Langyaw.com turns 6

SIX YEARS!!! It’s been a good and great six, long years of LANGYAW.COM! Since the first post, with the photo of a still slender me that got published last 28 August 2007, much has been accomplished, places visited, and through the years, this blog has developed into something that I didn’t expect to be the travel blog it is today.

I started LANGYAW.COM as a means to document my travels. As a means of sharing what I have experienced, what I have seen, what I have tasted and what I have found fascinating and I’ve been to places that have been less explored. In a way, it is showcasing most of the country from the perspective of someone who just happens to have a different insight.

You won’t find itineraries. You won’t find budget and expenses. You wont find places being reduced to mere checklists. And you won’t definitely find images wherein the travel blogger is the star. But I do have a way of telling my own travel stories through the power of photographs and words.

And I have not been wrong:

2008: Best Single Post – Travel (Philippine Blog Awards)
2009: Best Travel Blog (Philippine Blog Awards), Globe Digital Tribe
2010: Winner – Culture and Heritage (Wandering Juan Travel Blog Awards)
2012: Winner Travel Writing Category (Intramuros Bloggers Challenge), Finalist – Visualizer Category (Globe TattAwards), 1st Prize (Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. Heritage Blog Contest)
2013: Best Travel Photoblog (Skyscanner Travel Bloscars – Philippines)

And a host of other features and interviews that includes Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho, Smile Magazine, Sunstar Weekend Cebu.

Of course, because of these, the crab mentality of people, green with envy, especially some specific detractors who you even haven’t met start to reduce you as chismis fodder. But that’s okay. That’s how miserable their lives are. Pity them instead.

Langyaw.com is also a platform for experimentation and networking by trying out different formats and ideas. From a telecoms engineer to a photographer and now a travel blogger too, it has been a great vehicle for me, who is always better off in solitude to interact more with people, helping others in showing what they have as well as working with companies and entities for a common good.

Being a travel blogger all these years isn’t a road full of travel related perks and freebies. One has to work hard for it. There have been times that I have questioned myself along the way if it is still worth writing and exploring. Of sharing new discoveries or having it all for myself. There have been weeks that I have not posted an update or lean months with just a few posts. But like any other endeavor, passion makes a difference.

And it is passion to travel and share my discoveries that makes me continue on this path. Of course, there’s a boom in travel blogs but among the many travel URLs swamping the internet, how will you differ? How will you stay relevant? How will you innovate? And I’ve been asking myself that for the past few months.

Of course, Langyaw.com will continue to develop. I will still strive to bring you to places and share my experiences. But perhaps, some changes might be in the offing in the next few months as I continue to mature as a travel blogger.

Six years is no mean feat and I am quite thankful that other than detractors, there have been a great majority of people who have been supportive of what I am doing and believing in my capabilities and what I can bring to them as a blogger, partner and friend. With you, I say, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.