Poised on the edge of Southeast Asia and looking out to the Pacific, the Philippines is a fascinating and diverse archipelago. With over 7,000 islands it is the ideal place to escape to beautiful beaches, but it also shelters some of Asia’s most remote ethnic tribes, many of which have had little contact with the outside world.
Culturally it is astonishingly diverse, with its national language, Tagalog, revealing traces of a long and complex history. As an early trading point between the Middle East and China it uses Arabic numbers, four hundred years of Spanish occupation installed Hispanic names for the days of the week along with a deep and devout Christianity, while a blast of American imperialism added country music, a smattering of English words and an abiding awe of the dollar. None of these invaders got much beyond the major cities, leaving the impenetrable interior, with its stone-age tribes and ancient agricultural systems, miraculously untouched.
On the coast, the tides have washed all foreign influences from the smooth white sands, leaving some of the world’s finest reefs intact. Add to this the charming and sophisticated welcome of the Filipino people and it is easy to see why this fabulous country is worth the few extra hours’ flying time to get beyond Southeast Asia’s better-known destinations.