Sometimes in life you just have to roll with the punches. If there is one thing I have never been in life, it is spontaneous. When friends call to say, “meet at the park in five minutes” panic sets in. Any deviation from “the plan” means I don’t cross off something on my to-do list. To say I am a control freak would be totally accurate. If there is one thing traveling around the world will make you- it is flexible. In our short one month abroad it is evident that being flexible is key to continuing the journey in happiness. Being flexible can pay off in big ways; we found this out when planning our day trip to the island of Siquijor.
A bright, hot, and humid morning greeted us early one Saturday. We planned to board a boat to Siquijor at 8:30am. Arriving one hour early was not nearly enough as we learned quickly the 8:30am boat was already sold out. The lines for all boats that morning were 40-50 people deep. We held a quick family meeting and decided we would postpone our Siquijor trip and instead go on a short trip to Bacong, Negros Oriental, Philippines.
Our decision turned into a fun outing. We found the pipe organ in old Bacong church that was built in the 1500’s. The grand cathedral was impressive with paintings on the ceilings, statues everywhere, and old wooden pews. The pipe organ was built on the choir balcony. It is a massive instrument, very ornate, and very old. Bacong is a quaint Philippine town with roadside markets, treehouse hotels on the beach, and a local arts store. Jake purchased some of the best tasting mangoes on the side of the road in this town.
Delaying our trip to Siquijor by two days allowed us to have the island to ourselves in terms of tourists and local holidayers. We arrived even earlier to purchase our boat tickets to make sure we made the boat. We arrived only to find we were some of the only people in line. The pier was very quiet that hot, humid morning. We had plenty of time to wait for the boat, board, and find comfortable seats. Our forty-five minute boat ride turned into an almost two hour boat ride because we got on the slow boat. We have learned that everything takes a lot longer than you would think in the Philippines. That is part of learning to be flexible.
Arriving on the island we were swiftly pegged as the tourists who needed a tour. We picked our guide, mode of transportation, and the sites we were interested in seeing. We customized our tour just a bit. Turns out going to the island on an off day works out better for a traveling family. Being able to customize the tour a bit helps us with a five year old on board. We were able to see sights, such as corn being laid out on the road to dry, that could have been easily missed on a bustling tourist day. We would have liked to have spent more time at some locations. If we were there with every other tourist, our time would have been cut even shorter. We had most sights to ourselves or very few other people.
Click here to read Siquijor in a Day. It’s all about what we did on the island and maybe you’ll see an extra spot to stop that interests you.
Abandon plans when you need to, explore something close by that you’ve been interested in, and give yourself plenty of time to adventure if transportation takes longer than expected. Becoming flexible can be a challenge for hard core planners, but does have big rewards if you are willing to submit to what may be. Changing our plans allowed us to see a nearby town, have the tourist attractions mostly to ourselves, and to customize our tour a bit. So go ahead, be flexible.
When has being flexible paid off for you when traveling? We would love to hear your experiences.
