Super Typhoon Bopha (Pablo)

Image Courtesy: Kochi University, Japan

Super Typhoon Bopha (locally “Pablo”) made landfall around 6am (4th December, 2012) just South of Baganga town in the province of Davao Oriental. The expected track will take super typhoon Bopha across central and northern Mindanao to near Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte, and then to Northern Palawan. What is unusual about super typhoon Bopha is that it has tracked so far South, for so long.

The weather system started as a tropical depression, some 1300 nautical miles East of Davao City, near 2.5N 159.0E, on the 25th November, as reported by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and subsequently via the Puerto Galera Yacht Club email Typhoon Warning service. At that time, the storm system was expected to track west-northwest, with only a small chance of touching land in the Phili

Santa Ana Yacht Club burgee

Image courtesy Girlie Cervantes

It is not often that a new yacht club opens in Asia, even less often that one opens in the Philippines. The Santa Ana Yacht Club has this month announced its opening in the northeast corner of Luzon, in Santa Ana, Cagayan.

If you are a cruising yacht or power boat owner, and you have previously wondered where to tie–up in the North of the Philippines, the Santa Ana Yacht Club has the answer: tie–up in Cagayan. The facilities are a little bit limited at the moment but it is just a question of time before moorings, a clubhouse, restaurant and a bar will be finished to satisfy everyone’s needs. In the meantime an anchorage and partner beach resorts will more than

What’s More Fun In The Philippines?

Image courtesy Girlie Cervantes

For sure almost everything you can imagine doing is actually “more fun in the Philippines” and for sure the main reason is the people but, as a promotional slogan for an entire country, for the foreseeable future, the statement has so much potential for negative parody that, in my opinion, its use is most dangerous. I can imagine how easily sarcasm would have turned to ridicule, when combined with the infamous Manila tourist bus rescue. “It’s more fun in the Philippines” may even become a trade description issue insomuch as a few, who will no doubt find it less fun, could sue over the comparative lack thereof.

If, as our new head of Tourism suggests, the slogan came from research derived from comments made by people who have already visited the Philippines then is “it’s more fun in the Philippines” what we should use? Billionaire, innovation pioneer and former head of Apple, Steve Jobs, is oft quoted as shunning market research in favor of defining something that people do not yet know they want tomorrow and then helping them discover why they should want it today – market research simply tells you what people thought they wanted ye

Badladz Burrito Best Mexican Food Award 2011

Image courtesy Mylene Cooney

My Best Mexican Food Award for 2011 goes to Badladz Adventure Resort in Puerto Galera, Mindoro. It receives this award not only for delivering the best tasting Mexican food sampled around the Philippines in 2011 but also because the servings offer the best value for money of any Mexican restaurant I have ever eaten in, including those in Mexico.

Mexican food is not most people’s the first choice for foreign cuisine, unless you hail from the southern states of North America – most gastronomes would not class Mexican food as cuisine in any event. But the Badladz buritto and juevos rancheros are so distinctive that they are impossible to overlook if you have even the minutest passion for Mexican food. And that is why Badladz wins my 2011 award for the best Mexican food. [see: even my grammar is more spiced by the thought of dining at

Dive Thru Scuba Resort Best Beach Resort Award 2011

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

My Best Beach Resort Award for 2011 goes to Dive Thru Scuba Resort on Panglao Island Bohol. It receives this award for offering the best overall value for money accommodation, dining and scuba diving experience, above all others visited during the year.

It was while writing the featured destination article for the Bohol edition of the Active Boating & Watersports magazine that I was introduced to the Dive Thru Scuba Resort. I had the opportunity to stay for a couple of nights there and to explore its inner workings and managemen

AirPhil Express My Worst Airline Award 2011

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

My worst airline award for 2011 award goes to AirPhil Express. It receives this award for the worst possible customer service ever encountered from any airline in 26 years of international flying. AirPhil Express does not care about its reputation enough to apologize for its shortcomings and it apparently has an anti-customer support policy that amounts to premeditated theft.

In October 2011 I booked a flight for a client with AirPhil Express; the booking was made over the Internet, through the AirPhil Express booking website, and paid for using my Mastercard credit card, issued by the BDO Unibank, and confirmed by that bank to be a valid payment instrument for purchasing airline tickets. As apparent confirmation of the credit card’s validity, I received a receipt from the AirPhil Express flight booking website, confirming payment and instructing me as to my obligations at check–in, having used a credit card for

Image courtesy John Smart

In this modern age of deceptive advertising and spin, finding two genuinely free things on offer on Panglao Island was a very pleasant surprise. Mostly, free things are built into the price of something that you have already made the commitment to purchase, i.e. you have already paid for it and the label “free” is actually a blatant deception. Tourist incentives are rarely genuinely free because tourists, by definition, are alien to the place and most frequently display a lack of intelligence by not investigating the real cost of an item or service in advance.

At the Billabong Hotel on Panglao Island, along the road to Alona Beach, I chanced upon a sign on the bar that read “Free Introduction To

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

New Corella is known as the “water basin of Davao Del Norte” and for good reason – its rainforested limestone hills have for aeons imbibed the monsoon rains and slowly released them, through hundreds of springs and streams, onto the plains below. The same aeons have slowly eroded the limestone beneath, creating some of the most beautiful cave systems in the World. Adventure tourists and speleologists can access the caves by hiking along forest trails or trekking up rivers, brimming with crystal clear water – filtered and pure.

Recognizing that it is the custodian of this area of outstanding natural beauty, the municipality of New Corella has created a series of adventure tourist packages, designed to allow those with a passion for the beauty of Mother Nature to enjoy the gifts that she has so generously bestowed upon Davao De