I just realized that 20 years ago last week, I published my very first blog post. While 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫 was established in 2010, marking the start of my traveler era 😂, I actually created my very first blog in April 2004. I think it was my good friend Jerwin, who introduced the concept of…

Last night, the Benguet Indigenous Youth Arts Guild gave The Poor Traveler the 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝, an honor given to non-Benguet residents who contributed to the promotion of the province as a destination. 💙 It was a lovely surprise. We weren’t able to accept the award in person because we had a prior commitment,…

While organizing my old Japan files, I came across this photo and it reminded me of one of my biggest regrets — 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫. Google offered us a number of opportunities in the past. In 2016, they invited us to a YouTubers gathering in Japan to…

The other night, a chat with a friend reminded me of 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 — YEARS 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟒-𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔. Craziest, yes, but it was also the most prolific. Within these 3 short years, I served as social media consultant to a number of companies at the same time. I returned to Globe and led…

One thing I’ve been truly lucky to experience is having bosses, mentors and colleagues, who are not only excellent at what they do but also inspiring. They might not realize or remember it, but they taught me a lot. I’ll be sharing some of them over the next few days (weeks?) but lemme start with…

Funny how simple things can turn your fate. For example, whether I would become a geologist or a filmmaker depended on an afternoon walk when I was 16.

MANILA, 2014. I can count on one hand the number of times I joined a contest. It’s something I usually stay away from, but the prize was a fulfillment of a childhood dream. At the time, the farthest I had been to was Japan. Europe was not even on my radar. “I’m going to Paris,”…