When I arrive somewhere new, I’m not just looking for the best views or the most Instagrammable spots (though those happen too). I’m trying to understand the place. What happened here? How did these people come to live this way? What does this forest, this river, this mountain mean to the people who grew up beside it?
I sit with locals and ask questions. I walk through history. Literally, through ruins and museums and streets that remember things. I look for wildlife not just to photograph it, but to understand what it tells me about the ecosystem it belongs to. I want to feel the pulse of a place, not just pass through it.
Who I am
The honest answer is that I’m still working it out. I trained as an industrial engineer, but my path has never run in a straight line. I’ve worked in manufacturing, in marketing, in tech, and in finance, and I picked up freelancing at eighteen to help put myself through school and support my family. Curiosity has a way of pulling me sideways into the next thing.
When the pandemic forced everyone to stop, I used the pause to rebuild around what I actually wanted. Not a particular job title… time. Time to stay somewhere long enough to understand it. I work remotely in tech now, and that’s the quiet engine behind all of this: it lets me travel slowly and pay attention, instead of cramming a place into a long weekend.
How the travel grew
Travel wasn’t really on the table growing up. Money was tight, and my early adventures were whatever came with a school competition or a relative’s beach trip to the next province over. Then, slowly, the map got bigger.
2018
My first trip on my own terms: a post-graduation escape to the island coves of Bataan with my batchmates. The rawness of it stuck with me.
2019
My first time on a plane: a solo work trip to Cebu. I was a nervous wreck the whole flight, and quietly amazed at how much closer the world suddenly felt.
2021
Boracay, late in the year, as the country reopened. It reignited something. A dream took shape: see every Philippine province, then the world.
2023
My first trip abroad: Hong Kong, soon followed by Singapore and Indonesia.
2024
Further out across Southeast and East Asia: Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Borneo, Macau, and Taiwan.
2025
I summited Mt. Pulag, explored lots of provinces in the Philippines, completed all of ASEAN, and spent some beautiful time in Japan and Myanmar.
Now
Still going, mostly slow and often solo. Antarctica is on the someday list.
Off the road
When I’m not traveling or working, I’m usually deep in a book or a film. Sci-fi and fantasy mostly, though I’ve been talked into horror lately. I was a serious gamer once, even played on a national team. I’m an ambivert, recharged just as much by a long conversation as by a quiet afternoon alone. And I try to give back where I can, volunteering with groups working toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Why “Wandering Emerald”
The name comes from mine. Merald, from emerald, the green stone people tie to growth, renewal, and a kind of clarity. It also just reminds me of the forests and mountains that keep pulling me back. Wandering is simply how I get there.
I’m a Filipino traveler, which means I know what it’s like to navigate the world with a passport that needs visas almost everywhere, a budget that has to stretch, and the kind of travel anxiety no travel influencer talks about honestly. I write for people like me, and for anyone, anywhere, who wants to travel with more intention and more meaning.
Whether you’re planning your first international trip or your fiftieth, I hope something here makes you want to go deeper.