a wanderers pen

hope dealer, energy healer, personal advisor, freelance writer, wanderluster ig: awandererspen

[wandererspen-blog]

Manila, Philippenes July 28-29, 2016 I arrive to #manila at 5am. Plans: a) chill in the airport until about 7am, then go explore the city, b) grab a hotel room across the street (as there is apparently a shopping mall right across the street from the airport), then explore, or c) find a day tour to pick me up from the airport-- and go explore the city. What happened though? *cue scary music* I approached immigration to collect my #philippenes stamp and embark on an interesting journey. The immigration agent says, "Do you have any family here?" "No..." "Hmph. Well. You cannot enter. It is not safe. You can go to the control room." "But- wait- what? My flights in 12 hours, though..." "Control room," and he points off to the distance. Long story short, immigration arbitrarily (apparently) chooses who may and may not enter, regardless as to whether you have plans in the city or not. In said "control room" was a hysterical Spanish woman, an incredibly loud Asian woman-- who death stared me for hours bc i shh'ed her, and a bunch of men, all upset because they weren't allowed to leave the airport. What was not in the "control room?" A restroom. A shower. Any food options. Oh-- your bags also weren't in said control room. You had to basically negotiate and bug the hell out of the "guard" to go get your bags out of the baggage claim area for you-- which opens a whole 'nother set of concerns, especially given the warnings about this airport (the whole bullets getting placed in your luggage when you're not looking thing). Anywho-- long story short, at about 2pm, I was allowed to leave the control room and escorted up to my gate. My flight boarded at 345, and I hadn't eaten in like 18 hours, so I was starving and headed straight to the eateries. Not one accepted cards. The airport did not have an ATM. I had the equivalent of $3.86 USD in Malaysian Ringgits on me-- and the currency conversion counter would take a dollar of that to convert it to Filipino Pesos. Talk about emotional! Lol I ended up convincing the lady at this massage spot to charge my card (as they were the ONLY place on the side of the airport I was allowed to enter that took cards) double the amount for an hour massage (so $17 usd lol), give me an hour foot massage (which was HEAVEN), and give me $8.50 in cash back so I could get food. Needless to say, Ninoy Aquino International Airport-- you should be ashamed of yourself. That was horrible. At least the benches in the "control room" weren't separated by arm rests, though *praise hands*

[wandererspen-blog]

#storytime • AoNang, Thailand: I get in late, but the beach is just at the end of the block, so I walk down. I sit on the rocks for a bit, watching the locals frolic in the water, and I notice they are gathering stuff. "Must be shells!" I think to myself, and I hop down to join them. It was great fun; I gathered with them for maybe 20 minutes. The waves left my clothes #soaked-- but it was fun, so who cared. • I get a pocket full of these mini, yet beautifully iridescent clam shells and ask one of the ladies, "....so... now what do we do with these??" "We eat them!" she said! I laughed like, "Oh- duh," and continued back to my hostel (this one was a good one too! lol) • Fast forward 3 days to #kohtao. I'm in this incredibly questionable 4 bed hostel with a super sick guy and his lady friend. I come back to the room and he's in bed with all the lights off, groaning, and IT SMELLS SOOOOOO BAD in there! Like #deathanddying lol I go up to the front desk guy, explain the sitch, and he moves me to a private room since I only have one night left anyway. • #privateroom! #yay!!! NOT lol this place was disgusting. I'll save you the details, but I put my stuff down and start repacking my bag as the ferry to #kohohangan was at like 8am. #itstillstinksthough. So, between gags and heaves, I'm taking ALL my stuff out and smelling it, dividing into piles of #clean, #cleanenough, #dirty, & #doievenneedtokeepthis. I get to my fave buy of the trip (the pants in this video) and THEY SMELL SO BAD!!!!!!!! I almost threw up! Why, you ask?? Guess what was still in the pocket 😖😫💀 • #thoseclamsprobablykeptthatmansick #irewashedEVERYTHING #mypocketwasaclammorgue #atleasttheywereinaplasticbag #thepantscouldbesaved 🙌🏽

[wandererspen-blog]

Where she goes... Now you know!

I promised a post in 5 days... let's start with this! My itinerary June 11-15 San Juan, Puerto Rico June 18-22 Vancouver, BC, Canada June 22- July 2 Bali, Indonesia (Ubud, Jimbaran, Seminyak, Kuta) July 2-27 Thailand (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Krabi/Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Phangan) July 28 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia July 29 Manila, Philippenes June 29- August 2 Dubai August 2- 9 NYC/DC/Philadelphia When I first decided to embark on this journey, I had extremely grandiose ideas of what I could accomplish. I said I'd spend 2-5 days at each location, and my travels also included Australia, New Zealand, India, Istanbul (*whew*), Germany, Spain, Greece, Morocco, and Egypt, concluding that I would then just need to make it to Amsterdam, as they have the cheapest flights back to the states. Yeah, no. Sure, that itinerary is definitely doable-- and I plan on doing it. Soon. But that needs AT LEAST 6 months. And some sort of dinero coming in during that time. "But how much did you spend?! Like $10,000?!" Ok, no. What the hell? lol Ok- let's start from the beginning. Puerto Rico: Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) sale from Cheap Caribbean. About $350 for flight (DFW-SJO) & 4 star resort. (International travel is generally cheaper out of Houston. Dallas is almost always more expensive. By far.) Vancouver: $45. Yes. Roundtrip. Delta. Out of LAX, though. No worries. $42 one way DFW-LAX with American Airlines. Bali: $680. One way. LAX-DPS. Now, I messed up here. I wasn't patient. I was just really learning this travel hacking thing. I didn't have a return date set at the time. I totally could have found a roundtrip for less than my one-way. But, I didn't know if-- I mean, when, of course, I wanted to come back. This was my largest expense, by far, of the entire trip. Indonesia- Thailand- Malaysia- Philippenes: $~350. I messed up here again. Royally. Like, $250 messed up. Remeber that crazy, go everywhere plan I had? Well, I came across Air Asia. They have 2 pass options. $160 for 30 days of travel. Sounded perfect. The Air Asia experience easily deserves it's own post, but I'll leave you with this: No. Air Asia's planes are totally Southwest's planes from like 30 years ago-- and their pilots have got to be in training still. They are absolutely the Spirit of Asia, and, just, no. Anyway, I should have spent no more than $120, maybe $150 to go from Bali- Bangkok, Bangkok- Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai- Krabi, Phuket- Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur- Manila, but I booked flights, then changed my route. More than once. And there are change fees-- and, once booked, you are unable to change the route, just the date. So I had to buy a few new tickets. Lesson learned. Dubai: $68 One way Manila-Dubai. Cebu Pacific. They had a sale. So I purchased. Then figured out how to get to Manila. It totally wasn't on the original itinerary. USA: Dubai- JFK (NYC) $447. Sure I have a few hours to spend in Saudi Arabia 😳... But, it's really just a layover. I'll arrive after midnight, and my flight departs for NYC at like 5am, or something close to it. So... provided an extremist isn't feeling ballsy in the middle of the night, I should be fine. Dallas- LGA-DAL $125 Virgin. Business class. Long story short, chase the fare, not the destination. And don't plan EVERYTHING. It's ok to wing some stuff. Not flights in America, though. But, pretty much everywhere else in the world, that's the way to go. Ok- I can only speak for Europe and SEA lol but, I'm sure the rule is pretty standard everywhere else. Like $20usd flights same day. As far as lodging, I stayed/am staying in hostels ranging from $3-12/night while in Asia. Stay tuned for a "Are you about that hostel life" post. It is NOT for everyone. And food; I spent/am spending between $3-8/day. So, how much did I spend? I dunno-- you do the math. But not much. So, tell me again why you can't/don't travel?

[wandererspen-blog]

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I shed my first tear today. After unsuccessfully arguing with my airline about not paying a second time for my checked bag because I had already paid for it, I retired to the waiting area and opened up the book of faces.

Already aware of Alton Sterling, & already in talks to create a change with numerous equally disgusted and enraged people, I was greeted by the news of yet another black person losing their life at the hands of an officer… along with the live video his girlfriend recorded of the execution.

These calculated murders have always infuriated me. They would bring a fury and fire through my veins unmatched by any other anger. But I never cried. My hands may have shaken and my voice may have cracked for the pure rage was too much to contain, but I never cried.

I started the video and my skin got hot. My throat burned. My hand involuntarily reached up and covered my mouth. And then a single tear welled up in the corner of my left eye… and it fell. It’s not that this video was any more graphic than any other video I’d seen before. It’s not that I was shocked or surprised by any of it– I’m not quite sure why this one shook me so hard. But it did. And I dropped my first tear for my people.

I debated whether to post this on my travel blog. This is supposed to be about the awesomeness that is travel, and the double awesomeness that is doing it while black. I wanted to share my adventures, revelations, movements, and feelings here. This blog was supposed to encourage others to do something different, empower black women to just #bookdatish and go! Solo, even! But, my being black doesn’t dissolve just because I’m traveling– and I would never want it to.

A few days ago I went on a tour to the floating market just outside of Bangkok. On this trip, a young white guy decided I was going to be his new friend. He sat next to me on the boat and return bus ride. We had decent conversation. Then a German young woman chimed into our convo. The question of my ethnicity came up. “I’m black.” “But where is your family from, I mean?” she inquired. “Your guess is as good as mine. All I can tell you is a slave owner raped the matriarch of my mothers’ side at least 4 times, because they had 4 sons. And their ‘father’ was 'generous’ enough to give them a massive amount of land in Northern Louisiana– which has since been stolen again from my family… But yeah. *half smile*” “Ooo! I just hate American history! *looks at the white guy* No offense, but your people were just SO WRONG!” He laughed, and then said, “None taken– I mean, we’ve made it right for them so many times and it’s not like I ever had slaves. Besides– your history is way worse! *more laughter, followed by an elbow nudge to me* I mean, right?! Ha ha” *blank stare* “Sir… allow me to introduce you not only to this thing called history & reality, but the term 'white privilege.”

Needless to say, that was a semi- awkward bus ride back to the city. Not for me, of course.

While I sat in the terminal today, waiting for the agent to call us to board, I continued to watch the video. My energy had clearly shifted as the people sitting around me kept trying to see what I was watching. I took my headphones out and let it play out loud. A white man rolled his eyes and got up and moved away from me. A thai girl asked me what was going on. I explained. And I explained loudly. I wanted everyone within earshot to hear what is going on in the states– and to hear it from a black person. Not a news clip from Fox or Facebook. She cried and hugged me.

As I rode the bus from the terminal to our plane, I caught myself staring hatefully at every white person I saw. I wanted to go up to them and ask what they thought about black people and their thoughts on the police brutality epidemic overtaking the US. I wanted to ask them how often they travel– and how they afford to do so. Generational wealth? I wanted to go up to the black guy at the end of the bus and ask him how he felt.

Today I was supposed to catch you guys up to speed with all of the amazing places and and experiences I’ve visited and had thus far. But today you get this.

[wandererspen-blog]

welcome!

You’ve probably wandered here… well, because I told you to lol and you’re probably like “buuuuut… there’s nothing to see…” I know. Gimme a day or three. You know how I am… and if you don’t, I may or may not be the epitome of procrastination. But- I get things done. Eventually.

Anyway- welcome to my blog! I had the idea to set this up like 5 months ago… but then life happened. And I know that may not seem like a great excuse to many– but it works for me. Life happens. And you go with the flow of it. And you make changes to plans. And you mess up some things. And you create wonderful things! And you might mess up a couple more things… But at the end of the day, life continues to happen, and it continues to go on.

What is “this” you ask? Well, a few months ago I decided to navigate Southeast Asia (& a few other destinations)- solo. Perhaps not solely by choice; sure I would have loved company, but, as we just discussed, life happens– for everyone, at different speeds, times, hell– dimensions for some. And a travel buddy just wasn’t in the cards for me. But that’s ok– from the words of Adam Sandler’s kid in Big Daddy, “but I wipe my own ass!” I can therefore travel alone.

I say all that to say, drop a comment, tell me “[you] wuz here,” & check back tomorrow– or maybe the next day, for a look into my solo travel adventures and other life-ly things. I am totally writing this intro like a month into traveling so I can assure you I’ve got some gems to share already. 🙏🏾🕉