Travex Travels Turns 1: Of Travel and Blogging

Travex Travels turned 1 this February 2013

Congratulations! You have just landed on a potpourri of misadventures and triumphs, life happiness and success, uncut travel series, guides and tip pages, and wonders and discoveries. Expect the unexpected: Travex Travels is now one road year away from the past. And is still moving forward.

A Reminiscent One Yester Year

I did not plan to reach one year of travel blogging because not everyone knows I started from a scratch. Travex Travels one year ago was not the one you encounter today. It was just a mere domain name with no nothing—an Internet portfolio of travel diaries and memories I want to visit over and over again once I become older. It was a plain and simple webpage that contains the beginnings of what Travex Travels used to be. But as the days and months passed by, I gained knowledge and worked the thing out. And yes, Travex Travels has undergone a series of change.

THE BEGINNING

I travel but I don’t blog it. That was before. I cannot remember why on earth I actually made this thing. But one thing is for sure, Google is still lacking the much needed information of travelers who want to visit a particular place in the country. I cannot fill everything what Google is lacking, but I can contribute to the growing online community who share knowledge to people.

I started as Vench Escapes in 2011. But it was defunct for months and eventually removed it after sometime. Then February 2012 came when I introduced Travex Travels. By that time, I do not know how long Travex Travels will survive. It’s like a hopeless dream. But I set a goal. I have to reach it. I did everything to improve it. Change the design. Read other blogs to get ideas. Ask experts. Research scripts and codes. Meet other travel bloggers. Discuss ideas. Listen to their experiences. And more.

Travex Travels one year ago was an empty page. Now somehow I was able to fill up hundreds of truthful information that readers can use for their planned tours.

CONFERENCE AND MEETUPS

The first travel bloggers I met were members of the Pinoy Travel Bloggers Bagets of Manila. Cool. They have this group that aims to build a traveling community. That particular meetup I was able to meet a Baguio-based blogger. And sooner and later I met the members of the Baguio Bloggers Society. After a few months I was also able to meet some Pangasinan-based bloggers and just recently Cebu-based bloggers. Those bits of sudden events were life changing. I learned a lot from them.

I was lucky to be part of the newly-formed group of Cordillera Bloggers. I was one of the co-organizers and a guest speaker of the First Baguio Blog Conference. It was another milestone for Travex Travels. Nothing beats the experiences I have encountered in my blogging career.

FROM 370 TO 70

A few months after I drafted Travex Travels and registered it on TopBlogs.ph it was a far-fetched ranking of 370. Travex Travels was ranked as Top 370 Philippine travel blog. After one year Travex Travels made it to the Top 70 blogs. I did not expect this to skyrocket to the Top 70 blogs.  But I am happy that somehow there is a fruitful blessing to all the hard works I did for Travex Travels. Getting into the Top 100 blogs is already good for me, getting higher is just a bonus. The secret? Work, work and work! And love what you are doing.

ONE YEAR OF TRAVEL EXPERIENCES AND BEYOND

During the first year of Travex Travels, I was able to visit places like Cebu and Sagada. A dream came true. It was my first time to ride a plane and ride a ferry. It was also last year when I started to hike a mountain on purpose, thus it was my first time to hike. I also learned how to float on water and swim a bit. I also did my first solo travel experience in Ambuklao. It was also the yester year when I touched a dolphin.

In that short span of one year, I was able to learn new things that I did not learn in school and at home. It’s a totally different thing when you go outside and explore some places. It’s an achievement without a plaque but its essence is buried deep inside your soul. It is something worthwhile to remember as time goes by. It’s a page on your life book where you wrote your life a new way to discover it. All “cannots” turn into “can” and all “do nots” turn into “do” on that particular leaf page. And you will learn to become an environmentalist once you go along with nature.

THE FUTURE OF TRAVEX TRAVELS

No one knows when the day will end and thus I do not know if Travex Travels will still survive the second, third and nth years. I will not stop sharing travel information for as long as I travel because the only way I will stop blogging is when I do not travel already. But travel is such an innocent word that I have to tag along with it in the coming years. It is something that everyone does to go out of their comfort zones.

For as long as travel stays in my heart so thus the page of Travex Travels. I love to travel. And I will never stop loving it.

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