Top ten from the Philippines
by prudence on 21-Dec-2012
And here they are:
1. Boating, swimming, and snorkelling in the stupendous Bacuit Archipelago, off the delightful little town of El Nido at the northern end of Palawan. Yes, I know I'm rhapsodizing a bit. But it was really such a pleasure to see a huge variety of colourful fish at two very accessible sites, eat freshly grilled tuna on the beach, and swim in a warm, emerald lagoon surrounded by massive cliff walls. Of all the amazing places we have seen in the Philippines, this is the one I would most like to return to, linger in, and push on out from.
2. Meeting Mount Mayon round every corner in the Legazpi area, and getting some idea of its disaster-ridden past.
3. Seeing a whale shark while snorkelling off pretty Donsol. Admittedly, what I actually SAW was an extremely large set of splodges, ie, part of the back of a whale shark. Even so, to be hanging in the water above a fish the size of a bus is still quite something. And Nigel managed to see the whole thing -- albeit in several stages. (Seeing fireflies was also part of the Donsol experience, but I covered that here.)
4. Seeing tarsiers. These adorable little creatures seem permanently surprised to be combining the life-style of a large animal (long gestation; single infant; long life-span) with the body-size of a ('scuse me) rodent.
5. Experiencing the amazing landscape round Banaue and Sagada. There's nothing better than a combination of mountains and terraces to convey the dual idea of human smallness and human ingenuity.
6. Visiting the Casa Gorordo in Cebu. This is a real old family home (unlike the Casa Manila, which is also interesting, but is an artificial creation). It is a study in demarcation, in which your degree of intimacy with the family determined which floor you got to, and how far along the large gallery corridor you could proceed. These delineations play out over a space divided into the outdoor and communal (veranda), the indoor and communal (the gallery), and the indoor and personal (the rooms off the gallery). If I were ever designing a house (which is unlikely), I would draw lots of inspiration from this place.
7. Visiting churches. The oddity of seeing Spanish-style churches in Southeast Asia never quite disappeared for me. Perhaps because of this sense of depaysement, I doubly enjoyed encountering the first Filipino saint in the Mayon-dominated church at Daraga; viewing the amazing stained glass in the coral-constructed church in Baclayon; and queuing up to see the Santo Nino at the eponymous basilica in Cebu.
8. Learning a little of the fraught and tumultuous history of Intramuros, the historical core of Manila. Apart from the Church of San Agustin, nothing is standing that is genuine. The fact that anything stands at all, however, is testimony to dauntless resilience in the face of colonialism, war, earthquake, flood, and fire.
9. Sharing the roads with jeepneys and all manner of sidecars (whose designs vary enormously from province to province). Not surprisingly, all these vehicles are viewed as totally expandable, and therefore capable of conveying an infinite number of people. Particularly egregrious examples of this ingenuity were always laughingly but proudly greeted by our drivers -- "ah, only the Filipinos..."
10. Viewing some of the Philippines' striking geological features: the Chocolate Hills on Bohol; the underground river near Puerto Princesa; impressive caves near Sagada; and rock formations in the Bacuit archipelago so fluid and serrated that I can only liken them to a petrified conflagration.
Conspicuously absent from this list is Boracay, you may have noticed. Sure, it has its photogenic aspects, but I just didn't get the place... Yes, the white-sand beach is very fine. But it's narrow, it's over-crowded, and it's marred by green algae. Yes, there are quiet corners of the island. But the developers are apparently doing their damnedest to hunt them down and wipe them out, and anyway you're never far from some kind of bothersome commercial activity. Yes, my view is probably coloured by the fact that the weather was bad, our accommodation was poky, and I got a horrible cold. But with hindsight, I would have skipped it, and spent more time on Palawan. So, go to Boracay if you must. But don't say I didn't warn you...
As for the rest of the Philippines, however -- well, hasta la vista, because we're going to be back...
1. Boating, swimming, and snorkelling in the stupendous Bacuit Archipelago, off the delightful little town of El Nido at the northern end of Palawan. Yes, I know I'm rhapsodizing a bit. But it was really such a pleasure to see a huge variety of colourful fish at two very accessible sites, eat freshly grilled tuna on the beach, and swim in a warm, emerald lagoon surrounded by massive cliff walls. Of all the amazing places we have seen in the Philippines, this is the one I would most like to return to, linger in, and push on out from.
2. Meeting Mount Mayon round every corner in the Legazpi area, and getting some idea of its disaster-ridden past.
3. Seeing a whale shark while snorkelling off pretty Donsol. Admittedly, what I actually SAW was an extremely large set of splodges, ie, part of the back of a whale shark. Even so, to be hanging in the water above a fish the size of a bus is still quite something. And Nigel managed to see the whole thing -- albeit in several stages. (Seeing fireflies was also part of the Donsol experience, but I covered that here.)
4. Seeing tarsiers. These adorable little creatures seem permanently surprised to be combining the life-style of a large animal (long gestation; single infant; long life-span) with the body-size of a ('scuse me) rodent.
5. Experiencing the amazing landscape round Banaue and Sagada. There's nothing better than a combination of mountains and terraces to convey the dual idea of human smallness and human ingenuity.
6. Visiting the Casa Gorordo in Cebu. This is a real old family home (unlike the Casa Manila, which is also interesting, but is an artificial creation). It is a study in demarcation, in which your degree of intimacy with the family determined which floor you got to, and how far along the large gallery corridor you could proceed. These delineations play out over a space divided into the outdoor and communal (veranda), the indoor and communal (the gallery), and the indoor and personal (the rooms off the gallery). If I were ever designing a house (which is unlikely), I would draw lots of inspiration from this place.
7. Visiting churches. The oddity of seeing Spanish-style churches in Southeast Asia never quite disappeared for me. Perhaps because of this sense of depaysement, I doubly enjoyed encountering the first Filipino saint in the Mayon-dominated church at Daraga; viewing the amazing stained glass in the coral-constructed church in Baclayon; and queuing up to see the Santo Nino at the eponymous basilica in Cebu.
8. Learning a little of the fraught and tumultuous history of Intramuros, the historical core of Manila. Apart from the Church of San Agustin, nothing is standing that is genuine. The fact that anything stands at all, however, is testimony to dauntless resilience in the face of colonialism, war, earthquake, flood, and fire.
9. Sharing the roads with jeepneys and all manner of sidecars (whose designs vary enormously from province to province). Not surprisingly, all these vehicles are viewed as totally expandable, and therefore capable of conveying an infinite number of people. Particularly egregrious examples of this ingenuity were always laughingly but proudly greeted by our drivers -- "ah, only the Filipinos..."
10. Viewing some of the Philippines' striking geological features: the Chocolate Hills on Bohol; the underground river near Puerto Princesa; impressive caves near Sagada; and rock formations in the Bacuit archipelago so fluid and serrated that I can only liken them to a petrified conflagration.
Conspicuously absent from this list is Boracay, you may have noticed. Sure, it has its photogenic aspects, but I just didn't get the place... Yes, the white-sand beach is very fine. But it's narrow, it's over-crowded, and it's marred by green algae. Yes, there are quiet corners of the island. But the developers are apparently doing their damnedest to hunt them down and wipe them out, and anyway you're never far from some kind of bothersome commercial activity. Yes, my view is probably coloured by the fact that the weather was bad, our accommodation was poky, and I got a horrible cold. But with hindsight, I would have skipped it, and spent more time on Palawan. So, go to Boracay if you must. But don't say I didn't warn you...
As for the rest of the Philippines, however -- well, hasta la vista, because we're going to be back...