Wrapping up the Philippines
Yesterday we finished our explorations of the Philippines with a surprisingly easy and essentially flat two-hour hike to the crater of Mt. Pinatubo. The walk itself wasn’t as beautiful as we had expected; the ‘lahar’ landscape formed by the 1991 eruption of the volcano basically looked like landslides had torn through the area, ripped out half of the trees and poured dirt all over the mountainside. Fortunately, the crater itself was quite exceptional, with cliffs rising from all sides of a gorgeous turquoise lake. It wasn’t the absolutely most impressive crater lake we’ve ever seen (those honours go to Laguna Paron in Peru and two Indonesian volcanoes, Kelimutu on Flores and Mt. Rinjani on Lombok), but it was still very beautiful and a nice way to end our time here.
Here are two views of the lake: one of my own photos, and the shot from Google Earth to give you an idea of the brilliance of the lake compared with the colourless volcanic landscape surrounding it:
After two months in the Philippines, we went pretty much everywhere we wanted to with the possible exception of the volcanic island of Camaguin – but, as we are learning, you can’t always go everywhere. I’d recommend the Philippines as one of the better destinations in Southeast Asia – with beaches, volcanoes, caves, rice terraces, karsts and excellent underwater exploration, it contains most of the highlights of the region. I missed the Buddhism that is so prominent in Burma/Thailand/Laos/Cambodia, but the addition of Christianity offered a different type of experience, not least of which was the Ati-Atihan festival in Kalibo. The excellent spoken English, friendly people who generally don’t try to rip you off, and shopping mall vibe makes it a very easy Asian country to travel in, especially after the hassles and intensity of the subcontinent. And, I can’t fail to mention the ubiquity of 1980s love songs and soft rock, which you hear absolutely everywhere, all the time. Seeing teenage boys walking down the street singing ‘Eternal Flame’, hearing REO Speedwagon’s ‘Can’t Fight this Feeling’ every other day etc never stopped being amusing. Things like this and the overwhelming politeness of the Filipinos (“Good afternoon Sir, Ma’am, can I help you?”), will be missed.
We’d originally intended to move on to China at this time, but given the awesomeness of budget airlines now operating in the region, we’re taking the chance to fill in the final missing piece of Southeast Asia – Malaysia. We have a couple of Malaysian entry stamps in our passports but have spent a grand total of only four nights in the country, so as I type we’re at Clark airport outside Manila waiting for our flight to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah province in Malaysian Borneo. We have been to Borneo before, but only the Indonesian side and not the Malaysian side. So we’re expecting a few enjoyable weeks of jungles, mountain climbing, orang-utans, proboscis monkeys, traditional markets and the like.
Tags: , Asia, craters, Mt Pinatubo, Southeast Asia, The Philippines
Nick
I’ve really enjoyed your coverage of the Philippines! Good job!
Keep up the blogging!
Frank