Philippines – geography
The Philippines is a vast archipelago but also a country occupying a total of about seven thousand islands. It is located between Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia (Borneo Island), and to the east is “separated” from the Pacific Ocean by the Philippine Trench, which is more than ten kilometers deep. The Philippines was a colony ruled by invaders for a very long time. However, after World War II, they broke out into independence. The Philippines is very densely populated, with more than a hundred million people living in an area similar to Poland (300,000 square kilometers). By describing only the largest islands and their location within the archipelago’s borders, one can create for oneself a perhaps simplified but reasonably correct picture of the archipelago. To the north is the massive island of Luzon, to the south the Philippines is bounded by the other large island of Mindanao and in between is the Visayas region consisting of many medium-sized islands (Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Samar). The Visayas region includes the islands where the best dive sites in the Philippines lie, but more on that later. The extent of Philippine territory is truly impressive. The archipelago from north to south covers about one thousand five hundred kilometers and from west to east it stretches for one thousand kilometers. Organizing life in such a country is a real challenge, but for tourists this powerful country and also archipelago is a chance for a truly exotic trip.
Philippines – history
The Philippines had been a Spanish colony since the 16th century, and this period left a very strong imprint, both on the old architecture and the organization of life. At the turn of the 20th century, after Spain’s war with the US, the Philippines became an American (US) protectorate. Conquered by Japan during World War II, they became an independent country after liberation (in 1946), maintaining very close relations with the US. While it’s hard to see the US as some kind of amazing friend to the Philippines, against the backdrop of how the Japanese treated the Filipinos, and compared to Spain’s very distant colonial subjugation, the US is viewed quite well in the Philippines. Probably a little weighed down by the contrast to slave relations during the Spanish and Japanese periods and a little by the economic growth provided by good relations with the US.
Philippines – inhabitants
Filipinos are an amazing ethnic mix. They speak more than one hundred and eighty languages and the common official Filipino language and English enable cooperation. What unites Filipinos in this officially secular state is religion. After Spanish colonization, the Philippines is mainly populated by Catholics, Christians (mainly Catholics) make up 89% of the Philippine population, 6% are Muslims mainly in the Mindanao area.
A great many Filipinos are working abroad. It’s a bit of a country of sailors and nannies sending significant amounts of money to their families. There is even a special ministry in the Philippines dedicated to supporting Filipinos returning to their homeland after years away.
Philippines English language
Filipinos place a very high value on learning English. English is the second official language and is taught not only from elementary school onward but some lecture subjects are taught in English. Stopping by some school celebration, one may notice with some surprise that a Filipino teacher repeats the same sentences twice. Once he says a sentence in Filipino and then fully repeats it in English. Anyway, this habit can also be observed with politicians’ statements on television. They repeat consecutive sentences in Filipino, then in English and some still repeat a third time in Spanish. Generally, with this approach, you can get along in English in the smallest Filipino village.
Philippines – climate
The climate of the Philippines is a typical equatorial climate with strong features of monsoon climate. The cooler dry season lasts from December to the end of February. From March to May it gets warmer but precipitation is still relatively low. From June to November it is hot and very wet, and this is also the season of typhoons in whose path the Philippines lies.
Precipitation can be up to 5,000 mm per year which is almost ten times that of Poland and the average rainfall is 2,000 mm.
Manila – the capital of the Philippines and the gateway to paradise
The capital of the Philippines is Manila – an old, beautiful city with colonial architecture and with thousands of streets, stores, restaurants and also, unfortunately, with thousands of slum streets Manila with its broader contiguous populations is home to more than 23 million people, giving it the fourth largest city in the world after Tokyo, Jakarta and Delhi.
We will probably arrive in the Philippines by just landing at Manila airport. The very beginning of the Philippines adventure is amazing. Filipinos are friendly, smiling and a lively crowd surrounds us on the roads, sidewalks and in the stores. If we are not flying with an organized tour, it is a good idea to have a hotel booked for 1-2 days after arrival and then on the spot to figure out how best to carry out our itinerary.
When it comes to typical tourism, Manila alone offers amazing places to visit. To visit Manila, as to visit any interesting place, you can spend a lifetime but as divers or other tourists heading to “more interesting” places, we often spend only 1-2 days.
With such a short time, you have to focus on the best of the best i.e. old Spanish fortifications from the 16th century – “Intramuros”. The tour is a longer walk around the fortification with beautifully maintained lawns that form a natural and constantly “played” golf course around the fort. There are even signs on the bridges over the lawn leading to the interior of Intramuros that read “Beware of balls.” Also definitely worth a visit is Manila Cathedral, which is admittedly a reconstruction of a cathedral destroyed during World War II, but nevertheless has an eerie atmosphere with the very naturalistic statues of Christ that impressed us a bit. Well, and in Manila it is a must to walk to any bazaar with delicious food and escape to the side streets for even better restaurants.
It’s very easy and relatively cheap to fly from Manila on local airlines to virtually all of the larger islands in the archipelago, but if you’re not in a hurry, your choice of ferry will definitely bump you off local life and exoticism. An added attraction will be the dancing of the mooring crews, who, as we were a few years ago, danced to Ursula Dudziak’s standard Papaya (very popular in the Philippines). The teams dance to the same tune but have their own “personal” choreographies. It was amazing.
