Happy 2012 Everyone! What are YOUR New Year Travel Resolutions?

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Surigao is a mere 5 hours away by land from hometown, Davao City. But it took a chance encounter with a kababayan in New York to get me to visit. My other sole sister Tanya (whom you may know from our previous encounter in Varkala, India) and I met through a mutual friend in Long Island, New York back in 2008. Her family is from a small village in Surigao del Sur and she has been raving about the place ever since I could remember.


She would tell me about their hundred year old ancestral home in front of the ocean. The sumptuous fresh seafood that you could eat every day. The serenity of the beach at sunrise when you could have the place to yourself. What got me was that their place was walking distance from 2 river mouths that had fantastic surf breaks. It was my kind of paradise!





So we planned the trip. But because of our itchy soles, we would never be in the Philippines at the same time. It took more than 3 years for me to finally come to Surigao del Sur with Tanya. It was worth the long wait. I was blown away by the glistening sandy beaches with powerful surf breaks. Huge, fruit-bearing trees lined the beach front properties and most of the houses looked Stepford wives perfect with their white picket fences, outdoor decks and luxurious basement flooring.




I came at an opportune time. The school that Tanya’s family owned had an eco-scouting event and I was asked to speak about eco-tourism and environmental preservation. It was a topic that was close to my heart. While I surfed every single day I was there and got to know the small community, I felt very close to nature. I realized how outdoor sports like mountaineering , diving and surfing expose you to the environment. It gets you outside of yourself and you become more aware of everything around you. You can’t help but fall in love with the place.




And when you love something, you want to protect it, preserve it and promote it to the world.


That’s exactly what I talked about during the eco-scouting event that the Hotchkiss Learning Center has been organizing annually. I spoke to more than a hundred elementary and high school about how they can help preserve the environment, especially their hometown in Surigao del Sur. I showed photos of polluted cities, rivers strewn with garbage and deforested areas. It’s exactly what the world would look like should we just sit there and not do anything. I reminded them that we all co-exist. All our actions affect every other creature and living being.

It was heart wrenching to discover that that this beautiful piece of paradise faced a deadly enemy: mining.




Mining is quickly destroying forests, watersheds, rivers and marine life in Surigao del Sur and many parts of the Philippines. When you go through the mine site, everything is caked with red earth for miles. It makes breathing difficult as you’re exposed to air that’s tainted with metals and debris. We see so many ads saying there is life in mining. But being there and seeing the massive destruction firsthand makes you realize that responsible mining is an oxymoron. How can people destroy something so stunningly beautiful? 

It's the season for giving!

Hope you enjoy reading our little gift to you. Feel free to forward it, share it on your social networks and tell all your friends. If you want to give us feedback, questions or simply tell us how you enjoyed the guide, email us at solesisters(dot)weare(at)gmail(dot)com.

Thank you for following our travelogue. May your 2012 be filled with many happy adventures and sole trails!

"Lois and Chichi have created an educational, fun, and realistic guide for all types of travellers. As an avid solo traveller for the past six years, I could totally relate to their advice on everything from what to bring to how to budget to simply keeping sane while on the road. Their bold and open-minded attitude towards travelling is not only informative, it's infectious, too. I wish I would have read something like this before I started all of my adventures - it would have saved me a lot of worry and would have helped me prepare a lot better. I'll definitely be recommending this book to all the travellers in my life, whether they are inexperienced or seasoned pros."
~Brenna Holeman of http://thisbatteredsuitcase.blogspot.com/

Cheers girls for coming up with a chic guide book on how to plan long term traveling. This guide is a good starting point for those who dream of doing it but didn't think it's possible. It gives answers to most frequently asked questions (1) what, where, how do you begin to plan? (2) how much money do I need and how do I get it?
~Lilliane Cobiao of http://www.wanderlass.com/

"It was a great fun to read. It captures the Sole Sister's personality and is brimming with enthusiasm that you can't help but catch the excitement and start planning your dream trip."
~Nina Fuentes of  http://justwandering.org/

I was asking for details in one of the adventure parks in Puerto Princesa. The one I was talking to became curious on why do I need detailed information, I told her that I am a Travel Blogger and I was currently writing about their adventure park. She then told me that the next time I go there I could have access to all of their facilities for free.

In one of my trips, I was referred to the Department of Tourism in Region 8. They contacted the local tourism office of Calbayog City. I got a free tour around the city from the tourism officers with transportation and free breakfast!

When we started Sole Sisters a little over a year ago, we had zero background in writing, creating a blog and social media strategies. But it was only by doing did we learn everything we know now. That's the cool part about being a blogger. You look like an expert. But the reality is you're not. You're just the one who took the plunge and was brave enough to document the experience.


Another cool part is that you get to influence others to take the plunge too. When a good friend of ours Matt, who is a self-proclaimed country slut and fitness expert told us he had just started a blog, we were ecstatic! Wow! We've managed to convince one person to start his blogging journey. Then we asked people through our facebook page. And there were 10 other bloggers who have been inspired to start their blog through Sole Sisters or who have been posting more because of us. We thought that was so awesome we just had to share their blogs here:

Liezl of My Travel Anywhere
Shawi of Cheap Travel for Women
Ephraim of Klement Backpacking and Ministry and The Adventist Adventurer
Nathelle of The Traveling Little Girl
Geneva & Carlo of Travel Budget Couple
Dwan of Wicked Wawan
Paula of My Sister Best Friend Only Travel Buddy
Regin of Regin's Travels
Our Chiang Mai host extraordinaire Grace of This Grasya on the Road

We want more people to document their travels, share their epic trips and help promote Philippine tourism by blogging. So here's 5 Ways to Start Your Own Blog- NOW!


1 Start with the WHY

Why are you starting your blog? Why do you want to broadcast a piece of your life to the whole world? It can be as deep as "I want to spread ideas that change the world" or as shallow as "I want to earn a little extra for beer money." This will be your guiding principle and will help you continue blogging even for the longest time. Truth be told, we started out with the latter reason but it slowly evolved into: "Wow, this blogging thing sure is fun!"

2 Brand You

You are your blog. You have to give it a great name, make sure it gets noticed and evolves along with you. There are 3 key elements to branding your blog. Start with a compelling story. Our story was 2 girls who quit their jobs to travel the world. Is that extraordinary? Probably not. But if you put together 2 girls, who worked at the same job for years, quit their jobs at the same time, turned their back on cushy, corporate careers and started backpacking. Now, THAT's a good story! Is your story something that people will talk about?

Make sure you create a compelling story that spreads. Put it where people can see it- right on your ABOUT US page.

Second is build an identity. Out of all the millions of blogs out there, how will yours stand out? Let your personality shine with a great blog design and a unique writing style. It's not an accident that we defined ourselves with our hairstyles through the header. People were able to tell who wrote a post even before they read the signature. It was also great that even though we shared the same passion for travel, we had very different personalities. That meant we cast a wider net for our target audience.

Third is to maintain authenticity. After you've created a brand, make sure you stick to it. Play on your strengths and how people identify with you. Our brand was female travel and we wanted to be consistent with the fresh design and vibrant photos and videos. We weren't out to be wiki bloggers. Our goal was to allow our reader to soak in our entire travel experience with us.

Maintain your authenticity not just on your blog but on all your social networks. Tell people how your typical day is like, what you do for fun, what kind of things make you come alive!


3 Stalk your Favorites

Everyone plays favorites. Even before we started blogging, there were several blogs that we loved and stalked on a daily basis. We followed Nina of Just Wandering for her kickass excel sheets and OC budget tracking. We followed Ron and Monette of Flipntravels for their demmit writing style and carefree attitude for travel. We stalked Ayngelina of Bacon is Magic for her bare-all posts about leaving her boyfriend and comfortable job for a life of endless travel. We stalked Rob of Creative Dork for his minimalist design and awesome artwork. This is just to name a few.

Can you say we copied from them? Maybe we just mastered the art of stealing like an artist. You should too. But just make sure you credit them after you win an award.


4 Awesome Sells

Don't settle for anything less than awesome. When we started our travel blog by posting about our weekend trips, it wasn't noteworthy at all. But when we laid out our plans for our 6 month backpacking trip around India and across Southeast Asia, people started to notice.  Combine your words with captivating photos and viral videos to create something magical!



5 Network like Crazy

When your blog is all about you, it dies with you. But when you interact with others and start a community, that's when your blog reputation spreads. But how do you start? Join forums, facebook groups, get on twitter and create a facebook fanpage. Tall order, isn't it? Most importantly, connect with others in person. Upon our homecoming we thought about how we can connect with former colleagues, friends, our community of Pinoy Travel Bloggers and growing number of readers after being away for 6 months. Solution? Come up with a travel photo exhibit and series of travel talks!

But when you network, try to form real connections. And the only way you can do that is by giving value to others without asking for anything in return.




Have we convinced you to start blogging yet? If not, watch out for the next post in the series: The Perks of Blogging. And as our way of continuing to give value, we want to invite those who need blogging advice to email us or interact on our facebook page. I will allot a few hours each week just to chat with you or meet you in person to get you started on blogging or give you tips on how to improve your blog. You can pay me with cups of coffee! Contact us through solesisters(dot)weare(at)gmail(dot)com. Talk to you soon!

Keep on blogging,
Sole Sister Lois

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Hi there!

I was just reading your blog and travel truly is an exciting experience! I'm going to India with some friends at the end of January into February and I was just wondering if you could give me a little advice on what kind of clothes really are acceptable there? We're 4 fashionable young NYers who want to dress well on our trip, but not be inappropriate or rude in our attire. You ladies seem to be the same way! So what did you find to be okay to wear in India as a young woman? 

Getting nominated by the Philippine Blog Awards for Best Travel Blog and Best Blog Design was honor enough. Plus Chichi was in Cebu so I would be a SOLE sister- pun intended. But Hutch convinced me to attend. And so there I was at the Carlos P Romulo auditorium with a room full of the Philippines' best bloggers. I was welcomed by 2 of our travel blogger inspirations, Nina of Justwandering.com and Ferdz Decena of Ironwulf.net. Incidentally, they have both been previously awarded the Best Travel Blog.

We were late.

At the corner of my eye, I saw a rowdy group calling out to me. Pinoy Travel Bloggers! Who else? And they were out in full force! Most of the finalists in the Best Travel Blog category were from this group and we are proud to be part of such an awesome, kickass community of independent travelers and bloggers. I was seated beside another blogger inspiration Dong Ho of EscapeIslands.com who takes fantastic photos. He jokingly said he already had a text message prepared to congratulate Chichi for the award.

Photo Credit: Ferdz Decena

The evening went by quickly. There was a lot of cheering and nervous laughter when they finally called out the Best Travel Blog Category for the National Level. Most of the finalists were there, and we were all seated together. And then they called out the winner- We Are Sole Sisters!

NO WAY!

I couldn't believe it. I was seriously dumbfounded when I heard them call out our blog. SERIOUSLY? I had no speech prepared and stumbled my way on to the stage. I was speechless for a few seconds then the first words that came out of my mouth were:

I'm shocked!

Everything was just a blur after that. I quickly texted Chichi: We won! And she responded with a barrage of expletives that mirrored how I felt in that moment. I was only given 2 minutes to thank everyone who had helped us, supported us and believed in us in our very first year of blogging. But we have that chance now.


We want to thank our good friends Paul, Claire and Carl who helped us even in the very beginning stages of our blog. Thank you to my boyfriend Hutch who has traveled with us and stuck with our 'blogging banter' and is the true travel guru. Thank you to awesome tag team Russel and Lei for helping us every step of the way during our blog evolution. Thank you to every single Pinoy Travel Blogger we have interacted with. You fuel our wanderlust and make us proud to be part of this tribe of independent travelers and bloggers.

Photo Credit: Azrael Coladilla

Thank you to every single one of our readers. We aspire to become the best at what we do because of you.

So what's next for the Sole Sisters? We've been hinting about this for some time. But we're finally putting it all together. We are going on our toughest challenge yet.

Next year, we will be going around the Philippines in 21 days without taking any flights!

Why are we doing this? We'll post the details and route soon!



Still in Shock,
Sole Sister Lois


Main Photo Credit: Mervin of PinoyAdventurista.com

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Now that the Sole Sister audience is more than our family, friends, former colleagues and a handful of lurkers, we thought we should share our blogging journey with you all. So how did Sole Sisters evolve from a travel diary for sharing our trip photos to a full blown travelogue that aspires to build an online travelers' community? Here's our story:

Our Beginnings

June 2010 I had a Starbucks conversation with colleague Chichi and realized we shared a mutual passion: TRAVEL! We were in love with travel big time and even had long lists of places to visit before we turned the big 3-0. But the question was, how do we fund our travels?

July 2010 I had coffee with great college friend Paulie of Ekstranghero's Trip. He had been blogging for quite some time and told me I should start my own blog. He had been earning some passive income online and thought it could help us earn some money even while we were on road.

August 2010 Chichi's good friend Claire helped us come up with the all important decision. The domain name. She came up with:  www.soletrail.com. With a lot of help from Paulie, we bought the domain name, created a blog on blogger and had a ready made template to jumpstart our blogging adventure! As a joke at work, I started calling Chichi my 'Sole Sister'. The name stuck and we decided to change our blog to www.wearesolesisters.com. Our very first post was a photo essay from our Calaguas trip.

November 2010 While we were scheming and planning our BIG Southeast Asian adventure, our inner writers started to show. We poured our heart our into the whole blogging process. We took Sole Sisters so seriously that we created posting schedules in excel file (courtesy of Chichi) and stuck to it. This month we wrote 24 blog posts! That means we posted almost everyday!

February 2011 I quit my job, furiously wrote a few trip planning posts and haphazardly dumped some clothes into a backpack. I was off to India! Chichi had to take care of the blog for a few weeks. Just because finding decent internet connection in India was a challenge.


March 2011 Chichi and I reunited in Singapore and started redesigning the blog. Because we had just started our adventure, we knew a redesign was necessary. We wanted a more uncluttered, minimalist template. We even asked awesome artist and fellow Pinoy Travel Blogger friend Robbie of Creative Dork to create a kickass header for us. We loved the knew look!

Tough Stuff

April 2011 The challenges of traveling and blogging started to take its toll on us. It was fun writing while we were still dreaming of our trip and had so much spare time. But having to move from one place to another, find decent wifi and push ourselves to write was really hard. Sometimes you just have to ask yourself, do I experience this moment? Or do I document it?

June 2011 And just when we thought the whole blogging while travelling thing was tough, we made a whirlwind decision to ditch our Malaysia plans and travel to Myanmar instead with a bunch of crazy couchsurfers. Myanmar is the land of golden pagodas, ancient ruins and slow, almost nonexistent internet connection! We had to cram write 8 scheduled posts to last us our 30 days of no internet in Myanmar.

We thought it would kill our blog and we would lose our readers, Thank god you guys are still here. And we're still in love with what we do. We will continue to give you content that has value.

August 2011 Upon our homecoming, Chichi decided to go home to Cebu and I returned to Manila. The difference in location proved to be a challenge in terms of coordinating with each other. Before, we could push each other to write and constantly fed off each other's ideas and wanderlust. Then we had to transition back to our old lives and still get the blog going. Plus, we were terribly backlogged on our posts. Even until now, we are still 3 countries behind- stay tuned for our Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia posts!

Pay Dirt

July 2011 More people started to send us emails and messages because they were inspired by our travels. A lot of them asked us travel questions and planned similar trips.

September 2011 We decided to run an exhibit and series of travel talks in Manila. These were well-attended and successful homecoming events. A lot of people and sponsors helped put it together. We were able to accomplish our goal of inspiring more Filipinos to get out of their comfort zone and start traveling.



October 2011 Belle de Jour invited us to do a talk during their launch on Travel Planning. More schools and groups have invited us to do a talk on travel, inspiration and blogging. In November, I gave a talk for students of St Paul's Pasig on Life Lessons I've Learned from Traveling. On Dec 8, I'll be doing a talk on Blogging as a Way to Promote Tourism for the Tourism students of Miriam college. We love every opportunity of sharing everything we've learned to others!

December 2011 We got an advance Christmas gift by getting selected to be a finalist for Best Travel Blog - National Level. And as if that wasn't enough, we're also finalists for Best Blog Design. Thank you blogging gods of the Philippine Blog Awards! We're grateful even just to be finalists! The list includes a lot of awesome Pinoy Travel Blogger friends. Our passion for travel and blogging is starting to pay off!

What's in the Future of Sole Sisters?

Dec 2011 Chichi flies off to Singapore to start a new life. She has no clue what the future holds. But she's going anyway. I scored a consultancy gig with a leadership events company. We've both been have been busy going around small trips in the country upon coming back.

January 2012
I'll be going around the Philippines in one of the toughest travel challenge we've ever done - yet! I'll make the announcement in the next few days.



So what's going to happen to Sole Sisters in the coming months? We're focused on making this blog more of an online travel community than just a travelogue. And for that, we need your help! We welcome all your feedback, questions, comments on how we can get started on this. If you also want to write for us or contribute articles from your travels, feel free to email us at solesisters(dot)weare(at)gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Still in love,
Sole Sister Lois

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