I have no personal interest in the island of Luzon, except the old part of Manila called "Intra Mullos" and the small island of Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay.
I am not interested in the northern half of the Phillipines, either. It rained virtually everyday and all day while I was last in Manila for a week or so.
On the other hand islands much further north, almost bordering with Taiwan, they look very interesting. I noted with pleasure that up there you can have coconut crabs, surprising cheaply.
Tropical regions are often associated with beaches. However, one other thing I am not interested in is beaches to lay your back on. It is the tropical vegetation and sea creatures I am most interested in and that is closely related to small islands.
Ideally, any one of these islands should be entertaining a few King Kongs hiding in the mountain area. These islands should also have streams/falls and large ponds if not lakes.
These are the criteria and the basis upon which I am going to form my impressions on certain regions in the Phillipines.
There are blog articles about places. They are usually "I visited such and such places and they were like so and so" type descritions. I will go further than that, by first form ing an impression, then actually visiting those places and finally evaluating the visits for general readership.
Now, the Phyls itself is an island country. That is why all these clickable maps were produced. However, within the Phyls there are island denser regions with many small islands.
Typical example is the northern Palawan, between el Nido and Coron.
Southern half of Palawan, particularly south of Puerto Princesa, at the moment, will be too risky due to the insurgence of Islamic militants.
About the area enclosed in the square in red I have read extensively and there is no need for predictive formation of impression. I will simply go there within the next few months, if not few weeks.
If you cast your eyes further south then you have a similar chain of islands between Mindanao and northern Borneo.
Unfortunately, although location/climate-wise by far the most interesting of all island denser regions, this chain of islands is infested with Islamic militants. It is a no-go area. So, you must look further north.
The first thing you notice is a number of small islands around Bohol and between Bohol and Cebu, in particular. However, these are not islands. They are simple flats. There is no elevation to speak of. In fact, I know this area very well by now as recent result of going up and down there many times .
So, if you take a step back and look wider you will notice that there are a few other regions. One is the sea surrouned by the islands of Masbate/ Samar/Layte. Other areas are around Surigao and Siargao.
It is these regions that there is not much informtion about , made available, yet, by foreing tourists. In the articles to follow I will be looking at issues that must be understood before visiting these regions.