We make it a point to go off the beaten path, figuratively and literally, so you might say that our stories are always filed from our regular beat, which is outside the norm. But for us, the fringes still lie a bit more to the side of that. OFF off the beaten path, you might say. This is where the stories lie that might be on the verges of forgetting or incredulity. This issue, we take a look at stories and destinations that exist comfortably where nobody is looking, and thrive in that mysterious space.

DOWN TO EARTH Nicolo Aberasturi schools us on regenerative agriculture and how we can grow our own food indoors.

SPIRITUAL SUSTENANCE Adrienne Dy heeds an expert’s botanical wisdom and explores the seamy underbelly of Quiapo’s alternative medicine market.

OF GODS & OF MEN Michelle Ayuyao travels to the Banaue Rice Terraces to explore the complex history of heirloom rice in the Philippines.

This issue, we ask ourselves: What makes a good life? The stories here show us the many and different roads to happiness, with very different characters all looking for a deeper meaning to what they do and finding inspiration along the way. The people of Escuela Taller not only work to preserve historic buildings, but they also ensure that they’re building lives while they’re at it. The volunteers of Waves For Water use travel as a tool to bring water to remote communities. An Ilongga looks to her hometown, and draws upon personal memory to build bridges towards the Iloilo of the present. We also have three local designers working against the tide of fast and easy fashion for a more meaningful cause. 

This issue, we celebrate the great outdoors and the way it challenges us. We scale the epic crags of Bukidnon with Kuya Mackie, a rock climbing veteran whose current mission is to establish the province as the new rock climbing capital of the Philippines. From those heights, we then find ourselves in the deep—or rather, we ask ourselves: What is it about freediving that compels people to go deeper? We meet with the freediving communities of Anilao, Cebu, and Panglao to find out. Finally, after the dust has settled from the first Philippine Surfing Championship Tour, the country’s first professional surf circuit, we recount its history and how this could be the spark that changes the image of the surfer as weekend warrior, to the surfer as athlete.

As the centerpiece of this issue, this year’s GRID Expedition in the Visayas tells the story of our country’s marine protected areas. How its introduction in the late 1970s has led to the proliferation of our fisheries, and how its success ultimately hinges on the involvement of the communities directly affected by it. It is this same principle that has nonprofit organization Balyena.org returning to the Babuyan Islands year in and year out; that their mission to protect the marine species is interdependent on the well-being of the local residents.

Moving on to higher altitudes, we visit The Last Mambabatok in Kalinga and question the narrative, the romanticism, that surrounds our traditional tattoos. We ask: Can we truly earn our tattoos? Finally, in Maguindanao, a datu takes us through the province’s history and customs to offer a textured understanding of a place often reduced to a single story.

Think of travel, and you think of the things you do, the people you meet, the new experiences you have. But the place itself is the invisible and most important character in every journey. Place is not background; it is an active participant in the story. In GRID Vol. 2, we reflect on the role of the land in shaping the story, and in shaping all of us. To parse our relationship with the land is to answer the existential question: Why are we here?

This issue may not provide the answer, but we continue to ask questions through our stories—the journey of a healer in Puerto Princesa who walked the entire island; the seafarers and fisherfolk of Bantayan; and one artist's devotion to the marble island, Romblon, serving as his inspiration and his home. And in asking why we are here, we go on to peruse the places we choose not to leave.

This strip of islands in the southwest of the Philippines, surrounded by the West Philippine Sea and the Sulu Sea on either side, is an archipelago of its own. Islets of every size and terrain rest within her slender body, as her earthen pores open into lagoons and rivers that flow back to the vast seas. From being extolled as the last frontier of the Philippines to the countless times she was voted the world’s best island, Palawan has enchanted the whole world, ripe and ready to be explored.

So that’s what we set out to do. By bike, by boat, by seaplane—we take three different trips to the same lavish land and come out with three takes on what this beaut has to offer the traveler on the paths less traveled.

This issue is ripe with aspiration—both in the stories that we tell and behind-the-scenes at GRID as well, where a shift has begun to take place.

We look inward to the nation’s sugarbowl, Negros Occidental, a place with an appetite that goes well beyond its past; the sugar fields of old giving way to a variety of organic crops. We also come to see the blossoming dream of Anthill Fabric Gallery’s Anya Lim, as our tradition of weaving lives on through the amiable weavers of Barangay Bulbulala, in Abra. Finally, we make the case to journey past Legazpi and Donsol, where Sorsogon steps into the spotlight and out of its neighbors' shadow.

This issue serves as a reminder that the places we visit are also places that other people call home. “Safe dito,” says the residents of Davao. More so than ever before, Davaoeños remain fiercely protective and proud of their hometown. We take a look at the place behind the man we call our new president. Taal Lake, on the other hand, has been a source of life to its residents for decades, centuries even, and yet the people who live beside it are still learning what it means to be the steward of one’s land. Finally, up in the Cordilleras, we find out that the secret behind the perfect cup of coffee begins with knowing the name of your coffee farmer.

In this issue, we revisit some familiar themes and places but we look at them in new ways, or deeper ways. We take a second look at Cebu and discover the fresh creative energy in the city, as well as look past the pristine beaches of Danjugan Island in Negros. And while we’re on the topic of going deeper, we also ask the uncomfortable questions surrounding the new wave of voluntourism.

ON THE COVER Mark Mabang, Elaine Abonal, Ziggie Gonzales, & Bea Vega by Fransico Guerrero

Paradise on the rocks

The grid sea to submit expedition

Fashion. Retro-inspired outfits perfect for lounging around in a classic vacation home.

Gear Guide. Going on a water adventure? Here are some items to take with you.

Parting Shot. Hanging out with Mike and his kids at the carnival.

GRID enters 2016 with an engaging cast of characters we'd like you to meet. There's lifelong nomad and adventurer Bruce Curran, who leads our crew on a two-wheeled road trip of discovery north of Metro Manila. There's also maverick meteorologist Mike Padua, a self-taught storm tracker who may be at the forefront of our defense against climate change.  Read, too, about the rapid gentrification of Kapitolyo, and what it may mean for all our small neighborhoods.

As often happens when the talk is about travel, we had a lot of opportunity for introspection these past few weeks.

The shy members of the GRID team (with the possible exception of executive editor-slash-TV-personality Paco Guerrero) are used to being behind the cameras and on the invisible end of the pen, but somehow we found ourselves on the other side, talking about ourselves and what we do, first on an episode of What I See, which is the show Paco hosts on CNN Philippines. We were ostensibly just collateral damage on a show about Paco’s work as a photographer, but the estimable producers asked us some pretty deep, soul- searching questions about GRID and why we do the things we do.

It was an experience echoed later when the prodigious filmmaker Lyka Gonzalez came aboard to work with us on a series of videos to accompany our cover feature. Why? she asked. Why did you choose these people for your list? What is the significance of what they do?

Skills, Paco answered. The people on this list give us skills and the means we can use to travel the country in more ways, in different ways, in arguably better ways.

And, of these people, why did we choose Fang-Od as our cover? That the venerable tattooist of Kalinga deserves the spotlight is no question. The recent flurry of attention around Fang-Od, the campaign to make her a National Artist (or, as the pending Senate resolution would have it, a National Living Treasure) isn’t even the reason she is the face of our list. By bringing indiginous culture to mainstream consciousness, she has helped the rest of the world see a fuller picture of the Philippines and our people. She has helped us understand ourselves a bit more fully.

The meaning of our lives is revealed in glimpses, through the reflections thrown back at us by the people we meet and the things we experience. By understanding other people, we see our place within our relationships with them, and we see our place in the world.

This month, our features are about disaster, disease, and warfare. 

What place does that have in a travel magazine? Well, linguists point out that travel and travail come from the same ancestor: travailen, travelen—which means to journey and to strive, but, tellingly, also to torment, and to labor. Writer Simon Winchester says that their root may go even deeper than that, and that the original word may have been the Latin tripalium, a weapon  for torture. And so etymology shows that travel was never meant to be easy. 

GRID has never been just about the pretty places and the “postcard-worthy” destinations. We’ve always promised our readers, and ourselves, that GRID was going to be about, well, love—love for places, yes, and also love for the people, and for the spirit and the story behind every destination. Love means looking deeper; it means not turning away. 

PEARL FARMERS | Read about the sprawling, epic story of an adventurous traveler, whose round-the-world journey in the 1970s took him from Britanny to Tahiti, and then to the Philippines' last frontier, all in search of the perfect pearl. 

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: the BIRDS' NEST GATHERERS of El Nido; a second look at TAGAYTAY; a first-timer's guide to MALASIMBO; car-camping with the TOYOTA FJ CRUISER.

GRID is a travel magazine that takes a deeper look at Philippine life and culture. Featuring work by the country's top writers and photographers, GRID is a smart, stylish, and substantial read—not just about the destinations, but about the people, events, and stories that make the Philippines such a unique place to live and travel in. It calls itself "a love letter to the Philippines," and its content shows a striking amount of heart and intelligence.

Grid issue 03, The Urban Travel issue featuring the best of Makati, Cebu and Dumaguete. The rise of the Cafe Racers. 4 women take a road trip.

THE WATER ISSUE | The fascinating story of one of the legendary divers from the Sama tribe in Davao, and of his friendship with an Austrian freediver who wants to unlock their secrets.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The people who call BORACAY home; CORON is paradise lost and regained

Volume 07 2018

Volume 06 2018

Volume 05 2018

Volume 04 2017

Volume 03 2017

Volume 2 2017

Issue 01 2017

Issue 15 2016

Issue 14 2016

Issue 13 2016

Issue 12 2016

December 2015 - January 2016

October - November 2015

August - September  2015

June - July 2015

March - April 2015

More than a travel magazine, GRID is a love letter to the Philippines. Put together by the Philippines' best photographers, writers, and other artists, GRID is an invitation for you to see this complex, fascinating, and incredibly beautiful country in a unique way.

1. You agree that the use of Magzter.com, the application and its services, are at solely at your own risk. Neither Magzter.com nor its associates nor employees nor third party content providers guarantee that the service will be completely uninterrupted or error-free or foolproof against miscreant activities. Nor do they warranty that you will get the exact results as expected or promised by the website or product.

11. THE SERVICE AND ALL PUBLICATIONS ARE PROVIDED ON AN 'AS IS' AND 'AS AVAILABLE' BASIS. MAGZTER, ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS AND AGENTS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER MAGZTER NOR ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS OR AGENTS, MAKES ANY WARRANTY THAT (I) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (II) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (III) THE INFORMATION THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE OR THAT MAY BE CONTAINED IN THE PUBLICATIONS WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, OR (IV) THE QUALITY OF ANY PUBLICATIONS OR THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBTAINING AND MAINTAINING RELIABLE INTERNET CONNECTIVITY AND YOUR DEVICE. MAGZTER IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR INABILITY TO DOWNLOAD CONTENT. ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR MOBILE DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM MAGZTER OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY.

2. You will maintain and promptly update that information to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account, including the selection and use of all content and services.

2.You will maintain and promptly update that information to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account, including the selection and use of all content and services.

3. In no event will Magzter.com or any person or entity or third party involved in the creation, production and distribution of the content on the website and the application be liable in contract or legally for any damages, including and not limited to, direct, indirect, incidental, special, and consequential incurred to you while or on using Magzter.com. By registering on the website or downloading the application, you agree that the provisions mentioned in this section shall apply to all use of and content on the website and the application.

3. Without prior written or authorised permission from Magzter, you should not modify, copy, distribute or sell any content obtained from Magzter as everything published here is the proprietary property of Magzter or its licensors. As such unauthorised use may also violate applicable laws including copyright and trademark laws, Magzter strictly prohibits these and will terminate your access and account if any such illegal activity is proved or detected. You should also stand liable for the damages caused by these unauthorised activities. Except as permitted by the Publication's lawful owner, you acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading Publications accessed through the Service. Except as explicitly required under copyright law or permitted by the features of the Service you may not modify, reverse engineer, publish, transmit, display, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works of, or in any way commercially exploit or provide to a third party the content of the App, the Publications, or any portion of them without the express permission of Magzter and the owner of such content. We do not grant you any licenses, express or implied, to the intellectual property of Magzter or Magzter's licensors.

5. You specifically acknowledge that Magzter.com is not liable for any kind of defamatory or offensive or illegal conduct of other users or third parties or their content and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with you.

8. Magzter reserves all rights to monitor the content published and inputted by you for the purpose of determining whether you are compliant with these terms and conditions and other operating rules determined by Magzter. Magzter has the right to take decisions about the content and delete them at its own will.

9. Magzter is a distributor and NOT a publisher of the Publications and so Magzter has no editorial control over the content, including opinions, advice, statements, services, offers etc., that is represented in the magazines. So Magzter will not take responsibility for the accuracy or the reliability for any information or facts provided therein or that is made available through the service, by anyone other than authorised Magzter employees who are acting on their official capacities. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered by the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of Magzter. Magzter will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained through the Service or from the Publications. The Service may contain links to other Internet sites and third-party resources and Magzter does not assume any responsibility or liability for communications or materials available at such linked sites. These links are provided for your convenience only. You are solely responsible for understanding any terms and conditions that may apply when you visit or place an order through a third-party site.

Details of the objectionable content, including its link on our platform

Download your favorite titles and read them offline, anytime and anywhere

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines and newspapers from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from {{magCount}} best-selling international titles.

Girish Ramdas is the Co-founder and CEO of Magzter, a New York based startup that has been making waves in the global digital publishing business. Magzter has crossed 80 million users since its inception in 2011 from more than 150+ countries with 1000s of magazines, newspapers and books from more than 4,500 publishers worldwide. He has more than 25 years of experience in cross-platform publishing, including print, mobile, and Web development. During this period, he has co-founded and run three successful start-up businesses. He has enabled magazine companies to go digital and helps them monetize their content across the digital world. Girish's deep industry experience in online, mobile and publishing ecosystems has made him an expert in acquisition, marketing and monetizing digital content across platforms globally.

In the event that you encounter any objectionable content on our platform, we have put in place a grievance redressal policy to address your concerns.

Magzter Inc. (“Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”) knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared. Please read the following privacy policy (the “Policy”) to learn more about our privacy practices. By visiting any of the websites operated by the Company, and any sub-domains thereof, or using any of our mobile applications and other methods of content distribution (collectively, the “Service”), you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Policy, and you hereby consent that we will collect, use, and share your information in the following ways.

Magzter Inc. is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 80 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

Magzter is committed to providing a safe and secure platform for our users. Please note that Magzter is merely a platform for publishers to distribute their content. We do not control or endorse the content published on our platform. We cannot be held responsible for the actions of our publishers or their content.

Magzter is not responsible for compensating any party that has suffered damages or incurred costs due to any content, or part of the content, that violates their rights. Magzter is not liable to face any legal action in civil court for any violation of rights caused by any content, or part of the content, that infringes the rights of a third party.

Magzter offers the world’s largest {{allyoucanread}} subscription service called {{gold}} which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

Magzter offers the world’s largest “All-You-Can-Read” subscription service called Magzter GOLD which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

Name

Note: This will only share the cover and the publication information, but not the content.

Please fill out this form if you need any help regarding publishing your content on Magzter

Prior to Magzter, he was the President of Dot Com Infoway (DCI) and Galatta Media. His duties included strategic marketing, partnership development, and monetizing content globally. DCI grew from a small team of 3 in 2000 to 300 by 2011 and was dealing with web, software and app development for clients globally.

Since we launched, Magzter has been committed to partnering with global organizations to provide the greatest possible newsstand technology & service to our customers. Whether you are looking to offer magazine subscriptions to your customer database or just want to learn more, Magzter is committed to helping your business grow. To find out more, please fill out the questionnaire below:

The DMCA allows us to restore the removed content if the party filing the original DMCA Notice does not file a court action against you within ten business days of receiving the copy of your Counter Notice.

This Policy covers Company’s treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) and other information about you and your computer or device that Company gathers when you are accessing the Service. We may collect Personal Information from you, as explained in more detail below, and we use this Personal Information internally in connection with our Services, including to personalize, provide, and improve our products, services, content, and advertising, and to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to analyze how you use the Services. In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described in point 4.

This title is included with your Magzter GOLD subscription

To analyze the quality of content and provide appropriate feedback to publishers

We have designated a Grievance Officer to address any complaints related to objectionable content.

We request that any complaint related to objectionable content be sent to the Grievance Officer through email to the above-mentioned email address. We also request that you provide the following details when making a complaint:

and the App that provides you the capability to order, subscribe to and receive the delivery of various magazines, books, news and magazine and publication related content (collectively known as 'Publications') and to have these digital versions of the Publications delivered to you

c. We also collect information associated with your use of the application in order to make personalized recommendations. If you provide your third-party account credentials to us, you understand some content and/or information in those accounts (“Third Party Account Information”) may be transmitted into your account with us if you authorize such transmissions, and that Third Party Account Information transmitted to the Service is covered by this Policy.

f. The Personal Information we collect allows us to respond to your requests, improve our products and services, customize the advertising and content you see, and communicate with you about new products.

is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

n. We will also use usage information in order to ensure users adhere to our Terms of Use. For example, a user’s usage information will help us confirm that a user only downloads a magazine or other content a permitted number of times or to a permitted number of devices.

which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

{{magzter}} is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

GRID Magazine - Volume 04 2017

GRID Magazine - Volume 04 2017

In this issue

GRID Magazine Description: