By just about any measure, Boracay is the number one beach destination in the Philippines. Although we’ve developed a certain beach expertise (and I think we still have that beach walk swagger) from our stay in the south of Thailand, we were heading to Boracay because it is arguably the best place on the planet to learn Kite Surfing. Deb P is always going on and on…and on and on….and on and on about the joys of kite surfing and we thought if she...

Prior to it's eruption in 1991, Mount Pinatubo was a relatively obscure mountain covered in dense forest and inhabited by several thousand indigenous people (who had fled there to escape the conquering Spanish)- it had no recorded history of volcanic activity. But when it did blow it's top in June of 1991 it went big (apparently it was the second largest explosion of the last century- that might be subject to some debate as I've seen Andrew S go off a...

With "hanging coffins" as the big claim to fame, Sagada isn't really a destination but more of a side trip and since we were in the general neighbourhood it seemed like a worthwhile effort to make. After enduring the mountain goat roadway system from Banaue, we wanted a bit of a break so we dropped in on the Bontoc In Museum which had guidebook endorsements as a place of interest. It did have a mildly stirring collection of old photo's but it wasn't...

Two years ago we were in the Philippines with every intention of visiting the very famous rice terraces in the north of the country. At the time, however, this part of the country was in the middle of a very severe drought and everything was either dead or dying. The normally stunning visuals would have been impacted but more importantly the hard working people of the area were suffering greatly and didn't need another overfed tourist wandering around complai...

Having seen most of the sites of Manila a couple of years ago, we are just planning on using the city as a hub to connect to parts of the country we hadn't yet seen. Unfortunately we've now dropped one of those destinations, Palawan, because apparently there's a lengthy waiting list to see it's big claim to fame: the mile long Puerto Princesa Underground River (since it recently made that cheesy list of Top 7 Natural Wonders of the World, tick-in-...