The League of Extraordinary Travelers—incredibly extraordinary
He did not think of himself as a tourist; he was a traveler. The difference is partly one of time, he would explain. Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived, precisely where it was he had felt most at home.”—Paul Bowles, “The Sheltering Sky”
They were on a quest to visit every country. Then coronavirus happened.
“It’s going to be impossible to travel the way they did under the current climate,” says Riza Rasco, a cofounder of the Philippine Global Explorers group. “Extreme travelers are still going to want to visit as many places as possible, but the volume and the capacity are going to go down.”
Intrepid Filipina traveler lands in Nat Geo
Originally from Los Baños, Laguna, before migrating to the United States, Rasco is one of the most widely traveled Filipinos, having visited 161 countries to date. She helped organize Philippine Global Explorers to serve as a resource-sharing network for other Filipinos interested in adventure travel “off the beaten track.”
“I’ve always been passionate about traveling, but it was only in the last five years, after my mom died, that I intensified my traveling,” Rasco told Lifestyle last year.
“I realized that life is short, so I traveled more and started a blog called ‘Midlife Funk,’ because at the time I was kind of depressed and restless. I took a sabbatical and now I’m traveling full-time.”
First Filipino travel anthology book featuring 20 of the most illustrious globetrotters
“Together with my fellow Filipino travelers, we share our collective knowledge and experience in this book to nurture inspiration for the future generation of world travelers from all backgrounds. More so, we want this publication to serve as a vehicle in lending our voices to re-ignite the passion for traveling, especially after the pandemic,” said Bales in a statement sent to The Manila Times Lifestyle.
Staying true to his motivation, Bales is donating the book’s initial sales to the Philippine Global Explorers, a community of Filipino world travelers that aims to positively impact travel thought leadership, education, culture, and tourism and international relations. The group is co-founded by Bales, together with some people also featured in the book.
Open countries, a traveller meeting, and a book
Our live meetings have been put on pause for the moment, but the photo below is an optimistic sign from the Philippines Global Explorers who met – keeping social distance measures – in Pasig City in late July. Shown here from left to right are NomadMania members Mary Grace Jubinal, Jon Opol, Ricky Alcantara, Nolan Tianco, Cedric Valera and Jamela Santos. We are exceptionally happy to be partners with this relatively new, but very active, travel club and can now boast increased participation by travellers from this beautiful country within our NomadMania community.
To Over 100 Countries and Promoting Advocacy in Traveling
“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.”
