Indeed, last summer’s Asean Summer Loop trip was epic. With fellow blogger Blissfulguro (and on some parts, Lakwatserong Tsinelas), we travelled around South East Asia using the AirAsia Asean Pass for fifty five days. In my mind, there was probably no way I can beat that trip. Well, that was then.

A few months after that trip, we chanced upon another of AirAsia’s epic seat sales. For a couple of thousand of pesos plus Big Points, we were able to buy flights across Malaysia and Thailand for next year’s summer,  2016. Yes, we booked quite early.

Thinking of replicating last year’s summer trip, we started a rough sketch of where to go next after all those flights we booked. We thought of finally completing the South East Asia loop, going to Timor Leste and Brunei, but the airplane fare gods were not cooperating with us.

► SEE: EAST TIMOR TRAVEL GUIDE

So we looked elsewhere on the map and found Sri Lanka. We’ve heard nothing but good things about this place, so we put that on paper. And since we’re already in Sri Lanka, why not jump to Maldives, it was quite close, so we wrote that down as well.

► SEE: SRI LANKA TWO WEEKS ITINERARY

► SEE: MALDIVES TRAVEL GUIDE

Coming back to Kuala Lumpur, we still have a couple of days left on the calendar. We saw a cheap flight to Singapore, and yes, why not Singapore indeed?

► SEE: SINGAPORE TRAVEL GUIDE

Our rough sketch soon untangled into a full plan. And the thing we noticed was that almost all the places we’re going to have beaches, an area sorely lacking on our last year’s trip. With that, Beach Hop Asia 2016 was finally conceived.

The final route includes twenty two key destinations along five countries (a few of which, Team RH would also be tagging along with us; Lakwatserong Tsinelas, Pinoy Boy Journals, Elal Jane Lasola, Marxtermind, Kurtzky, Tracking Treasure, JuandefulPinoy and KirkAnatomy) and it goes something like this:

Manila ► [Malaysia] Melaka ► Kuala Lumpur ► Langkawi ► Penang ► [Thailand] Surat Thani ► Koh Phangan ► Krabi ► Koh Lanta ► Koh Phi Phi ► Phuket ► [Sri Lanka] Colombo ► Dambulla ► Batticaloa ► Arugam Bay ► Ella ► [Maldives] Hulhumale ► Maamigili ► Male ► Singapore ► [Malaysia] Johor Bahru ► Manila

Looks expensive, right? After tallying our flight cost, it only came up to PHP 18,818.72 each. Not too bad, considering that it consists of twelve flights, two more than the previous summer trip which clocked at PHP 17,760.78. We could’ve trimmed down the cost by about PHP 3,000.00 less if we’ve been more religious in checking flights, but still, it’s a steal.

The real kicker here is the amount we’d spend on food, tours and, of course, beer.

But you only live once. So we’re definitely giving this the green light. Come on Asia! Let’s beach around!

FOLLOW MY ALMOST REAL-TIME #BEACHHOPASIA2016 TRIP ON MY @LAKADPILIPINAS INSTAGRAM