PAUL HARDING : Curator, Around Manila, Southeast Luzon As a writer and photographer, Paul has been travelling the globe for the best part of two decades, with an interest in remote and offbeat places, islands and cultures. He's an author and contributor to more than 50 Lonely Planet guides to countries and regions as diverse as India, Iceland, Belize, Vanuatu, Iran, Indonesia, New Zealand, Finland, Philippines and - his home patch - Australia.
GREG BLOOM : Manila, Mindoro, Palawan Greg is a freelance writer, tour operator and travel planner based out of Siem Reap, Cambodia, and Manila, Philippines. Greg began his writing career in the late '90s in Ukraine, working as a journalist and later editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Post, an English-language weekly. As a freelance travel writer, he has contributed to some 35 Lonely Planet titles, mostly in Eastern Europe and Asia.
In addition to writing, he now organises adventure trips in Cambodia and Palawan (Philippines) through his tour company, Bearcat Travel. Greg also researched the Plan Your Trip section and the Survival Guide section. CELESTE BRASH : North Luzon Like many California natives, Celeste now lives in Portland, Oregon. She arrived, however, after 15 years in French Polynesia, a year and a half in Southeast Asia and a stint teaching English as a second language (in an American accent) in Brighton, England - among other things.
She's been writing guidebooks for Lonely Planet since 2005 and her travel articles have appeared in publications from BBC Travel to National Geographic. She's currently writing a book about her five years on a remote pearl farm in the Tuamotu Atolls and is represented by the Donald Maass Agency, New York. MICHAEL GROSBERG : Boracay & Western Visayas, Mindanao, Michael has worked on more than 45 Lonely Planet guidebooks.
Whether covering Myanmar or New Jersey, each project has added to his rich and complicated psyche and taken years from his (still ? ) relatively young life. Prior to his freelance writing career, other international work included development on the island of Rota in the western Pacific : time in South Africa where he investigated and wrote about political violence and helped train newly elected government representatives : and a stint teaching in Quito, Ecuador.
He received a Masters in Comparative Literature and taught literature and writing as an adjunct professor at several New York City area colleges. Michael also researched the Understand the Philippines section. IAIN STEWART : Cebu & Eastern Visayas Iain trained as journalist in the 1990s and then worked as a news reporter and a restaurant critic in London. He started writing travel guides in 1997 and has since penned more than 60 books for destinations as diverse as Ibiza and Cambodia.
Iain has contributed to Lonely Planet titles including Mexico, Indonesia, Central America, Croatia, Vietnam and Bali & Lombok. He also writes regularly for the Independent, Observer and Daily Telegraph and tweets. He'll consider working anywhere there's a palm tree or two and a beach of a generally sandy persuasion. Iain lives in Brighton (UK) within firing range of the city's wonderful south-facing horizon.
