Finally a home
March 1, 2010to my friends and neighbors
July 4, 2009the Philippines isn’t really that far away. Just get on board a plane from Ho Chi Minh using cebupacificair.com and you’ll be able to get here for about 85 dollars. (though for some stupid Philippine gov’t reason, you’ll need to book a ticket getting out of here, too. you can find a cheap one to kota kinabalu on airasia.com, i think).
When you get to Manila, head down to Bicol and check out the wonderful whale sharks. keep on heading down through samar and leyte (macarthur landing at tacloban? karsts in samar? or even surfing in eastern samar) and across into mindanao to see siargao island (i’ve been dying to see this place). head west to see camiguin and their underwater cemetery. head on to cagayan de oro and pass through dumaguete and bacolod and iloilo and head on to boracay. another alternative is to hit bohol and cebu before hitting negros and head off to boracay. go back through mindoro and your back in manila.
from cagayan de oro you can head off to zamboanga and find the ferry to malaysia, another option. you can also take a ferry from iloilo to puerto prinsesa. there also is a flight from boracay to puerto prinsesa, i think. you can also fly from boracay to cebu, and then unto puerto prinsesa.
from manila, you could also head north to baguio, sagada, batad, banaue. sagada is the one I recommend the most. you could even head further north to the exotic islands of Batanes. more like storm riven. but that’s what makes their islands so mysterious and exciting.
you could fly east to palawan. land in puerto prinsesa and check out the “open” prison. underground river, too. you supposedly can head up to a place called port barton and eventually to el nido. but that is supposedly hard. for me the part of palawan worth seeing is busuanga, coron, culion and the baby boracays. great stuff and diving there. even a safari for realz in calauit.
we’re a pretty happening place. just put us on the trail 
Philippines for a short time?
July 4, 2009I would recommend seeing two places, Boracay and Sagada. Boracay if you want to see what probably could be the best beach in the world. Just try not to go there during the summer (April-May) too many people. Sagada is great. Just try not to get stuck there during the rainy season (June-August). Sagada has hanging coffins and simply a great vibe.
Palawan, Bohol, etc. are always recommended but I don’t see what all the hullabaloo of those areas are about in the first place. Maybe Busuanga island in the North of Palawan.
Bicol is sweet if you get to catch the whale sharks (December-May). Plus you get to see the great Mayon and I’m sure there’s more.
Batanes is still a mystery to me because I’ve never been.
Batad near Sagada is supposed to be awesome. It’s like the real Banaue rice terraces because the originals have already started to look dilapidated. But I’ve also never been there.
Cebu, Mindanao, only if you haven’t been there but Siargao also looks interesting but it’s still just on my wishlist.
There is supposedly a ferry from Zamboanga to Sandakan, Malaysia, that should be a “trip” in itself.
There is the Venice of the far Southwest of the Philippines, Sitangkai, Tawi-Tawi should also be interesting.
July 4, 2009
I want to open a guesthouse. There’s no denying that. But what’s more important than opening a guesthouse is sharing information with those who want to know Manila.
So how does this go?
Metro Manila is broken up into tinier cities. The most important cities to know about is Manila and Makati. Manila is probably where you’ll end up, because that would be classified as the backpacker district of Metro Manila. Specifically the Malate area beside Remedios circle. Backpacker central would probably cover the area bordered by mabini, pedro gil, maria orosa and remedios circle. Lots of cheap accomodations here and it’s near the Intramuros area and the airport. You could probably walk to Intramuros from here but not to the airport.
Getting around Metro Manila.
Makati is where you want to go for shopping and seeing the more affluent part of Metro Manila. Get an LRT connect to the MRT and get off at Ayala. From there you can walk to Ayala malls. (turn left) or do the even longer walk to The Fort (turn right). On the latter you should just take a taxi. Rockwell has also a nice mall but there is not MRT stop so you also have to take a taxi.
And there is Greenhills. You get off at the Ortigas station and you can walk to Greenhills, which is not recommended. Just get a taxi.
There are other places, but this will do for now.
Hello world!
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