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About Philippines: The Land

The Philippines is an archipelagic nation made up of 7,107 islands spanning 1,840 kilometers north to south. It is part of the East Indies, a vast island group lying south and east of mainland Asia, with Taiwan at its northernmost coast and Borneo on the south. The three main Philippine island groups are Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

Luzon is the island of contrasts. The most modern districts in the Philippines, including the capital city of Manila, are in Luzon, but so are some of the oldest tribal communities in the nation like the Ifugao of the Cordilleras.

Luzon is also where a visitor can see the latest model luxury cars overtaking a carabao sled or modern skyscrapers within driving distance of primordial volcanos.

The Visayas is famous for its charm, a trait shared by many other southern regions in the world, but here seems to run deeper among a people who are intrinsically connected to their sun soaked island home.

The Visayas is also famous as a seat of history, being one of the earliest landfalls of western voyagers.

It has also gained a reputation as being a cradle of the nation's future, if the unprecedented economic growth of Cebu City continues.

Mindanao is our offering to the Guinness Book of Records with the world's largest clam, the world's largest Eagle, the nation's highest peak and the world's largest city. Mindanao is also home to the Philippines' Muslim population.

With a land mass of 300, 780 square kilometers, the Philippines is considered a medium-sized nation, about two- thirds the size of its first colonizer, Spain, and a little larger than the British Isles. Manila is only one hour and 40 minutes from Hong Kong by jet; Sydney only 7 1/2 hours away. Flights to Europe take 17 hours and to the American west coast 15 hours.

The Philippines has many things to offer the visitor: a mixture of the old and the new, a diversity of art and culture and a warm, friendly people. Blessed by nature, the Philippines has something to offer every sportsman too . . . extraordinary dive sites, forests to roam, mountains to climb, caves to explore.

Travel Quotes:

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls. Anais Nin

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. Francis Bacon

Philippine Cuisine Island Philippines

Dishes range from the very simple, like a meal of fried salted fish and rice, to the elaborate paellas and cocidos created for fiestas, of Spanish origin. Popular dishes include: lechón (whole roasted pig), longganisa (Philippine sausage), tapa (cured beef), torta (omelette), adobo (chicken and/or pork braised in garlic, vinegar, oil and soy sauce, or cooked until dry), kaldereta (meat in tomato sauce stew), mechado (larded beef in soy and tomato sauce). More details at Philippine Cuisine Island Philippines

Southern Philippine Cuisine

In Mindanao, the southern part of Palawan island, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, dishes are richly flavored with the spices common to Southeast Asia: turmeric, coriander, lemon grass, cumin, and chillies — ingredients not commonly used in the rest of Filipino cooking. Being free from Hispanicization, the cuisine of the indigenous Moro and Lumad peoples of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago has much in common with the rich and spicy Malay cuisines of Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Indonesian and Thai cuisines.

More details at Southern Philippine Cuisine