Philippine impressions

Beach at Subic Bay:



Morning in Los Banos, a hot spring area and a fish-farming village:




The first of the two houses we rented:


The second house we rented:


Hmm, I always wondered how to get there:


A custom-made jeep:






What do they sell in an ATM store?


This being the Philippines, the first thing that you see when you walk into an electronics store is not TVs, but Karaoke machines:


Taxis lined up outside one of the largest malls in Manila:


Manila sunset:


A view out of a tricycle, a cheaper variant of a taxi:


It was the month before local elections. Manny Pacquiao was everywhere:


Orchids at the Seoul airport:


The week when we were in the Philippines, US has moved some of its warplanes there, and they were practicing runs near where we were staying:


It's hot in the Philippines! 39 degrees Celsius is 102 Fahrenheit. We hit it more than a few days in a row.

Philippine nature

Tagaytay - a lake inside a caldera of an active volcano. The island you see in the middle is actually an internal caldera.





An old mango tree next to the house we rented:




One of the biggest colonies of fruit bats in the Philippines, in Subic Bay:


These are the largest bats in the world! But they only eat fruit.


The formal name for them is "flying foxes":






Tokay gecko (or tuko lizard, as it's known in the Philippines) can grow to a foot and a half long. We found several inside our rental house, and they were common outside. The name comes from the male's very loud mating call.


I was warned to not come close to it, lest it jump onto my arms or legs and get stuck there. Their legs act as suction cups, and they can lift eight times their weight with them. With this much adhesive power, if the gecko decides he likes you, he'll be with you for a very long time.


One of the huge toads that live in holes next to the road.




Another toad was not so lucky:




Wild cashews:

Philippines - fish farming

Fish Farming in Laguna de Bay - Los Banos, Philippines: