Almost 18 months after we deplaned (a word I first encountered in the Philippines) our Cathay Pacific flight from London, via Hong Kong, to Manila, we boarded our Philippine Airlines flight direct to London. With a one-way ticket. Our time in the Philippines had come to an end. When we arrived in Manila, it was …
I’ve heard people say that the Philippines is the ‘texting capital of the world’. I’m not sure of the latest stats on this, but anecdotal evidence does point very much in this direction. There are a number of reasons for this: Texts are very cheap to send – 1 Peso (about 1 pence) each; about …
You park your car. You pay your fee to park your car. You go and do whatever it is that you need to do. You’re a bit longer than you thought you would be. You go back to where your car was parked. And there is no car. All there is, is a note on …
This may just be my perception, but generally things in the Philippines don’t seem very organised. For example, a number of the doctors that I’ve seen don’t work by appointment – you just turn up and wait your turn. I don’t *think* there bus timetables – you just show up at the station and wait …
Easter, or Holy Week, is a big thing in the Philippines. So big that even all the shops and most restaurants close. For 2 whole days.Greenbelt is a big mall near to where we live. It is a mixture of buildings and green space, with a large semi-open-air chapel in the middle of it. On …
The weekend before Easter we ventured out on our first family holiday. We hired a car and a driver from Viajero Rent-A-Car and set off on our adventure to Baguio. Baguio is about 240km North of Manila. The drive, with about 1.5 hours break, took roughly 7 hours. For the first hour, we were hostage …
When we first arrived in Manila, back in the first week of January 2013, we noticed that there were still some Christmas trees up around where we lived. 2 thoughts crossed my mind; either Filipinos love Christmas, or it’s like I’ve seen in other Asian countries where the Christmas decorations just stay up all year …
We are led to believe that, most years, there is a big fireworks display in Makati to mark the end of one year and the start of another. This year it was cancelled, and the money saved was being donated to victims of Typhoon Haiyan. We weren’t sure, then, what to expect in terms of …
’twas the weekend before Christmas… so we decided to go on a healthy weekend break. We’d heard about The Farm at San Benito through the Lonely Planet originally and then from friends who mentioned it during our time in Manila. It’s a coconut plantation which has been transformed into a health farm/retreat. It sounded wonderful, …
