Welcome to BWAB!
I’m Jona. I do SEO and marketing for a living, but I tell stories as a way of life.
I run Backpacking with a Book and HomeHums, where I write travel content that actually comes from being there. Think guides, opinions, and takes shaped by real trips, missed trains, great meals, and sometimes bad hotel choices.
I collaborate with brands on paid partnerships, UGC, and travel content built to rank and feel human. I bank on solid storytelling with search intent in mind.
I’m originally from Cebu, Philippines, now based in Munich, Germany. I used to work as a travel journalist and I’ve been to 30+ countries, mostly fueled by curiosity, child-like wonder, and a refusal to travel the same way twice.
At the core, I’m a writer and poet. My Cebuano fiction and poetry have been recognized with the Palanca Awards for Literature and the Gawad Bienvenido Lumbera Awards back home. It’s why voice matters to me.
If you’re here for travel stories with substance and strategy, you’ll feel at home. Let's collaborate.
what's popular
destination guides
You may not know how to save your soul, but you know how to put one foot in front of another.—Rebecca Solnit
September 1, 2025
Salzburg is my mother-in-law’s favorite city in the world; mine is Vienna. Perhaps it’s the proximity to her home in Munich – just a hop over the border – or the way the Alpine air mixes with Baroque charm. Either way, when we decided to have one day in Salzburg, she […]
August 29, 2025
I’ve lived in Munich for the past four years, and Europe still feels like a gem you could spend a lifetime polishing. For someone with a curious mind and eager feet, the beauty is how easy it is to slip across borders, trading one set of church bells for another […]
August 28, 2025
No, I didn’t stay in Vienna for just one day—but if you only have one day in Vienna, you can still squeeze out something spectacular. I was lucky enough to spend three nights in this city that drips elegance like candle wax, slow and deliberate. I spread out my sightseeing because […]
July 16, 2025
I was seven months pregnant. Since that moment I had a hunch I might be expecting during a solo trip through Ljubljana and Bled Lake in Slovenia and Trieste in Italy, I made this quiet pact with myself to keep moving, to meet somewhere new every month. Solo in Strasbourg, […]
digital nomad guides
And her joy would become a restless thing, flapping its wings inside her, as though looking for an opening to fly away.
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
November 8, 2024
Sometimes, me yapping about a lot of things get me some personal stories and letters that I think may resonate with others. So I’m sharing someone’s story and take on that matter. Yes, I know I talk a lot about my own financial independence (for sure, therapists, armchair or otherwise, […]
September 9, 2024
Hanoi: chaotic, mesmerizing, and utterly captivating. After three months of exploring this city’s vibrant streets and a month of wandering Vietnam’s diverse landscapes, I knew Hanoi was the place to drop anchor. Four years later, my love for this city has only deepened. As a digital marketing manager turned teacher […]
July 26, 2024
As an expat teacher in Hanoi for four years, I can honestly say this city has a pulse unlike any other. From the bustling streets filled with the scent of street food to the vibrant markets teeming with life, Hanoi is a place that inspires. I came here as an […]
June 25, 2024
Nomadic lifestyles and the use of digital currency remain at the forefront of lifestyle journalism. Throughout various corners of the globe, individuals are changing how they live, work, and interact with the world around them. Subscribing to a minimalist, experiential philosophy, nomads and backpackers pave the way for the use […]
reading life
My grandfather says that's what books are for," Ashoke said, using the opportunity to open the volume in his hands. "To travel without moving an inch.― Jhumpa Lahiri
July 4, 2024
Summer vacations and a good book go hand-in-hand. My very blog won’t be named as such if I don’t pack at least three books with me wherever I travel. It is just a force of habit because you will never know one book will never be enough. Talking about books, […]
December 7, 2023
Are these names familiar? George Sand. Colette. Simone de Beauvoir. Madame de la Fayette. Gertrude Stein. No? How about Moliere, Voltaire, Balzac, Victor Hugo and Zola and Proust. Yeah? Yeah, now I know what kind of reader you are. 😉 So yes, these are some of the most popular writers […]
October 19, 2023
It is in my DNA to check out the local bookstore scene wherever I am. Most of my favorites are usually independent bookstores that have that well-kept forgottenness kind of vibe. If you get my drift. Think of Paris’ Shakespeare and Co. Or Hanoi’s Tiny Cafe franchise (although this one […]
October 3, 2023
I have a flippant mind, but in this life, my obsessions have been quite consistent the past fifteen years or so. Books. Cats. Travel. Plants. My hobbies, as I love saying now in German, das passt nicht zusammen. They don’t fit together. Well, living in a camper van will make […]
life and food
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.—Virginia Woolf
May 7, 2025
As someone who grew up surrounded by waters, I thought I’d seen every kind of blue – but then came Lugano. It was my first taste of Switzerland, and let’s just say… it left a lasting aftertaste of awe. My German-Swiss partner, ever the meticulous planner, mapped out a week-long […]
March 30, 2025
We all have that one story of how the travel bug bit us. Mine? It started back in university. I was leading the school publication, and the student body president and I were invited to a nationwide student leaders’ press con… in Boracay. That was nearly twenty years ago. Since […]
March 29, 2025
I moved to Munich, Germany in November 2021. Despite being three hours by train away, Paris never appealed to me and only traveled there in December 2022 to meet some dearly missed friends. Traveling to Paris in December has its own charms and pitfalls. I would love to visit the […]
January 8, 2025
Living in Hanoi made me long for the vast quietness of the countryside. Ninh Binh was always my weekend fix during my four-year stint in Vietnam’s capital. Ninh Binh’s huge rafts of farmed white ducks wallowing in its many waterways, with the expanse of rice fields in different shades of […]