The Travel Zen of Cai

Ruminations

  • I Call It Belonging

    Met him in 2023,Engaged to him in 2024,Married in 2025. I went to Thailand without knowing I would eventually meet someone.I had a plane ticket home.I had jobs waiting for me.But I stayed. A month later, I met him,In an… Continue reading

  • Unbridled Memories

    Of all the animals, I feel closest to the horse. Something about them never really left my heart. Maybe one reason is that horses were already part of our lives when we were kids, long before we grew into teenagers… Continue reading

  • Tappo, My Far-Flung Beginning

    My hometown, Tappo, was the exact definition of a far-flung place. When we moved in the year 2000, getting there felt like an adventure we did not choose but had to survive. We crossed mountains and a river, with our… Continue reading

  • Why Happiness Should Be a Daily Choice, Not a Future Reward

    Many of us tend to believe that happiness lives somewhere in the future. That it’s waiting at the finish line of a dream we’re chasing, in a place we’ve always wanted to visit, or in a version of ourselves we… Continue reading

  • Cooking Adobo to Impress vs Cooking to Improve

    I remember the first time I cooked adobo for my husband. It was during that honeymoon stage where everything felt like a movie scene and I wanted to impress him with even the simplest things. You know, prepare food before… Continue reading

  • Looking Back from 2025

    2025 is ending soon, and I can hardly believe it. It feels like yesterday when my siblings and I would run into the house, shouting and laughing, our feet pounding the wooden floors as if the world outside didn’t exist.… Continue reading

  • Teaching My Last Class Again

    Today I taught my last class again, and the feeling settled in slowly, like something familiar I had almost forgotten. It has been a while since I felt that quiet mix of gratitude and heaviness that comes when you close… Continue reading

  • How to Kickstart Your Week with Energy, Focus, and Clarity

    I used to think that a strong week started with a perfect plan. A clean desk. A color coded calendar. A long list of tasks lined up like soldiers waiting for orders. It took years for me to realize that… Continue reading