Magical Philipines - Part 2

For those who love adventure travel, Philippines is the best place on earth. But we have to warn you, its not easy. Nothing in Philippines is easy. And don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you that communication is no problem in the Philippines as everyone speaks Englishthat is not entirely correct. In fact when trying to communicate with foreigners, Filipinos compare the encounter to a 'Nose-bleed'.

One unmistakable truth about the Philippines is that it is breathtakenly beautiful. The entire landmass is made up islands, making it the second-largest archipelago in the world. In fact, the Philippines has approximately 7,500 islands with only 2,000 of them inhabited and nearly 5,000 still unnamed on global maps.

There are about 175 languages spoken in the Philippines, with 171 of them considered "living," while four tribal dialects have no known living speakers. The country's official languages are Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English, with Cebuano and Ilocano also popular in some regions.

About 11% of the population of the Philippines - more than 11 million people - work overseas. In fact, the Philippines is the top supplier of nurses in the world, with about 25% of all overseas nurses coming from the country. In the United States, Filipinos are the second-largest Asian-American group behind only Chinese.

Filipinos are crazy about basketball! You'll see makeshift hoops erected on every street corner, young men commonly wearing NBA jerseys, and local teams playing in every community hall. Their professional league, The Philippines Basketball Association (PBS) is the second oldest in the world after only the NBA.

Filipino's love boxing with a passion, and when their most famous native son, Manny Pacquiao, fights, it's like a national holiday. In fact, Filipinos are so supportive of "PacMan" that every time he has a boxing match, the Philippine National Police report that street crime drops to zero in Metro Manila, and the same is true in most of the country.

The Philippines produces and exports more coconuts than any country in the world, shipping off about 19.5 million tons of the fruit (called "buko") every year. They make Buko pies that are very well known throughout the Philippines, we tried some but they were very dry and not very palatble.

While most of their Southeast Asian neighbours practice Buddhism, the Philippines is the only Asian nation that's predominantly Christian, with 90% practicing that religion (and about 80% of its population, Roman Catholic) because of its Spanish colonial influence.

Filipinos are very social, spending as much time as possible with family and friends. But they also stay in touch these days by exchanging a whole lot of text messages. In fact, it's estimated that Filipinos send about 400 million text messages every day, adding up to about 142 billion texts per year, earning them the designation "the texting capital of the world."

The Philippines population crossed the 100-million threshold in 2014, ranking as the 12th most populous country in the world. With an annual growth rate of about 2 percent, it's also one of the fastest growing countries in the world.

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, ranks as the city with the highest population density in the world (and some of the worst traffic congestion!). In fact, Manila spans only 24 square miles but has 1,660,714 residents, giving it a population density of 55,446 people per square mile.

Metro Manila, comprising several other conjoined cities, stands at more than 12,877,000 people, making it one of the most populated metropolitan areas in the world.

The island of Palawan has been named one of the best island in the world by CondÈ Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, and other publications, thanks to its jaw-dropping natural beauty. Visitors can explore white sand beaches, swim in lagoons, enjoy island hopping in Coron and El Nido, find some of the best scuba diving in the world, and even traverse the underground river in the capital, Puerto Princesa, a UNESCO world heritage site and the second longest underground river in the world.

Public transport in the Philippines is the best we ever encoutered. Its cheap and efficiant. Jeepneys are a unique form of transportation that many people in Manila and other places in the Philippines use every day. In fact, jeepneys were born from the thousands of army jeeps that the U.S. military left after World War II. Resourceful Filipinos extended the cabs to accommodate about 18 passengers for hot, bumpy and dusty rides through the streets.

As time went on, drivers adorned the jeepneys in colorful and creative designs to help them stand out, with flashing neon lights, paintings of favorite superheroes, basketball stars, cartoon characters, religious sayings, and just about every other gaudy decoration you can imagine. Still costing only about 8 Pesos (20 cents U.S.), about 50,000 jeepneys run daily in Manila alone, billowing thick clouds of black smoke. They don't have set routes, so passengers just jump on a jeepney going in their direction, pass a coin forward to the driver, and ring a bell when they want to get off.

Philippines is a beautiful place to visit. Exploring this vast archepelego is not an easy challenge but its worth every