Forget Dan Brown's fictional depiction of Manila as the "Gates of Hell". Greg Bloom, who authored the Philippine edition of Lonely Planet– the world's "largest travel guide book", thinks more tourists should check out Manila.
Watch this video in which he talks about his favorite places in the Philippines, the lows of being constantly on the road, and his tip for aspiring travel writers.
About Greg Bloom
Greg Bloom is a Phnom Penh-based travel writer and editor. He specializes in writing Lonely Planet guidebooks about Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union. While working as a travel writer he has been detained by authorities in Uzbekistan, taken a shlagbaum to the head in Kyiv, jumped out of helicopters atop volcanoes in Kamchatka, hit 100km/h in a Latvian bobsled, flown out the back of a jeepney in Puerto Princesa, and survived a bus crash on the back roads of Bicol.
Greg dabbled in careers as diverse as Christmas tree salesman, ski bum, PR flak and New York City bike messenger before moving to Ukraine in 1997 and settling into a career as a journalist. He was editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Post, an English-language weekly, from 1999 to 2003. He later lived in Manila for almost 5 years before moving to Cambodia in 2008. His travel articles have appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post, the Toronto Globe & Mail, Action Asia and BBC.com, among other publications.
Greg was recently in Manila for the Lonely Planet No More: A Travel Writing Seminar, held last May 18 at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street. The event was presented by Fully Booked, Writer's Block Philippines, and Lonely Planet.
