If there’s something you want to do, you need to do it now. No next year, soon, or next time. you need to make it critically important. A couple years ago I decided I needed to stop listening to podcasts, reading blogs and watching the youtube videos and just do more. I packed up and started traveling. Here are some highlights from 2017, perhaps it can give you some ideas for your next trips.


# Backpacking in the Philippines
I had kept telling my friend he had to go to the Philippines. When he messaged me to say he had “booked a ticket, was I onboard”? How could I say no? 


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We made our way to Manila, Coron, El Nido and Boracay. Travel allows you to experience a world completely different to what you know, the Philippines vs the U.K certainly, yeah there is big difference… it’s more fun in the Philippines.

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I can tell you the trowing up on Coron island wasn’t my favourite part, careful of the pizza toppings from Altrove. 😂


# Hiking in Galicia
I know walking around by yourself with a backpack for a week sounds like torture to most people(they’re probably right), but to me it’s an adventure. My first trip out in 2017 on some budgets flights and a single carry on bag. Don’t be that person with a wheel case - we’re past that, right?

Having everything you need on your back seems to unlock some innate nomad mode in me. 

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# Photography in Hong Kong
Platforms like Youtube + Instagram (I guess Steemit/anything else/the internet) are incredible. I met [Tom](https://www.instagram.com/thommitz/) through his youtube videos about HK, he showed me around. I met a bunch of cool people at a couple different hostels I stayed at.

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Hong Kong might just be at the very top of the places on my "get back to asap" list.

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# Exploring California
There is something about waking up with blue sky every day. Does anyone else get that or is it just me. While the U.K is generally a great place to land for your “geo lottery ticket” it instills a constant angst against grey skies (It might just be, who knows). Of course, I over exaggerate but California sunrise, sunset, and skies, in general, are on a different level. 

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I stayed in San Diego three weeks and managed exactly zero tourists traps. How? You ask. Well, you just don’t do them. So what do you do if you don’t do tourist things? make some new friends and do what you like doing. Frisbee, cycling, climbing, running, photos, videos… wow, it’s starting to sound busy. Shout out to [November Project]() if you’re ever in a new city and want to meet friendly people head there.


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I got to make two videos on the trip [Making Music in San Diego](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL6yKK8ZoGA) & [Cycling in California](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q092STfiWhc). I'm so glad whenever I finish a video, it allows me to share the experience and cement it in my memory (and the internet) for years to come. 


# Iceland Road Trip
What a way to end the year. If you can remain friends with all 4 other people in the camper van you’re in then you’ve been successful! Two weeks around the downright ridiculous landscape of Iceland was such a treat. 

Sometimes you get a stroke of luck on your side, this trip the northern lights were totally on our side. kp6 or kp7 you say? Geomagnetic storm I hear. It was an experience I’ll likely never forget, one that people desperately and continuously travel north in-vain for and we’re gifted it night after night. It’s better than the pictures show.

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*I hope you had plenty of adventures in 2017, whatever your thing is, go do that.*

✌️ - Peace out // see you out there // here's to many more adventures in 2018
⚡️ - [sambillingham.com](http://sambillingham.com)