Blogs from Ermita, Manila, Philippines, Asia

Fortunately Super Typhoon Paolo, packing 240 km/hr and gusts reaching 296 km/hr veered away from the Philippines towards Japan and we were able to board the overnight Ferry to return from Romblon to Batangas. As the storm was approaching we got heavy rain that flooded some streets and wind that destroyed bridges in islands south from us. Luckily on the day of our departure from "The Three P" Dive Resort in Romblon, Philippines the storm started to turn away and we had a fairly smooth 8 hr overnight ride. Just in the middle of the crossing it got a little bumpy but and I heard a few people waking up but later I heard that the bumps mid way are quite normal. The ferry gets cancelled only in extreme weather conditions so hearing that it was ... read more

Nikos Kazantzakis, one of my favourite authors, wrote what he called an “intellectual autobiography” – it was the tracing of his intellectual thought through the telling of his life story. This is the first blog I’ll write in that vein, which is less about the travel I’m doing and more about my personal and spiritual development. As I’ve explained before, I came to the Philippines originally for humanitarian work. It didn’t turn out that way, so I arranged to check in with my dad’s friends who run a Christian based NGO out of Baseco. It was very eye-opening and my trip has been very positive, but one downside is that I spent two weeks in Manila dividing my time between essentially partying and holidaying, and visiting Baseco doing church work. Here’s what I learned: a slave ... read more

Back on the road again! And after a relatively short 3hflight from Bangkok I arrived in Manila, the capital city of the 7000-island archipelago known as the Philippines. Pretty much the first thing that hit me about the country was what others had warned me about -- the ubiquity of guns here. In short, they're everywhere. Not just guards with the Remington pump guns at the banks, but even those in uniform with their revolvers standing at the doors of just about every other shop, including fast food joints and convenience stores! To borrow from Dorothy's quote from the Wizard of Oz, "I don't think we're in Bangkok anymore". Or any other normal city that I've visited on my travels so far, for that matter! It's impossible to ... read more

There are tons of great things about the Philippines, but by far away the best of them is the fact that inhabitants are called Filipinos. I like the fact that they thought ‘Well, the Philippines is a nice name but Philippino would be a bit of a bugger to spell. Let’s just settle for Filipino.’ It makes things a lot easier for writers like me. The Philippines isn’t part of the traditional backpacker’s route. The country, which consists of over 7,000 islands, lies to the west of Vietnam and to the north of Indonesia. Its location, and the fact that the country is only accessibe by plane has to be the reason that most backpackers stay away, because the Philippines offers plenty in terms of sun, sea and nightlife. Unfortunately, while the Philippines can offer breathtakingly ... read more

Estimados amigos, no os he podido mantener muy al tanto de mis andanzas por falta de internet y demasiadas horas al volante. En Tailandia creo que la media debio ser 5 al dia y unos 2000km en 4 dias. Eso si estuve en lugares increibles, ruinas de templos budistas que te hacian volver en el tiempo y hacia dentro en el alma encontrando esa paz que anhelamos, arrozales y comunidades que viven una vida mucho mas tradicional, con una paz que rodea sus pequenyas aldeas al atardecer y por supuesto la megalopolis de Bangkok que es mas multicultural pero igual de poco anglofona que el resto del pais. Tengo que decir que perdi mi avion a filipinas porque me confundi entre vuelos, pero como una insistencia educada llega muy lejos y mas en estos paises consegui ... read more