First up, don't submit answers or comments telling me to "just fly". I don't care if that's easier or even cheaper. That would not be a question requiring travel experts.
Secondly, I know full well that the Philippines has the worst possible record of ferry disasters. So don't submit answers or comments telling me it's too dangerous either please.
So with that out of the way, if you are an expert on travelling overland / by ferry in Southeast Asia then please let me know which routes you know of to get from any country on the Malay Peninsula to anywhere in The Philippines, by surface travel only. Convoluted routes involving hopping a bunch of times from island to island and country to country are fine!
So far I can only find routes going south through bits of Indonesia, but the pages I found were at least a couple of years old and other Google hits gave me the impression that some of the ferries are no longer operating.
So does anybody know in 2014 how to reach the Philippines by boat from anywhere in Southeast Asia?
Pieces of possible routes I have found so far:
- http://traveltips.usatoday.com/lowcost-travel-philippines-62467.html
- http://globalnation.inquirer.net/84885/palawan-to-sabah-ferry-service-kicks-off-by-yearend/
- http://www.travellerspoint.com/guide/International_ferries/
- http://wikitravel.org/en/Philippines#By_boat
- https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/asia-south-east-asia-islands-peninsula/topics/peninsular-malaysia-to-borneo
- https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/asia-south-east-asia-islands-peninsula/topics/from-peninsular-malaysia-to-borneo-by-boat
- http://wikitravel.org/en/Malaysia#By_boat
The info in these pages is raw, unchecked, of various ages, and might not include an entire possible route in 2014.