Uncharted Backpacker

I’m time in the Solomon Islands is coming to an end. Now I will have ample amount of time to process everything that I’ve seen here. An adventure of a lifetime, here is a sneak peak into what is to come!

On board the Bilikiki exploring the Solomons with

The Solomon Islands remain one of the least visited destinations on earth.

Here the air is heavy, alive. The jungle doesn’t sit politely in the background it presses in close, loud with insects, thick with heat and humidity.

life is stripped down to essentials. Not romantic, not easy, it’s just real. Fishing at dawn. Gardens that matter more than just hobby. Meals that come from what’s in season: reef fish, cocoa, taro, cassava, coconut freshly cracked open with a machete. No menu. No substitutions. No pretense. Just food that makes sense in the moment.

There’s history here too above and below the surface. During World War II, the Solomon Islandsl saw some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific. Now the jungle has swallowed most of it. Rusting planes, wrecks offshore, stories that linger even when they’re not spoken.

Exploring the Solomons with

The name Raja Ampat has still largely been whispered by those who know it and those who have been there will treat it like a guarded secret.

You get there, after far too many flights, a questionable boat ride, and the creeping suspicion that anything this remote has to be worth it. Then it hits you. Not gently either. More like a punch of color, life, and scale that makes everything you thought you knew about “beautiful nature” feel amateur.

Out across the Raja Ampat sea, the islands rise like green knives cutting out of the sea, scattered without any sort of logic. The water shifts from turquoise to deep blue to something almost electric. Nothing here looks real. It looks exaggerated, like natures showing off.

But the real story of Raja Ampat is below the surface of the water.

You drop in and suddenly you’re not the main character of this story anymore. Coral stretches out in every direction, alive, complicated but incredibly delicate. Fish move in impossible numbers, a symphony of colours and life that don’t make sense, patterns that feel designed just to mess with you. This is one of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems on the planet, and it doesn’t care if you understand it, it only asks that you protect it.

You’re a visitor here and just passing through.

Exploring Raja Ampat above and below with

🐟 🪸 🏝️ 🌋 🇮🇩

When I first started scuba diving around sixteen years ago it was all about the big stuff. Sharks, mantas, big fish. The more of the ocean you see, the more you begin to understand the closer you look, it’s the small things that make these eco systems function. The invisible working class, holding the glue of the entire ocean together.

“The big fish”, come here to get cleaned before heading out to the open sea. Turtles call these reefs home, living amongst the vibrant corals. Look deeper and you see the microscopic creatures who all are an integral part of these societies.

Keep looking and you will find another niche part of scuba diving that eventually sucks us all in. Macro they call it, the art of finding all the little guys on the reef. It’s endless, you spend hours barely even moving a few feet, yet like collecting pokemon cards it becomes an obsession you can’t shake. Like a ju**ie always looking for your next hit, but instead it’s a colourful slug or twiggy shrimp who hides from you for nearly the entire dive. It’s a strange art, but one I have found myself apart of.

Some of us bird with old age, I guess the little creatures of the reef are my vice.

Scuba diving trip with

From Jakarta it’s a four hour flight directly east to the end of Indonesia. Here you will find the province of West Papua. If you leave the shores of the main island you will find yourself somewhere incredible.

Raja Ampat, a series of picturesque lime stone islands thrown over the ocean as if dropped from the sky. Down below the islands reveal their true size, coral fringed, colourful and teeming with life. One of the world’s last hidden natural wonders.

The first set of islands we have visited are known as Daram, a chain from the greater region known as Misool. Smaller, yet just as impressive in their beauty.

Scuba Diving and Liveaboard with

🪸 🐟 🏝️ 🤿

I’m going to show you a side of the Philippines that is rarely shown.

I have always been an advocate of travel. To leave the comfort of home, experience life elsewhere and hopefully learn something along the way.

Travel these days is decided by the stars of social media. The influencers who show us their interpretation of a place. More than often they show the good side, they show how travel is always pretty, beaches, great food and smiling people.

Welcome to Tondo, Manila. What locals describe as the Philippines “toughest” slum. There are no white sand beaches here, no Instagram worthy resorts and it is definitely a part of this country you have probably never seen or heard of.

Life in Tondo is hard. Gangs control many of the districts, rolling blackouts, garbage piled everywhere and opportunities for the future seem bleak. Yet there is hope, the resilient people who live here find ways, creating businesses out of nothing, recycling the waste that is often dumped here from elsewhere and creating projects to educate the new generations. This is life at its hardest setting, but for Filipinos, they take the challenge head on.

Pagpag for example. This dish is made from chicken bones collected from the garbage, which are cleaned, re-cooked, and eaten by the poorest residents of Tondo, It is a desperate measure for survival, symbolizing extreme poverty and food insecurity. Pagpag has now turned into a thriving business with several vendors who are actually “preferred”.

Visiting Tondo is not only important as you can see what I would describe as the “real” Philippines, but also visiting here you can help out by purchasing from small vendors. Talk with the people and show them that they are not invisible. I joined a group called Smokey Tours, a 100% non profit who takes all earnings and puts it back into the community for education, healthcare and lifting the youth out of poverty.

If you visit the Philippines, do take this tour and give back to this amazing country.

Tour here - https://www.smokeytours.com/

The Philippines doesn’t ease you in. It hits you hard. Humid, loud, unapologetically, but alive. The streets are alive. Jeepneys coughing black smoke out, karaoke bleeding out of every open doorway, and somewhere in the chaos, a pot of something slow-cooked and deeply delicious waiting for you to sit down and eat, family style.

Let’s talk Filipino food. Because here, food isn’t just sustenance, it’s identity, built on survival, it’s comfort after typhoons and heartbreak.

Head out of the city, to the provinces and the country really opens up. In Palawan, the water is so clear it feels like it’s cheating you. Limestone cliffs rise out of the sea reminiscent of a fairy tale. Over in Cebu, there is islands where you can dive with one of the most elusive sharks on earth. Next door is Bohol, its surreal landscape dotted with the famous chocolate hills and jungles filled with wide eyed tiny tarsiers, it’s full of adventure.

But the real story? It’s the people. Filipinos have this way of welcoming you like you’re not just passing through, instead you’re expected. There’s resilience here, the kind forged by storms, politics, and long-distance goodbyes. And yet, somehow, they laugh, smile and greet you with open arms. A lot.

You sit down, maybe with a cold beer, maybe with something stronger like a red horse, and you realize, this place doesn’t need to impress you. It just is. Messy, beautiful, and complicated. Like all the best places are.
And if you’re lucky, you leave with more than just photos. You will leave the Philippines with a taste you can’t quite replicate and the uncomfortable suspicion that you’ve been living a little too safely.