Fun Facts

The MAIN thing is the SPELLING!!!! Just 2 p's.

CAPITAL: Manila - which is where we are headed and will be based with the family.

CURRENCY: The Peso ₱ - which remind me of the Italian Lira. I picked some up today and the Travelex lady said "I'm sorry, but the smallest we can get are 1000 peso notes". 1000 pesos = about $A27.50, so no dramas there I wouldn't think ...

POPULATION: An eye-watering 117.3 million.

EL PRESIDENTE: Bongbong Marcos. OK.

Just had news that a US military plane has crashed in Philippines, killing 4. Not good.

Here at home, we are about to get rain - yippee! After days of scorchingly hot weather and "dry as a chip". Currently it is about 30 - 33 deg C in Manila - with thunderstorms. This is supposed to be the time of year to travel there. "It's the DRY season" quote/unquote. Hmm.

So The Republic of the Philippines is basically an archipelago: of about 7,640 islands. That’s a lot. The largest is Luzon and this is where Manila is located. Manila has around 15 million people. Argh. And is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Oh joy. It is apparently known as the "Pearl of the Orient". We'll see about that.

The second largest island is Mindanao and Smart Traveller says don’t go there.

And there is a group of islands called the Visayas; these include Bohol which we plan to visit.

BRIEF HISTORY:

Spanish colonisation began with the arrival of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. And thus Catholicism became dominant over the earlier Hinduism and Bhuddism influences. The name "Philippines" comes from Philip II who was the king of Spain during this time.

In 1898 Spain ceded the territory to the US as a consequence of the Spanish-American War until the Japanese invaded in 1941 during WWII. The US re-took the Philippines later and the territory became independent in 1946.