Hey Everyone!
Welcome to my little corner of the internet. I don’t know how you found me, but I’m glad you did. I hope this site becomes both a source of inspiration and a resource for you as you plan your travels. But before that, allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Stephen. I grew up in the heart of one of Asia’s most dynamic cities: Manila. During my formative years, my wanderlust started to fester inside me. My parents took me on a lot of trips when I was growing up and I just sort of fell in love with it. I developed a need to discover new places. This all really manifested when I turned 9, and it manifested in a very peculiar way: by making me a Disney Parks enthusiast, or Disney Adult as some people call it.
Specifically, it started with my first trip to Hong Kong Disneyland on Halloween 2006. After stepping through those wrought-iron gates and having the time of my life exploring all the detailed, if a little inauthentic, lands and attractions, I knew I had to keep coming back for more. So I did. I didn’t just return to Hong Kong, I also visited Tokyo Disney Resort and Disneyland in Anaheim in 2013, Walt Disney World in 2015, Disneyland Paris in 2017, and Shanghai Disneyland in 2019, rounding out my world tour of the Disney Parks and accomplishing one of my lifetime goals of visiting every single Disney park in the world.
Disney theme parks are great because of the sense of adventure that you cull from discovering every nook and cranny that the Disney Imagineers have created for you to sink your teeth in. As I grew older, however, I found my sense of adventure gravitating away from these parks. I needed to discover, experience, and encounter the world and everything it had to offer. This newfound wanderlust was let loose and allowed to thrive during my semester abroad in Europe.
I studied in Rennes, a town about 90 minutes west of Paris by train, from August to December 2017. During that time, I traveled to 30 countries in Europe and Africa. Highlights included walking along the cobblestone-riddled Charles Bridge in Prague, venturing through the maze-like sprawl of eclectic shops and stalls in the souks of Marrakech, climbing up the Eiffel Tower staring transfixed at the beauty of Paris, and gazing in awe at the many cascading waterfalls of Iceland.
It’s in this beautiful continent that I was truly bit by the travel bug. I needed to see the world around me. So see it I did. As of writing this I have been to a total of 38 countries, with my non-Europe trips taking me to Asian countries like Japan, Singapore, China, and Thailand. My ultimate goal is to travel to all 197 countries, hopefully by the time I hit 40. It’s a lofty, aspirational goal, but one that I’ve been dead set on pursuing and accomplishing.
I now live in sunny Southern California, in the heart of the film industry: Los Angeles. I’m currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Television Writing and Producing at Loyola Marymount University. Writing has always been a huge passion of mine, which is part of the reason why I created this website in the first place.
I believe that travel opens your mind and soul in a way that nothing else can. With every step you take and every place you discover, you learn more about the world and yourself. With every trip you take you become a new person, a better person, one more willing to accept other people’s cultures and backgrounds. I believe travel should be accessible to everyone, even those who can’t afford to drop everything and dedicate their lives to it. Everyone deserves the chance to experience the world. That’s what this site is all about.
I created this site as a way to give back to all the other travel websites that have helped me plan all my trips in the past. Their stories and experiences inspired and encouraged me to embark on my own adventures. I hope this site does the same for you. However, this travel site won’t be like the others. I aim to make this the first and foremost storytelling travel website in the world.
Osaka, 2017
Travel, when you think about it, is one long story, threaded by moments and shaped by time and space. The best travel advice always comes from stories, and I plan on sharing mine to aid you with the lessons I’ve learned along the way. I’ll primarily be doing this with trip reports. For those of you that don’t know, trip reports are articles that recap everything that happened to a traveler on a particular trip. They’re storytelling vehicles that help us learn more about someone else’s travel experience. I’ll do my best to make my trip reports both entertaining and informative, and hopefully you’ll be inspired to tell your own stories as well.
Whether it’s your first or hundredth trip, I hope I—and everything I write—can be of help to you. The world is waiting for all of us to discover what it has to offer. So without further ado, welcome to Passport Perspective. Congrats on taking that first step, and good luck with every other step you’ll take along the way. I’ll be right there with you.
-Stephen
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