Survivor Travel Bucket List

August 27, 2014

Sorry for the confessional screencap cheesiness. It's not every day I'm in Pulau Tiga. Wouldn't you have done it too?
I borrowed the tribe name from my favorite underdogs, the Aitu Four. Their wins make me bawl every time.  

I'm a huge fan of the reality show Survivor. If you ask me if there's a show I would choose over a date, this would be it. *Oh, wait. 

I love everything about it--the survival aspect, the deception, the social cliques, the games, THE GAME, the backstabbing, the manipulation, the drama and the human reactions. It frustrates me that I don't have many real life friends who watch it so I have someone to do post-episode discussions with, nor that I have any chance of joining. (We have Survivor Philippines, but no one can ever replace Jeff Probst. Ever.) 

When I started earning money, I said why not go do the Survivor experience? Is it really that hard to fly to another country and travel to that remote location where they filmed? 


Then, one of the happiest moments for Pinoy fans happened--Survivor US announced filming the 25th and 26th seasons in Caramoan, Camarines Sur! And they were not finished. We got another surprise when they released the secret location for the 27th and 28th seasons, which was Palaui Island, Cagayan, also in the Philippines. 

Imagine... four seasons of my favorite show, filmed in our own backyard. But ultimately, what thrilled me was that I can finally go to at least two shoot locations without needing to fly internationally. So earlier this year, I booked a flight to Cagayan, and the plans of doing Caramoan was imminent. 

Then, a spur of the moment thing happened. I was browsing Skyscanner for the cheapest flight outta here and saw that a Kota Kinabalu flight was cheaper than Bicol, the one I originally intended to book so I can go to Caramoan faster. Simultaneously, a friend was discussing his travel plans and said he's doing Borneo some time this year. I took this as a sign that if I was really gonna try to do a Survivor pilgrimage, the first one had to be Borneo, at the exact same island that started it all. 

It just had to be Borneo.

So there I was, booking a flight to Kota Kinabalu three days before my birthday. At the time, never did I imagine that it would be the best birthday present I'd ever give myself.


...

*Confession: I once arrived over an hour late for a Valentines date because I had to watch the latest episode of Survivor. 

Related Video: 

Solo Travel of 2014: BRUNEI x BORNEO from Jennever Pelaez on Vimeo.

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1 comments

  1. somehow you remind me of myself that i wanted to be, FREE and doing things you love - travelling but i guess god want something different from what i want. :) Go explore and keep doing what you do. you inspired me a lot thanks :D

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