I’m about two months away from landing in Manila on a one-way ticket and at the moment I know absolutely nothing about the Philippines. I only recently learned how to spell it! I was bored at work earlier and I thought today would be as good a day as any to get cracking with some travel planning.
I spent most of my time this afternoon looking at maps and Googling things I read about on message boards. I wouldn’t say I’m planning some sort of crazy trip off the beaten path and I’ve noticed lots of gaps in the information that’s available for some pretty basic things. Once I realised this, my travel planning quickly changed gears and became website planning. Instead of jotting down names of hotels and the best places to buy ‘happy’ shakes, I started making a list of the places and things I can’t find anything out about.
It’s not going to help me much when I touch down in Manila without a clue and find myself sleeping in the gutter, but it will give my overall trip a purpose. The plan is to try to fill in as many information gaps as I can while I’m on the road and I think making a list in advance is the best plan because I won’t assume that people will know things, I’ll know exactly what sort of info people will be after because I’m after it as well. But then again if nothing comes of it at least I’ll be able to recommend all the coziest gutters in Manila.
This probably won’t work for places like Paris or the Queensland coast or anywhere with a path that is well worn but for anyone planning a trip that’s a bit off the typical tourist trail then paying attention to what you can’t find out should leave you with some pretty good ideas for websites. When you’re searching for something and mighty Google doesn’t come through, look at it as an opportunity to develop something of your own.
I don’t intend to spend all of my time as a researcher of obscure parts of the Philippines but it makes sense to make little notes here and there since I’ll be going there anyways. If I can pull a bunch of useful bits of information together into a good resource then I could be onto a nice earner.
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