Let’s Visit Asia

I know many who would say that being stuck in Boracay for a week or so would be their idea of paradise. But in a typhoon?!?
How does it feel like to be stuck in the middle of a typhoon? Well, if you’re housed in a stable dwelling and you’re stocked with food and drinking water, then there’s nothing to worry. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the sounds of the wind and pattering (or battering?) rain against your windows. Now if you’re witnessing that scene from a beach hotel window because you were planning to have a few days of sun, …read more

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If it’s true that there are hordes of tourists headed for the Philippines this summer, I hope that the country will indeed recover from the aftermath of typhoon Frank real quick. Last weekend, the typhoon ravaged the islands, particularly Central Visayas, just where most of the country’s best beaches are.
Boracay, perhaps the most popular beach destination in the Philippines, belongs to one of the hardest-hit areas, but is said to be slowly getting back to normal operations. In fact, perhaps fearing the loss of revenues, tourism officials claim that Boracay is ready to welcome guests again.
I’m skeptic. Does nature really …read more

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Image used with permission from JetCombo
I received an email reporting that JetCombo, an online airline booking services specializing in chartered flights, has just released its list of the top 10 international summer destinations, based on itineraries booked through the website for leisure airline travel. Here’s where most are off to this summer:
1. France
2. United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. Italy
5. Israel
6. China
7. South Korea
8. Greece
9. Poland
10. United States
China make sense, what with the hordes headed for the Olympic games. But South Korea? I would never have guessed. One more interesting tidbit: Guess which destination is at position #11? The Philippines!
I would have …read more

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As of writing, the current live ranking of the nominees to become a New 7 Wonders of Nature indicate that the top 7 places are all to be found in Asia!

Ha Long Bay – Vietnam
Tubbataha Reef – Philippines
Chocolate Hills – Philippines
Cox’s Bazar Beach- Bangladesh
Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park – Philippines
Ganges River – Bangladesh/India
Mount Everest – Nepal

Have you been to any one of them yet?

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The following is written by guest blogger, Catha, a Filipina expat scientist in Switzerland working on genomics, but whose mission in life is to promote Adobo. Catha blogs at Cat’s Walks and Bubut’s House.
Paradise. That’s the first word that came to my mind as we entered Coron Island through the Blue Lagoon. This magnificent landscape composes of steep limestone cliffs, clear aquamarine waters and blue skies. Definitely this is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life. Pictures just can’t do justice to the vivid colors of Coron Island.

Thankfully there are …read more

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Until a few weeks ago, Caramoan, Camarines Sur in the Philippines was virtually unknown. But not for long as almost 10 million televiewers watch the French version of reality game show “Survivor”, which was shot on Caramoan’s shores.
According to “Survivor-France” TV director Corinne Vaillant, the powdery sand, the coconuts on Gota beach and the neighboring islets are a “dream” for the French people.
“We chose Caramoan because it’s really wide. It’s necessary that contestants don’t see anything other than nature for them to believe that they’re really lost in the wilds,” Vaillant told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).
Looking …read more

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The Philippine Tarsier is said to be the world’s smallest primate, measuring only about 4 to 5 inches in height. We’ve had the chance to see these tarsiers during our trip to Bohol, Philippines earlier this year and they were really, really tiny. For such a tiny head, though, they had such large eyes, so disproportionately large that are listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest eyes on any mammal.
The tarsiers we saw were kept in semi-captivity, allowed to hunt for food at night, and made to pose for pictures for tourists during the day. Quite …read more

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I just finished watching a documentary on Tubbataha Reefs, one of the Philippines’ nominees for the New 7 Wonders of Nature, currently ranking as the 7th.
What and where is Tubbataha, and why does it deserve a vote?
Tubbataha Reef is an atoll coral reef in the Sulu Sea that belongs to the Philippines. It is a marine sanctuary protected as Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park. The reef is composed of two atolls, North and South Reefs. Each reef has a single small islet that protrudes from the water. The atolls are separated by a deep channel 8 kilometers wide. Over one …read more

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I was going through the photos we took on our last trip to the Philippines and came across this photo of an uninhabited island between Panglao and Balicasag islands in Bohol. That’s me on the photo, marveling at the spectacular wonder of nature spread out before me.

The island itself is tiny, probably not more than a few hundred square meters and is locally referred to as Virgin Island, presumably because it is uninhabited (to date, at least). What took my breath away was the almost one kilometer-long sandbar that stretched away from the island itself. Our motorized banca …read more

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It’s the Holy Week and depending where you are here in Asia, it could be the best or worst time to get around.
In the Philippines, the country takes a pause for a few days.
The main roads leading out of Manila would be clogged, with many locals heading to the provinces and beach destinations. Baguio will be packed, as well as other destinations down in the Visayas, with people taking advantage of the long weekend to enjoy a short holiday.
But it’s not only purely R and R. The majority of the Philippines being Catholic, the Holy Week is a religiously significant …read more

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