About

Villagonzalo, Franco Villagonzalo Jr. 33 years old. Manila born and bred. Creative Consultant, part-time Professor, full-time cheapskate. Vacation enthusiast. Roaming the world with a license to chill.

Did you just read that in James Bond’s voice? I know you did.

Welcome to http://www.thirdworldtourist.com. This is not a travel guide, but more like a memoir of how a middle-class regularly waged worker from a third world country got to see the world.

You see…

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Til the age of 30, this was my daily routine. Yes, I took vacations at least once a year. Sometimes to visit a friend at a province, or drive a couple of hours to a nearby beach when necessary or when the opportunity arrived. The timing had to be favorable and when I had savings. It felt comfortable and the pace made sense. It was a good life.

Then…

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This is where I’ve been the past year. Since going freelance, I’ve never said ‘NO’ to a project. Big or small. I took vacations when I wanted, and, took risks on spending a little bit more not worrying about the future. Best year of my life, so far. No pressure, 2016.

And here’s what to expect once the tabs are up:

Vacalogue: (vay•kay•log) A person’s accurate account, whether in writing or in pictures, of their vacation.

Okay, I made that up. DISCLAIMER: You’ll be reading a lot of jargons or coined words through my memoir. Only because there are ideas and concepts that I don’t know what to call (yet). So bear with me. Some other terms like…

Travelecipe: (tra•val•eh•sipi) Or travel recipe. The recipe for traveling to a specific location. Because just like cooking, there are steps you can perform and ingredients you gotta have to whip up a real treat.

 

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It’s yummier than it sounds.

Touristography: (too•ris•tah•gra•fi) (1) Tourist photography; (2) Photography done during vacations on location by tourists. Basically there are two kinds: A good one, and a great one. I am anti-firing squad tourist photos.

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FIRING SQUAD is when the people in the photo are aligned directly in a row and the vantage point of the photographer is dead center.

Budgeteering: (buh•je•teer•ing) The branch of art and science that deals with engineering a budgeted jet-setter lifestyle. Doesn’t take a lot of math. Usually the equation that produces the lowest value is the right answer. This is how you engineer the best budget ever.

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Later on we’ll clearly define the thin line separating both.

Fitshion: (fit•shawn) (1) The fusion of fitness and fashion. Cause you know you can’t wear that wife beater sando when you’re planning to hike a mountain with freezing temperatures. And you’ll need exercise tips while you’re on the move. Cause you need to strengthen your quads and hamstrings for that as well.

God knows, my original plan a year ago was to do a ‘weight loss blog’. But I’m afraid despite the 30 lb loss I had, I still didn’t have the abs license to be a legit ‘fitness’ blogger. But then again, maybe all you need is this.

More tabs and categories to follow 🙂