Bohol
When you visit the Philippines and land in Manila it is often easy to lose sight of what the country really is. Manila is a modest urban nightmare of traffic and concrete. Towering condominium towers compete with with massive bill boards as they both block out the world outside. Rivers dark and murky flow through the city filled with pollution. At times I find the whole thing almost reminiscent of the movie Blade Runner. Traffic clogs the roads like red blood cells meeting arterial blockage. The pollution has colored everything with a dirty coating that never seems to wash away. When confronting this concrete jungle it is often easy to forget that it exists in a country filled with beauty, sandy beaches and sun. It is not the norm, it is the exception. It seems that progressively there is a move to fly tourists directly to resort destinations avoiding Manila all together. It is as if the best strategy to deal with the nightmarish urban center is to simply forget it is there.