are welcome 🙂 I’ve also reorganized my old comic book collections to read through again.
Reminiscing about previous trips
Back in March, I thought this quarantine period would be a great time to finally finish writing all my backlog articles from previous trips. But some of those trips just seem so inaccessible and irrelevant to what’s happening today. Writing and sharing aspirational travel stories at this time can be a sensitive matter since everyone should be doing their part to stay home. I’ve been holding off on writing travel articles because I don’t want to encourage people to travel right now. Besides, writing detailed travel guides listing where to stay, where to eat, and how to get there may not be applicable in the future, what with all the changes and closures of different establishments and public transportation.
We don’t know if and when travel will ever normalize, which has made me feel even more nostalgic about pre-COVID travels, even the trips that were just a month or two before the lockdown was declared. While it’s ok to reminisce and all, it doesn’t seem healthy to keep dwelling on the past and relying on throwbacks.
I’m also trying to share content that might be more relevant to people today, including mobility in the city (biking and motorcycle guides), gear reviews, food and drinks, and gaming. I’m thankful to still be writing for some magazines and publications even if I’ve had to put a hold on travel articles and shifted to writing about food, home, lifestyle, and other topics.
Dining & drinking indoors
One thing I really miss about traveling is food-tripping and eating out and drinking with friends. With dine-in options in restaurants and bars limited and discouraged, the only way to adjust is to get food and drinks delivered and make dining indoors more fun. Fortunately, there’s been a boom in local home-based food businesses in my neighborhood, and some of my favorite restaurants have been able to adapt to home delivery. While most friends somehow turned into Master Chefs over the quarantine period, I just can’t seem to get into cooking and baking.
Instead, I choose to support the local businesses that are struggling to survive. I’m enjoying the convenience of easier food delivery and dining at home without having to deal with the traffic and going out. It’s easier than ever to find provincial and regional favorites to address any cravings.
Craft beer has been another amazing coping mechanism. While I miss drinking out, thankfully, more brewers are making their beers available for home delivery. Trying out beer from different breweries gives me something to look forward to. However, because of all the lockdowns and liquor bans, it’s doubly difficult for local businesses, so I hope other people can support their neighborhood craft breweries if they can.
Home improvement
With all the chaos happening in the world, reorganizing furniture and putting things in order at home is giving me a sense of satisfaction and control. I’m slowly trying to make our place more comfortable, trying to bring the outdoors in with more plants, and displaying the items that spark joy.
There’s something therapeutic about fixing up old and broken stuff, breathing new life into old furniture, and crafting items that show off your personality at home. Since I can’t go to bars, I’ve made myself a beer nook at home and am currently working on a mini-beer garden in the fire escape.
Different people have different ways of coping with this pandemic. A lot of people seem to have turned to plants to fill the travel void in their life. Other friends are now into cooking, yoga, art therapy, rediscovered long lost hobbies or have started online business ventures for extra cash. One of my good friends finds joy in fangirling after becoming a full-fledged member of the BTS Army. While we can’t travel, what’s important is just to keep safe, stay healthy, and do whatever helps to keeps you sane and happy.
While I’m hopeful that all this pandemic will end someday and we can go back to “normal”, the reality is that travel will never be the same as it once was. We all need to accept that and adapt to survive.
With that, I’d like to say that I might be writing less about international destinations and guides on this blog to focus on more relevant content that people can do at home given the current events. Expect neighborhood guides, more urban biking destinations, video game and gear reviews, food, lifestyle, and home entertainment topics like books and movies.
Lastly, I’d like to thank all the readers out there who have been supporting this personal travel blog since I started it in 2011. It’s been really tough to stay positive these days. Knowing that there are people out there who value what I write gives me a reason to keep doing it.
Stay safe! Let’s hope we get through this.