By Marky Ramone Go The film The Beach invigorated the backpacking culture, but very few people knew that the inspiration for Alex Garland’s novel The Beach was really El Nido, Palawan, where he lived for several months. Since the novel was set in Thailand, the immediate pop culture result was the sudden recognition of Khao San Road in Bangkok as the starting point of the “Banana Pancake Trail”—a term given to expanding routes around Southeast Asia frequented by travelers. These backpackers, mostly young people on gap years, start their journey in this festive street lined up with bars and hostels before crisscrossing mainland Thailand and unto bordering countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore with most of them skipping the Philippines. Mount Pinatubo (Photos marky Ramone Go) This comes with a huge upside because it marks our beautiful nation in the off-the-beaten-path category that showcases still-pristine beaches and nature setting with less touristy crowd. This also gives us enough time to set up proper infrastructures and responsible tourism guidelines in place before we [...]
