Leaving the Sultan Hassan Mosque we drove back into Cotabato City (actually a town) to find the bus terminal. Although the town is not that big it is a bit built up in the small centreThe town was striking in the many peace initiative banners and artwork placed prominently all over town. This region was a hotbed of the insurgency and the recent peace agreement is a welcome calm after decades of tensionThere was a mini traffic jam in the block or two that was down...

Cotabato City as its called is not really a city and just a small town you can drive thru in ten minutes. It captured my attention as recently they had built the largest Mosque in the Philippines. It was funded by the Sultan of Brunei and is said to cost $48 Million Dollars.Cotabato is not a tourist destination due to the lack of sights and political tensions so I was really making a special out of the way trip just to see this one location. After flying in, from...

For my overnight flight to the Philippines from Taiwan I had two flights. The first from Taipei to Manilla left at 1.40am. The second from Manilla to Cotabato on the south island of Mindanao left at 6.45 arriving 8.30. They may seem like crazy timings but actually they work out as I can save a days travelling and a nights accommodationOriginally I was going to book another connecting flight on CebuPacific that left Manilla at 10am which meant a longer wait at Man...

My trip to the Philippines will take me to the turbulent south island of Mindanao. This island has had a four decade long insurrection for independence and is still plagued by kidnappings and bombings carried out by rival criminal gangs and political rivals.There is a whole BBC site dedicated to explaining the conflicthttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20 797418Also this week another armed group has stormed the island of Sulu off Mindanao claiming it was part o...