GAEL HILOTIN, 34

THE PINAY SOLO BACKPACKER @THEPINAYSOLOBACKPACKER

Sometimes, what pushes us to travel is the need to confront the past. That is how Gael Hilotin, the travel blogger behind The Pinay Solo Backpacker, started out. Gael did not do it for the ‘gram. Her first solo trip was to Baguio and Benguet, where her friend’s tomb was located. She wanted to visit and reconnect with her friend’s family, something she has not been able to do.

Traveling heals, and this painful experience transformed Gael. “I got hooked with solo travel,” she said in an e-mail interview. “I started exploring more places. Started with nearby places until I had the courage to go farther and out of the country,” she shares. She started her blog in 2010, just as the Philippines was on the verge of becoming the destination for young Filipinos. “With PayMaya, which is accepted here and abroad, you can book flights, seat sales, and accommodations like AirBnB even without having a credit card. When traveling and you suddenly need cash, you can easily withdraw through any partner ATM abroad using your PayMaya card.”

Gael quit her job in a BPO in 2012 and never looked back. She counts the trip that she took after as one of her travel highlights. “It was tough and there were days I felt lonely and broke, but I learned a lot from the people I met on the road, and they humbled me,” Gael said. The trip she took also made her realize that traveling and blogging is something that she wants to do, and build a career out of. With over 130,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram, she proudly proclaims she’s “been to all 81 PH provinces.”

Because Gael started early, she knows what it’s like to go against the grain. For her, millennials get a bad rep “because we are misunderstood. They think we want the easy way, they think we feel (we) are self-obsessed and we are entitled.

“I am challenged whenever I hear the stereotypes about millennials, so I like to prove them wrong by working smart and working hard and welcoming new ideas and change,” Gael said. Her message to millennials? “Prove yourself. You can make your dreams come true because, at the end of the day, it's your life, not theirs. So live it!”