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Heads up

February 26th, 2009 by Roy Berman		 Mutantfrog

I’ll be flying to the Philippines next Thursday (March 5) and staying until March 24. I don’t have a clear travel plan yet, aside from spending a bit of time in Manila with some friends I haven’t seen in a while, but I’m definitely going to check out the famous rice terraces farther north in Luzon. Are there any readers in the Philippines, particularly Metro Manila? Any readers with particular recommendations on places to visit?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 3:19 am and is filed under Philippines, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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    • 5 Responses to 'Heads up'

    1. DTA Says:
      February 26th, 2009 at 2:32 pm

      I’m from the country myself, and for starters you can look up here and plan your journey:
      http://www.lonelyplanet.com/philippines

      By the way, our cuisine is more than just a steamed duck egg.

    2. Roy Berman Says:
      February 26th, 2009 at 3:03 pm

      I have the Lonely Planet book for reference, and I’ve been to the country once before for a much shorter trip (about 10 days vs 19 this time). I also have like a half-dozen friends in Manila that used to study with my in Japan, so I’m very hooked up while in the Metro area, and I can get plenty of advice from them once I get there.

      And Philippine cuisine was actually a really nice surprise when I went before! I didn’t know much of anything about it previously, but almost every I ate was really good.

      Do you have any particular places in Luzon, or maybe a reasonable ferry ride away, that you can recommend?

    3. Adamu Says:
      February 26th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

      When I went in 2000, it was a with a delegation of Japanese Rotarians who were there to participate in a signing ceremony for some scholarship they were setting up. Over two days, we visited a soup kitchen/job training center in Quezon City (we ate delicious fruit there that later gave me diarrhea), followed by a school under construction on the grounds of the massive “Smokey Mountain” landfill/shantytown. Oh, and in Manila we also ate at a McDonalds and I bought shoes at one of those enormous malls. Great experience, but I am not sure I would recommend any destinations except the mall. I was tempted to try the translucent 25 cent Coca Colas they had for sale everywhere.

    4. Peter Says:
      February 26th, 2009 at 9:16 pm

      No more “What IS this?” blueball photo posts, unless you have the whole story, Roy.

    5. Roy Berman Says:
      February 26th, 2009 at 11:00 pm

      I’ll email the girl who took me to that village and ask her if she knew what it is. I actually think the “mochi pounder” guess is very likely.

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