My Philippines bucket list

A UNESCO world heritage site. Filipinos claim it's the eighth wonder of the world.

These rice fields are on mountain terraces built around 2000 years ago, largely by hand, with an ancient irrigation system from the forests above.

Visited in 2008. The hills of Bohol look like giant mole-hills. They are normally green, but in the dry season they turn brown and apparently look like giant chocolates. We visited them during our Bohol highlights tour. We were a little late in the season: There were still brown patches on some hills, but most were already green. Visiting them in the dry season is still on my bucket list.

A national park on Palawan island.

Visited in 2007. We've been there shortly as part of a half-day tour of Manila. I still want to return and have some time to stroll around.

Intramuros is the old colonial part of Manila. Only white people were allowed to live here during the Spanish time. It was the political and religious center of the Philippines during the Spanish era.

The photo is of the San Agostin Church.

An active vulcano inside a lake.

Visited in 2007. We spent four days here in 2007. Boracay has a long, beautiful stretch of white beach, aptly named White Beach. It is very much discovered by the tourism-industry and can get crowded. The hotels, cafes and shops are mostly low, Philippine-style buildings that are hidden behind the palm trees, so the beach is still beautiful (those ugly, high, concrete buildings you find in Cancun or the Spanish costas are still missing here).

A colonial town with Spanish architecture, and another world heritage site.

Visited in 2007.

Cebu City, known locally as the queen city of the south, is the oldest city in the Philippines. Magellan landed here in 1521, and converted a local tribe to Christianity. He was killed later by Lapu-Lapu, leader of a rivalling tribe. Both Magellan and Lapu-Lapu are celebrated as heroes now, Magellan for bringing Christianity (nowadays 90% of the population of the Philippines is catholic), Lapu-Lapu for starting the fight for independence (before colonization even started).

After colonization by Spain, Cebu became the capital of the Spanish East Indies.

Another vulcano. The shape of this vulcano is a near-perfect cone.

Held one in 2008.

A tarsier is a small primate with large eyes. They live on only a few islands, the best place to see them is probably Bohol. We held one in a tarsier park during our Bohol highlights tour.