Geographical:
We flew from Hong Kong to Manila where we spent two days. Then we travelled north by bus to Banaue to view the rice terraces. We backtracked to Manila to catch a plane to Puerto Princessa, Palawan. We travelled from Puerto Princessa to Sabang with a local bus and then with a pumpboat to Port Barton. From here we took a jeepney to El Nido. Then we had to travel all the way back to Puerto Princessa to fly to Cebu. From here it was quite a mission to get to Camiguin (ferry to Cagayan, take a taxi to the bus stand, drive to Balingoan, take a taxi to the pier, take a ferry to Benoni on Camiguin island, take a van to Mambajoa. Then it was the same route back to Cebu from where we flew to Hong Kong.
We had good warm weather, except the last six days when it rained non-stop.
Philippines favourites:
- The island hopping - beauty beyond belief!
- The food - seafood, seafood and more seafood. Not forgetting about the crispy pata - crispy pork leg.
- The people - especially the people from Camiguin - they are just so warm and friendly
- Snorkelling in the crystal clear waters!
- My birthday cake 
The ‘not so cools’:
- The prices of transport, toiletries, food and drinks (compared to the rest of Asia)
- The difficulty to travel from point A to B (they have 7000 and something islands, but no facilities to travel between them)
- They way they extort tourists with taxi prices, they assume all tourists are rich
- The uncleaned prawns - please people, learn how to clean these babies before cooking them!
- The dusty bus ride from Port Barton to El Nido
Basic words:
- Thank you very much: Salamat
- You’re welcome: Anuman
We were useless with the language!
Overall:
The Philippines have the most amazing beaches and snorkelling spots. I have never seen anything like it and I loved hoping from one island to the next. The locals from the smaller places were absolutely amazing - it is a pity that tourism has a bad influence on the locals from the touristy areas. We will have to return - we only saw 12 of the 7000 islands!
Click on the link below to view the gallery for Philippines: