Dedicated to My Ultimate Travel Source and Support

This Mother's Day is the perfect time to write about her. This thrill-seeker is a very fortunate girl to have a mom like her, because no travel would be possible without her support, which at some points, might qualify as "pangungunsinti". She helped me in searching for the best money changer for my first Hongkong trip. She went out of her way to deliver my stuff to a meeting place for our Mt. Pulag climb. She went with me to bus stations for the early morning assembly to the Hot Air Balloon Festival, and for the climb to Mt. Maculot. Before our Mt. Apo hike, she went with me to various doctors because a requirement for the hike was a "fit to climb" medical certificate, and she justified to the doctors that I could do it. She accompanied me to the airport on my flight to Davao for the Mt. Apo climb, and also waited patiently for my return.

She is also my ultimate source of travel information. She'd always tell me about new destinations she saw on TV, and she was the one who suggested going to Marinduque for Boots and I's first out-of-town travel together.

Sad  to say, we  have yet to travel out-of-town together in recent years. I could only account for two beach trips - in Nasugbu, Batangas and in Subic for my aunt's company outing where we tagged along, and both happened almost 20 years ago. She always talked about how nice the Mt. Pinatubo view is, and when we went there, I wanted to take her with me though she declined (When we got there, I was thankful that she declined because the skyway was not passable hence, she could have trekked for 6 hours!). In recent years, our dates were almost limited to watching movies and eating out. As for my out-of-town and out of the country travels, she'd just be excited seeing my photos from the places I visited as soon as I get home. This year would be the first time we'd go out of town again together. We are booked for Boracay on October, and she's as excited as she could ever be.

One of her simple joys in life though is watching a fireworks display. Yes, we had been consistently watching the fireworks competition in MOA since 2007. Even though it's hard to commute with the volume of people that would be there, we'd still go. It already became an annual bonding tradition for the two of us.

So, to my dearest mom, my best "girl talk" friend, my ultimate travel and current events source, my instant dose of laughter (from her witty comments), my number one fan, and my only parent in the world - Happy Mother's Day! :)

(Only she doesn't know how to use the internet, but I'll figure out a way to show this to her somehow.)