Before COVID-19 forced countries to close borders and only allowed the entry of citizens and residents, I just arrived in Colombia for a 12-day trip without a Yellow Fever vaccine. Don’t get me wrong, I had it planned way ahead and the confirmed cases were only few then. And in retrospect, I barely talked to anyone and constantly sanitized my hands from time to time. #defensive
When I came across a blog post (which I can no longer find) on skydiving in Bantayan Island and saw that Skydive Greater Cebu was already accepting reservations, boy, the following day I found myself at the bank paying for the down payment amounting to ₱3,000. The activity cost ₱18,000 but they had an early bird promo which reduced the amount by ₱3,000. That meant I had ample time to save for the balance and my birthday. Very doable, if you ask me.
“Denied ba?”
“Approved po.”
And the smile never left my face. That was the only question and answer I wanted to hear when the travel agency called to tell me that my passport was already ready for pickup. After being denied of a Japan visa and even after acquiring one for Taiwan, the fact that you can never really can never can really can tell ever (okay, that was a long one) if you will be granted a visa seems to have traumatized even my hardest bone. In an ambitious plan to give Japan another shot the soonest time possible, I thought of collecting other visas first. And with that, winter in Korea became inevitable.