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kabayan

Philippines 2011: Day 7 – Leaving Angeles City for Manila, Mall of Asia

Date: April 23rd 2011

After yesterday’s grueling photo session, I enjoyed a really good sleep. A little too well I suppose. I got up around 11am and only had ‘breakfast’ by noon. Given it was officially half-day, it was too late for me to go to Mount Pinatubo, which I thought of doing today. Because for that, I should get there early since it involves trekking up to the now dormant volcano.

I could have stayed another day in Angeles City and checked out Clark, but in the end, I decided head back to Manila. Figured if I ever come to Philippines again, Angeles City isn’t too far from Manila and I can do Mount Pinatubo & Clark Duty Free then.

I checked out of Red Tulip Hotel and took a trike to Dau bus terminal.

Bus ticket Angeles City to Manila Philippines
They punch the ticket. Notice the 100 and the 8 on the top right (₱108 = $2.5/€1.8).
Bus journey Dau to  Manila mountain Philippines
Was that Mount Pinatubo?

Bus journey from Dau to Manila farm land Philippines

Bus journey from Dau to Manila farm countryside
The journey to Manila took less than one and half hours

I reached Manila by 2pm and I had no clue where in the city I was. All I told the bus folks were that I needed to go to Pasay. They stopped under a big flyover and asked me to get down, saying I can easily get to Pasay from here.

SM Megamall Shangri-la hotel Manila Philippines
Hailed a taxi, passed by an SM Mall and even Accenture's office
Inside Manila taxi to Pasay Philippines
It was one straight drive, but it cost ₱140 ($3.2/€2.3)! I was NOT happy about spending more on a short drive to Pasay than I did getting to Manila by bus!

I had booked a dorm bed for two nights at Kabayan Hotel, a place I liked a lot. I had to catch an early morning flight to Cebu, so I was going to check out by 5am on Monday.

Kabayan Pasay dorm room bed cupboard Manila Philippines
I got the upper bed. A/C dorm, ₱550 when I booked it. Website lists ₱610 ($14/€10) now. I still think it's worth it. You get all the usual Kabayan inclusions like set breakfast AND lunch, with complimentary wi-fi.
Kabayan Pasay dormitory room cupboard Manila Philippines
Pillow and towel inside the locker. The locker came in handy, since I could keep my camera bag inside it and go out. Most hostels charge extra for lockers, and they are usually outside your room.
Kabayan Pasay dorm room restroom Manila Philippines
They have a well kept toilet and shower inside the room
Kabayan Pasay hotel dormitory hall Manila Philippines
The hallway looks like every other hallway on the other floors. Kabayan doesn't make you feel cheap even if you are staying in the dormitory.
Kabayan Pasay hotel male restroom Manila Philippines
If the toilet in your room is occupied, there are many toilets and shower rooms on the floor
Pasay MRT station Manila Philippines
I stepped out with just my 7D and the Tamron lens attached. I wanted to travel light for once. This is the scene just outside Kabayan and the Pasay MRT station.

I boarded a jeepney and decided to check out Mall of Asia, which was very close by.

Jeepney to Mall of Asia Manila Philippines
I don't remember how much the fare was exactly, but I believe it was around ₱10
SM buildings near Mall of Asia Philippines
The journey takes just 5 minutes from Pasay MRT

Mall of Asia jeepney drop off point Manila PhilippinesWhen it opened in 2006, Mall of Asia was the largest shopping mall in Asia, but has since moved down to third place after Dubai Mall‘s arrival.

Mall of Asia entrance Manila Philippines
I had to take multiple shots using the Tamron lens to get wide shots like this
Mall of Asia Panorama shot
Merging three shots to create this wide shot unfortunately cost that white man his head. Sorry dude, blame Photoshop.
Mall of Asia entrance Filipino crowd Manila
Today was a Saturday, so it was expected the mall was going to be crowded
Mall of Asia store directory guide Manila Philippines
The virtual mall directory assistant

Inside Mall of Asia shop levels

Mall of Asia SMDC property exhibition Manila
There was a small exhibition of properties by SMDC (SM Corp. is the largest property company in Philippines).

Being curious as to how much the cost of apartments were in Manila, I acted as a potential buyer and checked out the properties on offer. A lot of the apartment sizes (compared to India) were pretty small. ‘Large’ flats were 1000-1200sqft, while there were plenty of studios on offer. Prices for apartments ranged from 2 million to 4 million pesos and higher. Expensive, I initially thought. Maybe its because most of the buyers they target are OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers), who earn higher wages.

But then I realized that it’s 2,000,000-4,000,000+ Philippines pesos. I mentally re-arranged the zeroes into the Indian numeric system and realized that’s 20,00,000 to 40,00,000 (lakh) rupees! It struck me as affordable — and that too in a city like Manila, which has far better infrastructure than most Indian cities! (Yes Filipinos, complain all you want about Manila. Visit Mumbai/Bombay and then compare the two. You’ll appreciate Manila a lot more.)

It pissed me off (not the first time) thinking how over-priced and unjustified the Indian real estate market is. For a minute, I even considered moving to Manila. Then I thought about the lack of Indian food here, and the frequent typhoons.

Back to the mall.

Mall of Asia Ace hardware store Manila Philippines
They have an ACE Hardware outlet here

Mall of Asia ice skate rink Philippines

Inside Mall of Asia ice skating rink Manila Philippines
People watching other people skate
Mall of Asia SM ice skating rink Manila Philippines
This is an Olympic-sized ice rink
ABC music store Justin Bieber 2AM poster Manila
The Biebs was going to be in Manila. Unfortunately, I would miss the opportunity to see 2AM live as I would be travelling that day. They're really good! Loved 'Saint O'Clock'!
Mall of Asia cinema movietime multiplex Philippines
They also have an IMAX screen at the multiplex

Inside Mall of Asia trees Manila Philippines

Mall of Asia roll coin rolling faster Philippines
A novel contraption that makes you curious how fast some coins take to reach the hole. Also a novel way for the mall to get free change.
Mall of Asia bridge to promenade
I decided to walk to the promenade

Mall of Asia balcony baywalk Manila PhilippinesMall of Asia baywalk road Manila Philippines

Mall of Asia esplanade road Manila Philippines
There are over-bridges to get to the Baywalk
Manila baywalk restaurants parking Philippines
Plenty of restaurants by the bay
Manila baywalk evening sun Philippines
Watching the sun set by the bay is a popular activity
Manila baywalk Saturday evening crowd Philippines
Scores of people visit the Baywalk in the evenings. More so on weekends.
Manila baywalk children's playground Philippines
Packed with families too!

Mall of Asia promenade bay restaurants Manila Philippines

Mall of Asia baywalk music Manila Philippines
They have band performances here

Manila baywalk local sitting Philippines

Manila Port bay Philippines
Manila Port
Mall of Asia baywalk zip line Manila Philippines
They also have fun zip line activities

Mall of Asia zip line baywalk Manila baywalk zip line mall of asia PhilippinesManila baywalk zipline end Philippines

Mall of Asia Manila panorama
Panorama comprised of 11 shots
Philippines working heroes statue Manny Manila baywalk
A stature paying tribute to hard working Filipinos -- and Manny Pacquiao, the most famous Filipino in the world currently.
Filipino jabbawokeez dancers Manila baywalk Philippines
Faux Jabbawockeez preparing to do... something

Manila baywalk bungee fun Philippines Manila baywalk sunset PhilippinesBaywalk Manila crowds Saturday PhilippinesFilipino couple watching sunset Manila baywalk PhilippinesManila Baywalk filipinos sitting sunset Philippines

Manila baywalk Jabbawockeez mall of asia Philippines
People had gathered to see faux Jabbawockeez perform. Though these guys seemed like a mime act.
Mall of Asia convention center Manila Philippines
The convention center, where Maroon 5 was also scheduled to perform in a few days
Manila baywalk zipline Filipino mall of asia
"Hello to you too!"
Manila baywalk zipline above crowds Philippines
I decided to walk back to the mall and come back once the sun had set

Mall of Asia sunset view baywalk Manila PhilippinesManila baywalk mall of asia zip line queueManila baywalk mall of asia road PhilippinesManila baywalk evening crowds PhilippinesMall of Asia Justin Bieber poster Manila Philippines

Mall of Asia stores Manila Philippines
The interiors of this big mall aren't all that impressive, but then nothing is, compared to Dubai Mall
Mall of Asia led globe Manila Philippines
This globe apparently lights up at night
Mall of Asia interiors stairs panorama
Back outside...
Evening sunset baywalk Manila Philippines
Love the colours!

Given it was really humid, I craved for some ice cream. Bought one, which began melting by the time I tore through the paper wrapping. Had to gulp it up quick.

Mall of Asia baywalk Manila at night
Left the baywalk once it had gotten dark
SM mall of asia at night Manila Philippines
There was little else left to see

Comics Alley Camerahaus Mall of Asia Manila PhilippinesMall of Asia Stoked The North Face branch Manila PhilippinesMall of Asia evening crowds Manila PhilippinesDespite being one of the most famous malls in Philippines, Mall of Asia still offers a lot of affordable shopping. It isn’t one of those glamorous malls that draws a lot of people in but where you hardly see any of them actually shopping. There’s something for everyone at Mall of Asia.

Mall of Asia Globamaze LED advertising Manila Philippines
The LED globe was lit, and was showing ads among other visuals

Mall of Asia globamaze led at night Manila Philippines I really didn’t have anything else planned after this. My friend Aimee and I had initially thought of catching up, but we decided to push it to Sunday as she was going to show me around Manila tomorrow.

I took a jeepney and headed back to Kabayan Hotel. I left the camera in my locker and decided to take a stroll camera-free for a change.

Pasay pedestrian bridge Manila at night
I decided to explore the Pasay area a bit more, which wasn't a very clean area to be honest
Pasay market under MRT track Manila Philippines
I began walking under the other line of the MRT and came across what looked like a street market
Pasay flea market under MRT track Manila Philippines
Hawkers selling everything from fake goods, toys, fruits, clothes, t-shirts, pirated CDs and other fashion accessories
Pasay street market under MRT track Manila Philippines
It extends a fairly long way
Pasay market end of MRT track Manila Philippines
I walked all the way to the end of the track

And then I walked all the way back. Quite an unexpected discovery this was for me. I refrained from buying anything though, as I decided I would keep all my shopping for the last two days of this trip.

When I got back to the main Pasay junction, I decided to try out Chowking, the Chinese food offering from the owners of Jollibee.

Chowking pork fried rice root beer combo meal
Ordered their pork fried rice, dumplings and root beer combo meal for ₱80 ($1.8/€1.3). How was it? Bleurgh! Probably the worst fried rice I've ever tasted. The momos were alright, but then again, how hard is it to screw that up. Sorry Chowking.

After the poor dinner, I went back to my room and decided to spend a few hours on the internet.

Kabayan hotel Pasay recreation hall Manila
The dormitory floor has a recreation lounge with a big screen TV, comfy chairs, and a few computers. You can bring your laptop here and use the wi-fi. Even though the speed wasn't great, I wasn't complaining. I have never experienced such a value-for-money hotel anywhere!

If I ever decide to start a hotel of my own, I would look to Kabayan for inspiration. I really appreciated the quality of service Kabayan offers its customers.

So this what I did today. Basically, nothing much.

Previous posts in this series:

Philippines 2011: Day 6 – Good Friday in San Fernando, San Pedro Cutud Lenten Rites

Philippines 2011: Leaving Sagada for Baguio, and arriving in Angeles city (Days 4 & 5)

Philippines 2011: Day 3 – Sagada’s Lumiang burial cave, Sumaguing cave, Hanging Coffins of Echo valley

Philippines 2011: Day 3 – Banaue town; heading to Sagada via Bontoc

Philippines 2011: Day 2 – Banaue rice terraces; trekking to Batad village

Philippines 2011: Day 1 — Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Fort Bonifacio

Philippines 2011: Flying over South China Sea for the first time

Other posts in this series:

Philippines 2011: Day 8 – Manila tour: Rizal Park, Intramuros, Manila Cathedral, China Town

Philippines 2011: Day 9 – Cebu: Fort San Pedro, Basilica of Santo Niño, Taoist Temple

Philippines 2011: Day 10 – Bohol tour: Chocolate Hills, Loboc river cruise, Tarsiers, churches

Philippines 2011: Day 11 – Arriving in Puerto Princesa, Palawan

Philippines 2011: Day 12 – Puerto Princesa Underground River tour, Palawan

Philippines 2011: Day 13 – Puerto Princesa to El Nido by bus

Philippines 2011: Day 14 – El Nido island hopping tour A and sunset at Las Cabanas beach, Palawan

Philippines 2011: Back to Manila, shopping, and my final thoughts about the country  (Last post)

Philippines 2011: Flying over South China Sea for the first time

Planning a trip to the Philippines began with the most unlikeliest of inspirations — an e-mail forward from my father. Not even a good official one, but one of those e-mails that had numerous ‘fwd: FW: Fwd:’ before the actual subject line of ‘can you believe Philippines has such beauty?!’ followed by numerous exclamation marks.

I usually disregard the images I find in such e-mails as they’re usually not from the country they claim to be but upon checking up some of the names of the places they showcased, I was quite surprised about how little I knew of their existence!

It dawned to me I knew very little about Philippines, this despite having grown up in the Middle East where (just like Indians) millions of them come to work. As a kid, all I knew about Filipinos is that a lot of them work in fast food joints or play in a band — and they don’t have the letter ‘F’ in their vocabulary. So I would often hear “500 pils” instead of “500 fils” when asked for change.

I learnt of Banaue and its famous rice terraces, the beautiful beaches of Boracay and Palawan, but the place that made me wish I was there was the remote island of Batanes. It was then, early 2010, I decided to consider making a trip to Philippines.

It was quite challenge really, because trying to study the geography of Philippines wasn’t easy.

Philippines country regions provinces map
(Image source: Wikipedia)

Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands. Sure, many of those thousands are really tiny to even identify on a map but still, getting around the country isn’t easy. It requires some learning beforehand. Since it’s not a landlocked country like most of Thailand, you have to commute via road, ferry, and airlines just to get to certain places within the country.

I initially thought of clubbing Philippines & Thailand last year but it was proving to be quite expensive. So I decided to give Philippines it’s own time.

That time was early this year, when things weren’t looking too good at my workplace. We all knew what was coming our way with the fate of the office and so, instead of prepping up my resume and looking for another job, I researched more on Philippines instead 🙂 When things became official in March and we all knew we were going to be laid off, I booked my tickets!

I tried Air Asia first but at around INR19k, it wasn’t as cheap as I thought it would be. Plus the timings were inconvenient. I land late at night and my connecting flight would have been at 7am the next morning. No way I was going to spend that long at KL LCCT! So I checked all the usual Indian travel websites and got the best deal from Travelocity for a Malaysia Airlines flight at Rs. 26,153 ($584/€411) return. Yes, it was more than Air Asia, but it was going to be convenient, so I didn’t mind paying a bit extra for that. Also, I would get proper meals, land at KLIA and not the present warehousebudget terminal. More importantly, the time I had to wait for my connecting flight was lesser.

Philippines Airlines had just launched their direct flight service to New Delhi (only), but it was quite expensive, so flying the Philippines national carrier was not a possibility.

Next came the visa. When I researched on the tourist visa, I was happy to find out Philippines offer a 21-day visa-on-arrival for a 147 nations! Great, I thought… until I scanned down the list and couldn’t find India one among those 147 countries -_-

So I ended up at the website of the Philippines embassy in New Delhi and found out I have to pay Rs. 2320 for a tourist visa (and for just 21 days). Since I couldn’t fly to Delhi just to get a visa, I had to get it done through an agent. Some agents wouldn’t even do it, and one moron even asked for Rs. 10,000 as service charges! But I walked into the nearby Thomas cook office in Koramangala (inside Raheja Arcade) and got my visa processed by paying their Rs. 1000 service charge. At Rs. 3320, this was the most I had spent on a South East Asian visa so far, and that too for a single entry visa. My multiple entry Singapore visa for 2 years cost just Rs. 1800 and my 1 year Malaysia visa cost just Rs. 1500. Thailand was free visa-on-arrival the two times I went.

My travel period was from 16th April to 4th May and I chose the dates keeping in mind the main focus of my trip was to photograph the Easter crucifixions in San Fernando. The rest of my itinerary would see me visit the largest American war cemetery outside of the United States, traverse throughout the Ifugao province for my fix of rice terrace farms, see coffins hung on hill sides, Cebu, see odd-shaped hills in Bohol and finally enjoy the natural beauty of Palawan island. I was looking for ‘interesting’ with this trip, so I ruled out Boracay — the nation’s most popular island destination, and the most touristy. Unfortunately, Batanes was out of this trip plan as well, simply because it was too expensive to even get there. No budget carrier (and Philippines has enough of them) flies to Batanes and even those that do only fly if they get enough passengers. Batanes is that remote an island.

As days passed by, I felt a bit nervous and kept having second thoughts about spending a lot of money during uncertain times. Sure, the Philippines currency value was the same as the Indian rupee, so that really helped! But still, here I was, going on vacation when all my colleagues were busy job hunting. Plus, I was going to be visiting a new country, one that like Thailand (to the eyes of the ignorant) has a sketchy reputation. I knew what I was going to see, and I was looking forward to see if they live up to the hype, but still…

One ray of hope that eased me up a bit came my way two weeks before my departure date when one of my readers left me a comment telling me how much she appreciated my website and that I “should visit the Philippines sometime!”

🙂

That blessing of a reader couldn’t have come at a better time and after we got in touch, she would be of great help to me, even helping me out with some bookings. I felt much better knowing I had a local contact, which always helps!

Leaving Bangalore airport Malaysia Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur
Now I was ready to fly!
Malaysia Airlines seafood meal Bangalore flight
I had pre-booked a seafood meal for a change and while the tuna and veggies were good, I couldn’t help but envy my co-passengers with their ‘regular’ meals enjoying their creamy desserts and chocolates when all I got was cold fruits. It’s as though Malaysia gimped on the rest of the meal given how much fish costs. Sucks 
Kuala Lumpur international airport tower Malaysia
Selamat pagi* Malaysia! (*Good morning)
Kuala Lumpur International Airport KLIA gates
I landed on time and took this around 7:45am
Kuala Lumpur International airport duty free liqour Malaysia
This was my first time in Kuala Lumpur International airport as last year I flew Air Asia
Kuala Lumpur airport KLIA Harrods store Malaysia
There’s a mini-Harrods (Impressed with how sharp this photo came out)
Kuala Lumpur International Airport Cadbury store Malaysia
They have an exclusive Cadbury store here too
Kuala Lumpur International airport duty free Malaysia
I loitered around the Duty Free for a while

Post loitering, I found my gate and sat in front of it. I tried to catch some sleep but ended up going online to kill time for the next 4 hours.

KLIA grey skies Malaysia morning
It was grey skies even until noon in Sepang

I boarded my second Malaysia Airlines flight for this trip in the afternoon and I was now en route to Philippines.

Sepang city Malaysia flight aerial view takeoff
Selamat tinggal Malaysia!

Sepang city Malaysia flight aerial view from skyMalaysia flight aerial view farm fields

Leaving Malaysian shores aerial view flight
Leaving Malaysian shores…
South China sea spotted clouds blue water
… and flew over the South China Sea for the first time
South China sea cloud over islands
Which was a welcome pleasant change of scene for me

I took a break from staring outside my window to eat some peanuts.

Malaysia Airlines salted peanuts allergy information
Well… duh 🙂
South China sea small hilly island aerial
Back to staring out into the blue
South China sea islands aerial photograph
Beautiful
South China sea huge cloud over islands aerial photography
Awesome
Malaysia Airlines meal packaging Manila flight
Okay, break time. Lunch had arrived!
Malaysia Airlines seafood meal Manila flight
Seafood meal again. Tuna steak and veggies again. ‘Regular’ meals came with Cadbury chocolates besides pudding for dessert. I got dried raisins. Seriously -_-
South China sea line clouds aerial view island
Meal done, back to blue

South China sea spotted clouds from plane

South China sea oval island aerial photograph
Submerged?

South China sea ring island submerged aerial photograph

South China Sea boomerang island submerged aerial photograph
Needless to say, I really enjoyed this flight

South China sea small island submerged aerial photograph

South China sea moon afternoon aerial photograph
Hello moon…

It got cloudy after this, so I lowered the shades and caught up on some sleep.

South China sea mountains above clouds aerial photograph
Woke up an hour later to the announcement we were approaching Manila
Entering mainland Philippines shores aerial photograph
Hello Philippines

Philippines Central Luzon hills aerial photography Philippines Manila shores aerial photography

Philippines Manila aerial photography
Manila city
Manila port Philippines aerial photography
Manila port
Manila city evening aerial photograph
Metro Manila is the 8th most populous metro in Asia

Manila city from plane aerial photograph

Manila sunset from plane Philippines
It was nearing 5pm in Philippines
Manila Taguig city building construction Philippines
The flight was a bit early… which is never a bad thing (as long as the traffic control clears it)
About to land manila international airport
About to land

Landing Ninoy Aquino International Airport Manila Philippines

Landed Ninoy Aquino International Airport Manila Philippines
Ninoy Aquino International Airport

So after nearly a total of 8 hours of flying, I was finally in Philippines. Phew, long journey!

Arrival Ninoy Aquino International Airport Manila Philippines
How’s the airport? Quite old and in much need for an upgrade. Well, at least Terminal I was in.

I got my passport stamped, got my bags rather quickly, converted some dollars and I was out in around 15 minutes. The first thing I wanted to do was get a local SIM and fortunately Globe was handing out free SIMs (though they were mostly for OFWs*).

I hired a pre-paid yellow taxi (which would later turn out to be a mistake) and asked him to take me to Kabayan Hotel in Pasay, which was close to the airport. I chose Kabayan as it was a popular recommendation online. Plus, I didn’t want to spend too much time in traffic just to get to touristy Makati.

But despite how close the hotel looked on the map from the airport, getting there still took nearly 45 minutes in evening traffic. It cost 250 pesos ($5/€4) which is far more than what I thought it would cost. Anyway, I went to the hotel reception, booked a single room for myself and checked in.

Kabayan Hotel single room Manila Philippines
My A/C single room, PHP950 per night ($22/€15)

Kabayan is pretty cool. They have rooms ranging from dorms all the way up to deluxe rooms and from prices starting as low PHP610, they are very popular. And get this, you get complimentary breakfast and lunch! They also have free wi-fi among other great amenities.

Kabayan hotel rooms Manila Philippines
The toilets and shower rooms are down the hall and in between (clean and well kept)

Oh by the way, they don’t use the word toilets much in Philippines, instead it’s ‘Comfort Rooms’ or ‘CR’ 🙂

I stepped out again because I needed to buy some credit for the Globe SIM so that I could inform my family of my safe arrival. Since I was out, I decided to grab dinner early. It soon struck me just how much fast food Filipinos eat. Mc Donalds and homegrown Jollibee was everywhere — and they both had multiple branches within meters of each other — and all of them were doing brisk buisness! As the fast food chains are too chicken to sell beef burgers here in India (due to religious politics), a good ol’ cheeseburger was what I was craving. I picked up a burger from Jollibee, a doughnut from 7-11 and some water.

The area I was in was quite a busy part of town as it was a major hub for transportation, so you get everything you need as far as convenience stores, supermarkets and eateries go. It’s also a very noisy area, mostly because of the jeepneys.

But Kabayan does a good job of cutting out the noise once you’re inside the hotel. I took a nice warm bath and then had my dinner. I called my aforementioned reader (whose name is Aimee) and we spoke for a while. She told me the pre-paid yellow taxi at the airport are priced way more than the usual taxis I could have gotten had I just walked a bit further out. Also, there were frequent airport buses that drop people to Pasay and back. Oh well, rookie mistake.

Kabayan hotel single pad LCD tv Manila Philippines
Unlike many hotels in this price range, Kabayan has a good selection of channels which even included Zee TV (the only Indian channel though)

Given that I hadn’t slept properly in nearly 24 hours, I called it an early night.

I couldn’t wait for tomorrow to begin!

——–

Please note: In this series of posts, I won’t be mentioning conversion rates for Indian rupees as both Philippines Peso (PHP/₱) and the Indian Rupee are more or less on a 1:1 value ratio. So Rs. 100 is like PHP98. Therefore only US dollar and Euro conversion rates will be mentioned.

*OFW = Overseas Filipino Workers; similar to NRI (Non-Resident Indian)

Other posts in this series:

Philippines 2011: Day 1 — Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Fort Bonifacio

Philippines 2011: Day 2 – Banaue rice terraces; trekking to Batad village

Philippines 2011: Day 3 – Banaue town; heading to Sagada via Bontoc

Philippines 2011: Day 3 – Sagada’s Lumiang burial cave, Sumaguing cave, Hanging Coffins of Echo valley

Philippines 2011: Leaving Sagada for Baguio, and arriving in Angeles city (Days 4 & 5)

Philippines 2011: Day 6 – Good Friday in San Fernando, San Pedro Cutud Lenten Rites

Philippines 2011: Day 7 – Leaving Angeles City for Manila, Mall of Asia

Philippines 2011: Day 8 – Manila tour: Rizal Park, Intramuros, Manila Cathedral, China Town

Philippines 2011: Day 9 – Cebu: Fort San Pedro, Basilica of Santo Niño, Taoist Temple

Philippines 2011: Day 10 – Bohol tour: Chocolate Hills, Loboc river cruise, Tarsiers, churches

Philippines 2011: Day 11 – Arriving in Puerto Princesa, Palawan

Philippines 2011: Day 12 – Puerto Princesa Underground River tour, Palawan

Philippines 2011: Day 13 – Puerto Princesa to El Nido by bus

Philippines 2011: Day 14 – El Nido island hopping tour A and sunset at Las Cabanas beach, Palawan

Philippines 2011: Back to Manila, shopping, and my final thoughts about the country  (Final post)

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