I’ve met Filipinos all over the world and they’re universally pleasant and an agreeable part of any community. Being very outgoing and fun loving people I had to make a trip to see where all this bonhomie sprang from. Manila airport is a heaving mass of people greeting each other after returning from the dozen or so countries that they’ve dispersed to after the 2nd world war devastated Manila and other places. General MacArthur would return to flatten the then most beautiful city in Asia to rubble in 1945.
Many leave and don’t return, well it was my first time and the hotel in the Ermita district was excellent and in an excellent location not far from the American Embassy no less. Anyway Manila is a very built up and heavily populated place, if you don’t enjoy crowds don’t come here, but I found the Manileños really a pleasure, in shops, restaurants and especially interacting with young people who love basketball and American hip-hop culture, perhaps it’s one of the few large cities that still has a really friendly openness. Moving from Manila to the island of Masbate was an experience while travelling through the picturesque south of Luzon, sighting mount Mayon and then taking a sea-sick inducing local boat journey from Bulan to Masbate City on an island not much visited which was the reason to go. Very much behind the rest of the country in infrastructure and economy Masbate is a good way of reminding you of another world enriching our collective lives.
I then hopped across to Negros and onto Dumaguete and to a wonderful coast and sunshine which was in short supply on Masbate. Paddy fields brimming with rice and harvest time was good to see children running up and quizzing me about my hair, and the wonderful view of Siquijor island less than 5 kilometres away beckoning from a very blue looking sea. If you want to get away from it all Negros doesn’t disappoint.
Bohol island is a tourist playground with Panglao island playing host to chic hotels and Alona beach which is a pristine beach but I tuned inland to the Chocolate hills which are a group of limestone projections from the surrounding plain and right in the middle of the island, surprisingly I saw many local families visiting these hills as well as landmarks such as the statue of the “Blood Compact” which cemented Spanish rule. Seeing Tarsiers in conservation was the highlight of the island for me, what an amazing planet if we allow it to be.
Another positive aspect of my trip to the Philippines was rocking up to the various tourist offices on any island and meeting the number of openly gay people working to welcome you their country, that was a very positive and pleasant surprise that’s also made a glowing impression upon yours truly.