On social media, it has become a badge of honor to flex visiting all 82 provinces of the Philippines. But Arvid Marius “Marco” Puzon has taken this personal travel goals to its extreme: every city and municipality in the country.

Mr. Puzon in Lawak Island, Kalayaan Group of Islands, West Philippine Sea, Palawan

For National Women's Week, we celebrate women who do exemplary work in promoting our local culture. From a long list, this writer has selected six women from a pool of countless equally impressive individuals who have contributed - and continue to contribute - to our society’s rich cultural heritage. Here are some of them.

Celebrating these women and their contributions to Philippine culture

My first visit to George Town, some years before the pandemic, was little more than a quick fix; a shore excursion on a cruise that sailed along the Malaysian coast before returning to Singapore. I had barely three hours on land, just enough to sense the outlines of something intriguing: the smell of spices and coffee in the air, the pastel shophouses, the street art that tells a unique story. Ever since, the city has lingered in my mind like an unfinished conversation or an itch I’d been meaning to scratch.

Being playful with the murals on the streets of Georgetow

 As climate change accelerates coastal flooding, a vast land reclamation project backed by a corporate giant is reshaping the shoreline and may be hastening the ground’s descent.

A small cat padded cautiously across the wet concrete, a tilapia nearly half its size dangling from its mouth. Behind it, heaps of fish lay scattered across the wet floor of a low-roofed shed that serves as the Panasahan Fish Port in Malolos, Bulacan.

The sunken Santo Niño Church in Sitio Torres

For years, Manila has functioned as a layover - a city travelers pass through on their way to the country’s more photogenic islands. Independent tour guides hope to change that.

1896 declaration of Philippine independence

Surf, sun, beaches, shopping, food, and culture, or, as Elizabeth Gilbert wrote in Eat, Pray, Love, a place of healing. Yet even if you add it all up together, they will still fall short of capturing the essence of Bali and the reason it has become Indonesia’s most popular destination. There is something about this island that must be seen with one’s own eyes, felt through the senses, and stored in the vaults of memory.

Sunset and chill at Seminyak Beach in Bali

Ordinarily, I’m not the kind of traveler who circles back to a place. Like many, I’d rather put the cost of airfare flying abroad toward discovering a new city or country. But something about Hoi An’s Old Town lingered with me, an appeal that made the idea of returning feel less like repetition and more like certainty.

Rows of beautiful shophouses like these fills the streets of Hoi An's old town

This Vietnamese Coastal City Ticks off a Year-Round Holiday Checklist: Beaches, Culture, and a Mountaintop Retreat.

As a war history junkie from an early age, I first stumbled upon the name Da Nang while reading over accounts of the Vietnam War. Not long after, a television series that aired in the Philippines in the early 1990s, entitled “China Beach”, taken from the moniker American soldiers gave to My Khe Beach, a slender stretch of Da Nang’s long and sunny shoreline, etched the city even deeper in my imagination. Those early mentions of the city shaped my understanding of Da Nang: once a pivotal site in a violent conflict, now transformed to a coastal city humming with life and drawing travelers from around the world.

The Golden Bridge at Ba Na Hills

A decade ago, the mere mention of “Maguindanao” is enough to strike fear, its name inseparable from the grim headlines of 2009. But as justice has taken its course and the political climate has begun to settle, the province is emerging from the long shadow of its past. Today, a shift is underway: toward its culture, its stories, and the landscapes that have remained largely unseen. Maguindanao may not appear on the usual tourist itinerary, but it is a place that rewards those willing to look beyond reputation and toward discovery.

Masjid Al-Nasser Abpi, also known as the White Mosque, located in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.

A month after visiting Ba Na Hills in Vietnam, where a replica French village piqued me with newfound interest about French designs, I found myself longing for a more faithful experience. The village, though spectacular, felt theatrical, a careful imitation of a culture I wanted to experience in its truest form.

Le Coq Bleu is perfect for meaningful conversation

Traveling across the Philippines has long been my gateway to discovering the country’s vast pool of talents in creating crafts and heritage arts. From the intricate weaves of the Ifugao to the colorful Inaul cloth of Maguindanao and countless others, each piece tells a story of tradition and identity, passed down through generations. I thought I had seen it all—until I stumbled upon something new to my learnings in a laidback town in Iloilo province.