He calls himsel f the Chief Excitement Officer of his adventure travel company: Intrepid Adventures Lifestyle Inc. And for the man, going on adventure trips is indeed a lifestyle as he is out on a trip twice or even thrice a month. As this piece is being written, his Facebook status message reads, “Off to the next adventure. Knee deep in mud, snakes, leeches, crocodiles, elephants in the deep jungles of Borneo.”

An entrepreneur with a solid IT and Marketing background, Paul has been responsible for starting and running a number of business ventures. Among these were Accustom Solutions Inc.,C3 Global Equities, Pangea Pacific Express, and Ultra Restaurants Corp. At present, he is also Director for Marketing & Business Development of Zen Restaurants Corp. and President of Gen-X Golf Academy Inc. He has a Masters in Entrepreneurship from the Asian Institute of Management, and took up Political Science and Economics in Pitzer College in California.

Paul put up Intrepid Adventures in 2009 with the vision of “delivering a world-class adventure tourism experience for the Philippine market by providing unique tour packages in Asia.” Intrepid Adventures offers a wide range of hard and soft adventure tours, from family vacations, mountain treks, fishing safaris and wildlife photography to full-blown expeditions. Here, Paul talks about his business, his keen sense of adventure, and how everyone can gain from getting more exposed to nature.

BA: What got you in the business of adventure travel?
PC: I’m a really outdoorsy guy. When I was in grade school, I remember spending one summer in Agusan del Norte, in a logging camp. Another summer, in a copper mine in Negros. My dad would leave me simply under the care of his people, and that was summer camp for me. Eventually, I lived in Kota Kinabalu for four years, from 1989 to 1993, where the family business involved shrimp and fish farming. This brought me close to the water, to fishing and diving, and to the mountains, for climbing, biking… That’s how I developed the love for these type of activities.

BA: What are some of the distinct Intrepid Adventure tour packages?
PC: We offer land tours, sea/air tours, expeditions, family tours, and corporate/school tours. The available tour packages are listed and described in our website, www.intrepid.ph. I’ll mention some here. For Corporate/School tour packages, we have Jungle Survival Skills, a Kayaking Course, and a Teambuilding Jungle Adventure. Among the Land tour packages are Borneo Motorbiking Weekend, Borneo Wildlife Photography, Mt. Kanlaon Summit Climb, Mountain Biking and White Water Adventure, and Negros Mountain Biking Adventure. For the Sea/Air packages, we offer Celebes Sea Diving, Raja Laut Yacht Charter, Sipadan-Mabul Island Dive Safari, Spratly Island Fishing Safari, among others.

For Family tour packages, we have the Borneo Family Adventure and Explore Jogjakarta Java as examples. Most of these are 4 day/3 night packages, some lasting a day or two longer. And for those who want to undertake a tough event, there’s the seven-day Adventure Race, which takes you from Mt. Kinabalu, the highest summit of Southeast Asia, to the shores of the China Sea in a multi-sport race.

BA: So your adventure trips are in Malaysia and the Philippines?
PC: Yes, most of them are in Sabah, considered the adventure capital of Southeast Asia because of the rich diversity of its natural landscapes and the variety of adventure activities offered there. Sabah is only two hours away by plane from Manila and does not require any visa for Filipino nationals. Airplane prices are comparable to domestic tickets because of the budget carriers (Air Asia and Cebu Pacific) that fly to Sabah. We are currently developing new packages to other destinations in the Philippines. We are also packaging trips to Indonesia and will be offering new destinations to Taiwan, Thailand and Indochina in the near future. We will be adding new adventure trips to North Asia by next year.

BA: Can you expound on one of your latest offerings?
PC: Intrepid Adventures is now an accredited agent for Mermaid Liveaboards and will be offering diving packages to remote dive sites in Indonesia and Burma by January 2011. There will be special packages and discounts for dive packages to Komodo Island, Indonesia and Mergui Archipelago in Burma. There will be a 10 day/9 night package consisting of 30 dives!

BA: What are your criteria for picking a place or making a tour package?
PC: When I pick my trips, I make sure it’s in a place not many have gone to…that it’s remote, hard to get to, and you’ll feel the excitement of going there. I’m selling the emotion. And there’s a range of emotions that go with each activity, but the common thing is that everybody gets a high. For me, it’s about getting city people back to nature, and creating lasting memories for them. Memories that you won’t get from shopping or eating out or going to Disneyland.

BA: What are your plans for adventure tourism in the country?
PC: I want to push the Philippines for adventure tourism. Right now, we offer fishing in Siargao, and we have mountain climbing, mountain biking and diving in Bacolod. I’m developing packages in Coron, Palawan and CamSur next, and also a mountain biking trip in Laguna. I have a five-year plan of building an adventure camp in Palawan. This would be great for team-building as it will be close to the river, mountain and beach. My goal is to open up new destinations, because if you go to a place that’s familiar, then what’s the big deal? My question is how far does the market want it? How adventurous are they? All they have to do is ask, and I’ll provide it for them.