GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
A group of 7, 107 islands lying at the southern tail of China and northern tip of Malaysia is the country called Philippines, the land of Filipinos. It has countless of dialects but most spoken is Tagalog, also called Filipino language, and (surprise!) English.
The country was under Spanish rule from the year 1521 until 1900. Sometime in the 1500s, Villalobos, a Spanish military commander, named the country in honor of King Philip II of Spain. After ceding to the US in 1900, the Philippines was invaded by Japan which ruled until 1944 when the US forces reclaimed the land and gave us the independence we longed for.
Metro Manila, a group of 13 cities and 4 towns including the capital city of Manila, is the financial hub of the economy where the seat of the government is located, likewise with bank head offices and stock exchanges. This is the main reason why people from other regions troop to Metro Manila, making it a haven of squatters. The congestion results in high crime rate, pollution and heavy vehicular traffic.
THE PEOPLE
Filipinos are generally friendly, hospitable and accommodating. Good food is a passion and celebration is a must that’s why Filipinos never run out of festive occasions. Every 24th of June there’s the San Juan fiesta where people throw water to each other as a tribute to St. John the Baptist. There’s also the lechon parade where you can sample roasted pigs being paraded in the streets. In January there’s the Ati-atihan in Antique where people wear masks and dye their skin black in the fashion of a Mardi gras. For diversions, there’s the weekly horseracing and cockfighting. Small basketball courts are everywhere and people go crazy over soap operas on television.
A long doorless cab called jeepney, that can seat up to 19 people, is the chief transportation and a symbol of the Filipino’s ingenuity. The same goes for the tricycle, a motorcycle with a sidecar that can transport up to 8 people at times. Another innovation is the pedicab that is similar to Hongkong’s rickshaw.
TOURIST SPOTS
The Philippines boasts of countless tourist spots. Just 60 kilometers south of Metro Manila is Los Baños where you will find a long line of swimming pools with the steamy water coming straight from an inert volcano called Mount Makiling. The windy Tagaytay gives you a view of the active Taal volcano, one of the smallest in the world, that is only 2 hours away from Manila. For the kids, a 30-minute travel by car can bring you to Enchanted Kingdom, a theme park patterned after Disneyland.
Up north is a 6-hour trip to Baguio, a city in the mountains with cool temperature that smells of pine trees and strawberries. Farther up is Vigan, a town in a Spanish era setting or Laoag city with it’s clean beaches and a casino. Perhaps one might want to see the famous pyramid of Manaoag where “faith healing” is held everyday.
Down south you will find the best beaches in Boracay, just a 30-minute plane ride, and finest resorts with golf courses and world-class hotels. There’s also Plantation Bay resort in Cebu City, about 45-minute plane ride away, with a terrain carved out from Fantasy Island. Or one can visit the majestic Mayon volcano and savor the pili nuts and native handicrafts of the Bicol region.
For the unconventional, there’s the Balaw-balaw restaurant very near Metro Manila. Owned by a famous painter, it serves exotic dishes like meat of boa constrictor, monitor lizard, cured deer meat and fried frog’s legs. Or one can indulge in a jungle safari in Subic Resort where monkeys will wake you up and bats will scare you at night.
ONLY IN METRO MANILA
Cigarette is being peddled by the stick in the streets and discourteous driving is the order of the day. Cellphone snatching is not news anymore likewise with kidnappings and bank robbery. Foreigners smell of money so the beggars and street vendors pester them no end. Fake goods abound so the initiated should beware.
Nightlife is booming with a variety of live sex shows to choose from. Hookers can be picked up in some boulevards and it is easy to buy illegal drugs. Sing-along bars that cater to foreigners can sometimes be a prostitution den. Massage parlors are no different, offering different kinds of services to their clients.
But despite all these, Metro Manila is still the place to go if only to see the sight of the setting sun in Manila Bay.