To Over 100 Countries and Promoting Advocacy in Traveling

As an Australian-based Filipino world traveler, I had already set foot in 141 out of 329 countries and territories worldwide. Traveling is more than just travel count or crossing off items in my bucket list. 

To be able to travel around the world is a childhood dream come true for me. 

As a kid, I already had an enormous curiosity about what the world looks like outside my hometown in Leyte. In elementary school, I wrote a paper about the Pyrenees mountains in France. My grandmother also gave me a collection of stamps and coins from different countries, which piqued my interest in philately and numismatics at a young age. Coincidentally, my father also used to work as a tour guide in our hometown, so traveling played a big part in my childhood. 

It was in 1993 when I first set foot overseas. I represented the Philippines in a national computer programming competition in Hong Kong. The trip gave me a glimpse of the world outside and further fueled my desire for traveling.

My passion for traveling grew even more, when I started working and earning to finance my travels. 

During my first job in 1998, I was sent to the United States for a month-long training, which was my first long-distance trip. 

As a pro bono activity outside work starting in 2001, I volunteered in the Junior Chamber International, a global, non-profit organization for young people to develop their leadership skills and make a real impact in local communities. Being a volunteer gave me the opportunity to participate in the organization’s activities overseas, which I also took advantage of to satisfy my desire to travel.  

In 2011, I set off on a big travel adventure. I took a 21-month sabbatical from work, which I used to travel around 75 countries and territories, crisscrossing seven continents and circumnavigating around the world. 

After that world trip, I was assigned overseas for a year living in the United States, United Kingdom, China, Philippines, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea for work. The trip allowed me to circumnavigate the world for a second time. 

During my travels, I had an initial thought of recording my experiences in a book. But, at that time, I had no clue what precisely about my travels I wanted to write. I also had no compelling reason why I wanted to document my travels.

So, the idea did not take off. 

I continued with my adventures. In 2015, I reached my 100th country and territory, which allowed me to become a member of the Travelers’ Century Club, an international non-profit social organization for travelers who have visited 100 or more countries and territories.

Four years later, in 2019, I unlocked a new milestone when I completed traveling to all United Nations member countries in Southeast Asia and Europe. I reached the “Extreme Traveller” status, a title reserved by the Extreme Travel International Congress for people who have visited at least 100 United Nations member countries. 

Despite achieving these milestones and making my childhood dream come true, I feel there is still a missing item in my itinerary – that is, seeing the bigger purpose of my travels. 

Turning passion into an advocacy  

During some soul searching, the idea of writing a book popped into my mind again. Despite not having a solid reason for publishing a book, I entertained the idea and took baby steps. 

At the beginning of 2020, I enrolled in a self-publishing course to educate myself. As when I was only beginning to gain momentum for this new journey, the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Suddenly, I found myself grounded at home. 

I came across a Facebook group that connected me to other Filipino world travelers during this isolation period. Since I cannot do non-essential travel at that time, I initiated weekly video conference calls with the group to relive past travel experiences and satisfy my desire to travel. 

Learning the unique experiences and stories of fellow Filipino world travelers paved the way for me to determine why I wanted to publish a travel book. 

My ‘why’ in writing a travel book has become crystal clear: it won’t just be about my narrative, but a compelling anthology of stories from my fellow Filipino travelers – kindred souls who share a common passion for globetrotting. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affecting the travel industry, I want to use the book to inspire people to travel once it’s safe and help the sector recover. 

I want the book to tell a much bigger story, proportional to the magnitude of the times and conditions that we live in. I want to use this publication as a vehicle in lending collective voices to help re-ignite the passion for travel and to help accelerate the post-pandemic world travel trends to help the travel industry.  

In the process, I want to raise Filipino pride and inspire the younger generations that extensive world travel can be done.

With renewed inspiration and clear purpose, I set off to write the book. After 16 months, I am all set to launch my first travel anthology titled “Galà: Adventures of the Most Well-Traveled Filipinos” this September as the flagship product of the social enterprise I founded, Explore Next Level.

I’m excited to share our travel stories with the rest of the world. I hope the book nurtures inspiration for the future generation of world travelers. I also co-founded a global community of Filipino world travelers called Philippine Global Explorers, incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in the Philippines this September.  

With the Philippine Global Explorers, we want to foster mutual value and respect for cultural understanding and education through travel. With the collective experience and knowledge of our group, we want to make a positive impact in travel thought leadership, education, culture, tourism, and international relations.

Turning passion for travel from a childhood dream to a way of life and now into advocacy, I feel I have come full circle. 

One of the best lessons I’ve picked up along my journey is that human beings, despite all of our differences, are truly one and the same at our very core. Through the book and the Filipino global travel community, I would want to showcase the shared human experience and, at the same time, highlight the richness of cultural diversity and inclusivity. With this, I think we’ll be able to create a better world.