If a country that is simultaneously east and west sounds appealing to you, and you want to experience a place with friendly family-oriented folks, pristine beaches, warm ocean water the whole year round, exotic animal and plant life, breathtaking landscape, vibrant city nightlife, inexpensive shops, and delicious food, all rolled into one, and while enjoying all these you do not mind putting on a few pounds, then the Philippines is just the place for you.

Unbeknownst to my sister Quiding, her husband Eddie planned a birthday party for her in the Philippines last December 2006. This was sufficient reason for me to fly from Orange County, California to the Philippines. Our brother Danny and his wife Cindy hosted the party at their house in Ayala-Alabang near Manila. The celebrant was surprised but elated to see several of her long-time friends.

The birthday party also served as a reunion for Eddie and his relatives. Danny and Cindy's children and Cindy's relatives were there to celebrate with us, too, including her mother and sisters who livened up the party with recollections of hilarious incidents. And of course there was Kaye, Danny and Cindy's grandchild, who is now the center of attention of the whole family.

We celebrated the New Year a couple of days later. Weight-gain is an expected consequence of visiting Danny and Cindy. The daily "gastronomathon" starts with a heavy breakfast of rice, fish, meat, vegetables, fruits, and kakanin (rice cakes). That is the lightest meal of the day. In between meals, snacks are served.

We kicked off our tour of the Philippines with a brief trip south of Manila. We were hosted there by Eddie and Quiding's longtime friends Peping and Vicky Juliano. On our way back to Alabang,we stopped by Tagaytay where the scenic view of the Taal Volcano primed Eddie, Quiding, our sister Chi, Danny, Cindy and me for our island hopping tour of the Philippines, from Luzon to Mindanao. Throughout our tour of the Philippines, gracious and hospitable hosts would welcome us in every place we visited.

We flew from Manila to the Visayan island of Bohol. While looking for a ride at Bohol's Tagbilaran airport, we met Badon. Badon shuttles his van from the airport to various hotels in Tagbilaran. He offered to give us a two-day tour for a price that we found hard to refuse. Badon turned out to be an excellent tour guide. Since he grew up on the island, Badon knew the most interesting and beautiful places to show us.

Right after we dropped off our luggage at the hotel, Badon took us to the Chocolate Hills, one of the main tourist attractions in Bohol. The Chocolate Hills are mounds of natural limestone. The unusual geological formation consists of over a thousand cone-shaped hills of about the same size. They are brown during the dry season, thus the name Chocolate Hills. But because of recent rain, they were rather verdant when we saw them.

While viewing Chocolate Hills, Eddie and Quiding had a chance meeting with some friends from the Netherlands. They would come across more friends from the Netherlands in the course of our tour, making me realize the far and wide readership of Munting Nayon.

We walked across a hanging bridge that swayed with every step we took. It was crafted from bamboo and cables over the Loboc River. Then Badon arranged for us to have lunch at a floating restaurant on the river. The Filipino food was delicious. The music was familiar, with the band singing popular English and Spanish songs from the time that we still lived in the Philippines. The scenery was idyllic with lush tropical foliage on the river banks and beyond, serene waterfalls, locals navigating the river on small boats and rafts, and children swimming.

After lunch, Badon took us to a couple of places to see animals that are considered exotic in the western world, including the Philippine Tarsier, a palm-size primate indigenous to Bohol and surrounding islands. We could not resist the experience of having tiny tarsiers cling gently to our hands.

We completed the first day of our tour of Bohol with a visit to Baclayon's old church built in 1595, and the seaside monument of the "Blood Compact" between the Spaniard, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and the Filipino, Sikatuna, in 1565.

The small island of Panglao, just southwest of the island of Bohol, is home to some of the finest beaches in the Philippines. Before starting our tour in Panglao during the second day, Badon took us to a local market so we could get some fresh seafood to cook for lunch at the beach in Panglao.

Badon picked just the right beach to take us. The place seemed secluded, with hardly other tourists. The beach was of fine white sand and clear blue water. Danny and I could see the starfish at the bottom, as we swam in the sea. It did not matter that it rained while we were at the beach. This is to be expected in the tropics. The rain only served to shower off the warm salty water from us after we swam.

After a quick stop to see an underground water cave, we shopped for some souvenir items. Our tour of Bohol and Panglao was over all too soon. I could have spent more time enjoying Bohol and Panglao. But there were more islands to see.

The following day, we took a ferry to the island of Cebu. Jovi and Benjie, Cindy's friends and former officemates, met us at the dock. Jovi and Benjie readily made us feel at home as they took us on a tour around Cebu City. The city boasts some of the finest hotels in the country. Security was heightened. The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit was taking place in Cebu the following week.

We visited the hilltop Taoist Temple with its manicured garden and colorful pagoda overlooking the city. After our lunch of tasty Philippine dishes, we proceeded to the historical site where the discoverer Ferdinand Magellan planted a cross upon reaching the Philippines in 1521.

The following day, Tess, Chi's long-time friend in the US who happened to be home in Cebu, invited us to lunch at her house. Hanging on a wall in Tess' house is a huge clock with strange writings that I have never seen before. I felt embarrassingly ignorant when Cindy explained that the clock has the old Philippine "alphabet", which I never knew existed.

While in Cebu, MN took the chance to meet its contributors Michelle Simtoco and Daisy Ba-ad, both residents of Cebu City.


From Cebu, we flew to Davao on the southern big island of Mindanao where we were hosted with unmatched hospitality by our cousin Linda and her husband Nonoy. They gave us one of their houses to use while we were in Davao, served us hearty delicious meals in their palatial house, and took us to tours around Davao. For desserts and snacks, we had our fill of suha ("sweet grapefruit") and durian, two fruits that we have not tasted for years. Davao is the place to be for fresh exotic fruits and seafood. The meat from the panga (grilled jaw of a huge tuna fish) melted in the mouth.

On Sunday, after church services and an inexpensive but "all you can eat" lunch at a Philippine restaurant, we were off to Nonoy's cockfight arena. Foreign to the western world, sabong (cockfighting) is a popular traditional Philippine Sunday pastime for men. As a young boy, it was a favorite hobby of mine as well. I kept chickens in our backyard and raised them to fight other roosters owned by cousins and other children in the neighborhood. It still gives me an odd thrill to watch those magnificent brave birds fight. Needless to say, Danny and I were all too eager to join Nonoy at the cockfight arena for the rest of the day. We were quite comfortable in an air-conditioned glass booth. Nonoy's staff at the arena took good care of us as they served us snacks and drinks.

The next day, Linda and her son Benjie took us to a crocodile farm. The farm houses many feral animals and colorful birds. But I did not expect to see in one of the cages a chicken perched on the back of a large but apparently not hungry yet sawa (boa constrictor).

After a quick lesson from the crocodile handler on the life and anatomy of the reptile, we were ready to pick up and handle a three-month old crocodile. But do not ask Eddie how you are supposed to tell the sex of a crocodile. I think he failed the lesson in this regard.

We had a taste of Holland in Davao at a western-style restaurant that served food imported from the Netherlands. The owners of the restaurant, Jos and Amy Jaspers-Casiple, are also Eddie and Quiding's friends in the Netherlands who moved to Davao.

On our last day in Davao, we took a small boat to the nearby resort island of Samal. Just like in Panglao, the beach in Samal has fine white sand. The water is so clear that you can see fish swimming underneath.

Just as we experienced in Bohol and Cebu, the people of Davao were very friendly and hospitable. One cannot help but surmise that this must be so on the entire Philippine archipelago.

It was time to head back to Manila before returning to California a couple of days later. I spent my last day in the Philippines shopping at the 168 Shopping Mall (where every item is a bargain), driving through Manila's Chinatown, cruising Roxas Boulevard, the main thoroughfare along Manila Bay, and watching the sunset at the bay. As soon as the sun disappeared on the horizon, the bright lights of Roxas Boulevard dazzled with brilliant colors.

In the evening, we went to a hotel bar in Alabang to watch and listen to "The Spirit of 67", a popular Philippine band that performs songs from the 60's. We danced the twist, the jerk, you name it, to the band's music, eager to ward off the poundage gained through heavy consumption of delicious but belly-expanding Philippine cuisines for two weeks. Such a small price to pay for a couple of weeks in paradise!