Past journeys:

2005 - Stirling
2006 - Cape Town
2009 - "Long Way Up"
2009 - Cebu
2010 - Paris
2011 - Cebu

Planned trips:

2012 - "Long Way Round - By Any Means"

One thing that has always been on my mind is the fact that I've seen a few countries, but have never really seen very much of my own countries. It's perhaps long overdue and time to change that. So the idea is that I would like to travel across one of them, in this case, the Philippines, by any means. Inspired by the Charlie Boorman's documentary "By Any Means", in which he travels across Asia using all sorts of transportation, except the airplane. Sounds like a good idea.

The original plan was to fly to Malaysia and begin the trip by taking a boat to the remote south-western Philippine island of Jolo and then continue north, well, by any means. I was well aware that the South of the Philippines is not the safest place to travel for a foreigner accompanied only by his backpack. However, after doing some research on the topic, it turns out that it might really not be such a great idea at all. At least not at the moment. So this lead to the new plan "South to North - By Any Means 2.0":

The Mindanao region will be skipped altogether. I do realize that this somewhat defies the actual title or intention of the trip, but given the circumstances, it's the best alternative. Being taken hostage and held for ransom just does not sound like an adventure that I'd like to be part of.

Here is the preliminary route: