Printable View
It's possible that he meant "highly developed" when it comes to Diving. And relative to places like, oh, Leyte, I'd say the place is Developed. I had a hell of a time getting change for a 500 peso bill in Ormoc.
Maybe Stroker Ace can give a FR about Bohol. I've been to the usual tourist places on Bohol, but if I had more time I'd love to explore the island. How about a FR Stroker!
[QUOTE=Stroker Ace88;1390168]Bohol is highly developed? Have you ever visited Bohol?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Mr Enternational;1390368]I was wondering about that too. But then you mentioned the boat ride being 4 days so it threw me off. When I was in Coron last year the boat ride to El Nido was 11 hours I think.[/QUOTE]. Was a brain fart.
My trip was on a banka, island hopping and eating tons of fresh seafood, snorkeling, etc. (pic 1)
Saw a combo cargo / passenger boat in El Nido, think those and pure pax boats take about 11 hours. (pic 2 Buffalo Boat)
[QUOTE=Dashing Don; 1390164]Yo Pearl! If you really want to come to the PI, consider me a friend. Yup, thas right. Come on over. We'll meet up in Malate somewhere. I'll show you the ropes.
< SNIP . .
Pearl, you can't be too careful. There's some strange characters here, what with the Stunts, Kilts Xmen etc all plyin there trades. Stay close to me.
Your friend,
Don[/QUOTE]That's funny Don."Plyin our trade". Love it.
Be careful what you wish for though, although I guess the chances of the Pearl actually coming to the Phils are fairly remote.
[QUOTE=Red Kilt;1390679]I guess the chances of the Pearl actually coming to the Phils are fairly remote.[/QUOTE]In another FR he said he had never been within a 1000 miles of AC but was in Asia. As someone said he is likely a one handed typist in the USA fantasising about Asia and finding reasons to tell his macho mates why he can't go there.
He is also scared of his shadow
[QUOTE=David_33;1390013]Manny51, I suggest you go to websites such as flyertalk.com or tripadvisor and read about tourism activities in the Philippines. Most ISG forum members concentrate on other pursuits.[/QUOTE]I am asking here because I feel that, precisely because members of this community travel for "other reasons," that they are more level-headed and objective about evaluating tourist sites. Forums like tripadvisor are full of travel gushers who want to wax poetic about their once a year two week vacation and don't necessarily give you the straight story. They are biased about saying that they enjoyed something because they want to believe that they enjoyed something. Plus, it isn't PC to say that a famous site in another country is disappointing. For obvious reasons, people in this forum community are not overly PC.
And I posted this in the "General Info" section, which I think is more than appropriate.
[QUOTE=Manny51;1390948]I am asking here because I feel that, precisely because members of this community travel for "other reasons," that they are more level-headed and objective about evaluating tourist sites.[/QUOTE]Tourist sites? In PI? Yeah right. Dude when you are on a plane to PI you will see that 98% of the people are Filipino, 1% Kano businessmen, and 1% guys coming for women (whether monger or non-monger). That should tell you that PI is not a tourism destination. But when I do travel around PI and see non-natives then they are usually A) divers like myself, B) backpackers, or C) a combination of A and B. I just got back from Dumaguete and out of the water there were no sites to see. I think a lot of the backpackers where I was staying were getting dive qualified because there was nothing else to do.
I have been in Manila I think 5 times, no sites to see there either. Last year in Cebu I got up my last day and had a taxi take me to the El Nino Church. From there I was able to walk to the Magellan Cross and the Fort and all the site seeing took me about 1 hour. If you are going to PI for tourism then you will be sadly disappointed.
As I have said before, my first time going there I was in a group of 3 guys and 1 woman. We flew in to Manila after a couple of days in Hong Kong. The woman was so bored to death in Manila after a couple of hours that she was out of there to Thailand that same night.
As David said if you want to know about tourist things then visit tripadvisor. That is where I get all of my info from. I go in and pick from the top 10 things. Many of the people there are objective about their experience. Pretty much the ones you have to watch out for are rookie travelers. Things could go either way with them. They could be so happy to have gone somewhere that they feel everything was perfect, or they could expect the rest of the world to be the same as where they came from and when it is not then they are sorely disappointed in everything.
unwarranted scrutiny to come. .
[url]http://abcnews.go.com/international/americans-targeted-allegedly-running-****-prostitution-philippines/story?id=18582802[/url]
[quote=almotu; 1391484]unwarranted scrutiny to come. .
[url]http://abcnews.go.com/international/americans-targeted-allegedly-running-****-prostitution-philippines/story?id=18582802[/url][/quote]nothing to see here. people looking for sponsors, come election time, and i bet is our friend didn't pay up, or paid the wrong guy.
mr enternational: i been to philippines a dozen plus plus times, and have been to nice touristy spots, spots that don't get advertised and are nice and safe and heck, the natives may even pay you if you lost your stuff-kind of safe. not kidding.
for example. boracay is overrun with tourists, but caramaon island is sparsly touched. and nicer and plenty dive spots and peace. ifugaue is overrun with tourists and all things touristy, head to banao, and you are in a serene place and see nice rice terraces and get taken care by natives. and likewise, head to batanas, el nido etc.
the problem is, the phil govt wants to promote only places where their cronies have sunk money. all others are neglected. or fiercely protected by other investors who fight for privacy, like the amanpulo resorts. and who's main clients are their own croneis or high fliers, so to say.
[QUOTE=Mr Enternational;1390969]Tourist sites? In PI? Yeah right.[/QUOTE]I have to disagree. There are plenty of sights to see in PI, but it really helps to have a trustworthy local to guide you. I have friends in the Davao area who showed me a many interesting and off the beaten path sights down there. In Cebu I got bored of the girls one day and asked the hotel to get me a driver to show me sites like the Taoist Temple, the view at Tops, etc. Again, decent sights that I would have never seen on my own. Friends around Manila took me on a drive out of the city to Tagatay, Lake Taal, People's Park in the Sky, etc.
PI has its own character. Some people like it, some people don't, but I generally recommend a visit even to my non-mongering friends that enjoy rougher travel outside of your typical westernized, sterilized vacation spots.
[QUOTE=Red Kilt; 1390679]That's funny Don."Plyin our trade". Love it.
Be careful what you wish for though, although I guess the chances of the Pearl actually coming to the Phils are fairly remote.[/QUOTE]Yeah Red, I think you're right, but what is worse than him actually physically coming to the Phils is him infecting the Phils board. Funny thing is that his writing style is familiar ie the nitpicking, fake soliticiousness and touchiness, but I can't put my finger on it. He might be a banned poster back under a new name. Its very difficult to change your 'voice' so to speak. Sometimes for a laugh I'll try to write 'black' but I'm told its ridiculously obvious. In any event, the olive branch is still extended for the Pearl should he ever arrive.
[QUOTE=Irony Monger; 1391563]I have to disagree. There are plenty of sights to see in PI, but it really helps to have a trustworthy local to guide you. I have friends in the Davao area who showed me a many interesting and off the beaten path sights down there. In Cebu I got bored of the girls one day and asked the hotel to get me a driver to show me sites like the Taoist Temple, the view at Tops, etc. Again, decent sights that I would have never seen on my own. Friends around Manila took me on a drive out of the city to Tagatay, Lake Taal, People's Park in the Sky, etc.
PI has its own character. Some people like it, some people don't, but I generally recommend a visit even to my non-mongering friends that enjoy rougher travel outside of your typical westernized, sterilized vacation spots.[/QUOTE]I agree. There are things to see here. The problem is that the country has done such a poor job of promoting itself as a tourist destination, and an even worse jof of providing the tourism infrastructure needed to maximize the advantages that it has. The fact that there's so little investment in the Tourism Sector means the curious travel is left to ferret out sites on his own. Contrast this to Thailand, which offers almost countless, easy ways of "packaging" tours and which has created the needed infrastructure to make travel as easy as possible.
GE
[QUOTE=GoodEnough; 1392387]I agree. There are things to see here. The problem is that the country has done such a poor job of promoting itself as a tourist destination, and an even worse jof of providing the tourism infrastructure needed to maximize the advantages that it has. The fact that there's so little investment in the Tourism Sector means the curious travel is left to ferret out sites on his own. Contrast this to Thailand, which offers almost countless, easy ways of "packaging" tours and which has created the needed infrastructure to make travel as easy as possible.
GE[/QUOTE]See my post as well! LOL.
And it is normal practice for Filipino tour agencies to plan a 5 hour drive.purpotedly showing the scenery, to reach a place that you finish in 1 hour and then miraculously the return is only 1 hour. And when you question it comes out that they know we want a round the world tour that show us stuff that has no interest, than take us directly to the destination. One example is the quite often organised tour in Peurto Galera.
Same to the Underground river. I will stop at that.
Now I ask the guys which is the shortest and insist they take us on the shortest path, than stop in front of a 50 feet high waterfall and let us marvel about the 'tall waterfall in the island' when I have seen waterfalls much much much taller than that.
Of course DD never hides behind his provocations. Big man that he is. Keeps the same old name, never contributes to the PI threads as far as I can tell, but somehow ingratiates himself among some members, allowing himself to be his usual (a few adjectives omitted) self. Good to see you here again DD. What have you contributed today? We missed you.
[QUOTE=Dashing Don;1392369]Yeah Red, I think you're right, but what is worse than him actually physically coming to the Phils is him infecting the Phils board. Funny thing is that his writing style is familiar ie the nitpicking, fake soliticiousness and touchiness, but I can't put my finger on it. He might be a banned poster back under a new name. Its very difficult to change your 'voice' so to speak. Sometimes for a laugh I'll try to write 'black' but I'm told its ridiculously obvious. In any event, the olive branch is still extended for the Pearl should he ever arrive.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=GoodEnough;1392387]I agree. There are things to see here. The problem is that the country has done such a poor job of promoting itself as a tourist destination, and an even worse jof of providing the tourism infrastructure needed to maximize the advantages that it has. The fact that there's so little investment in the Tourism Sector means the curious travel is left to ferret out sites on his own.[/QUOTE]I saw some statistics last week during a seminar (from Dept of Tourism representative) that showed that domestic tourism (that is, locals travelling around the Philippines) is DOUBLE that of international tourists staying in resorts etc.
The numbers were surprising to me.
He observed that businesses will not spend too much on infrastructure outside of the major centres while ever they are catering to an essentially local market.
Despite many urgings such as "If you build it, they will come", investors are not yet prepared to spend the billions needed to upgrade most of the features that are stunning but difficult to access. Locals don't care because they have low expectations and so they travel around anyway, and "rough international travellers" enjoy the sharp edges, but they are a very very small market. The other well-heeled but less adventurous tourists stay in Manila (if they come at all).
He also showed some rather interesting statistics (on a power point slide and I couldn't get a copy) that compared the numbers of male and female international tourists, and the numbers of married couples visiting. The number of female visitors correlated closely with the number of married couples, or, most females who visited were accompanied by the husband.
However, the figures showed that there were many more "single" male tourists entering the country, and quite markedly so.
He invited the audience to speculate on what this meant and, of course, the conclusion from these "raw" figures suggested that "sex tourism" was indeed happening in the country. He agreed but indicated more analysis of the data needed to be done, and suggested (with a smile) that it may simply be the influx of Japanese and Korean men coming to play golf around Clark and Cebu that has inflated the numbers. I think he winked at a few of us men when he said this.
I think, it is time to merge the Cebu forums into the main forum. Not too much usage there like it was before. My $0. 02