Since we were going to the philippines for diving, we started with a few days in Manila, our port of entry to the country.

Our hotel was adjacent to a casino and was in a really pretty building. The breakfast and dinner they had were both fantastic, however they made us go through a metal checker and bag search every single time we got back to the hotel, which was a giant pain in the ass (they claim it was for the security of the casino, but that's a bad excuse IMO).

After arriving, we had a visit of the Google buildings, and went to see the nearby Mind Museum and Ayala Museum:

From the google buildings, we were able to get a few skyline pictures:

cute

The next day we went to see:

then, let's go to random pictures taken in Manila. The US Army sold all their transport jeeps for $1 each when they left the country as a temporary solution for the transport infrastructure that had been destroyed. Sadly, that solution is still in place today, although the vehicles look cool :)

cabs can have TV inside to break the boredom of horrible traffic

We saw a bunch of museums, most have their own page, but here are a few left over pictures:

from the japanese occupation

Arturo and I walked through Luneta Park, between our hotel and the state museums:

How Rizal, the Filipino (manufactured) Hero, was executed

small Chinese garden

On Monday, we were supposed to go to Corregidor Island, but sadly the boat broke down and our tour was cancelled. We ended up substituting this for Hiking Taal Volcano (on its own page).

On Tuesday, we started with the Manila Presidential Museum and Library

On the 3rd and 4th days, we went to Intramuros, the old town contained within the city walls. We started with St Agustin:

Next, we walked to Manila Cathedral and onto Fort Santiago:

Part of the tour was with the walk this way tour, which was given by a local, and quite fun. He gave his colored version of history, which definitely was interesting.

There was a shrine to Rizal, a local marthyr who was shot for campaigning against the Spanish occupation and power of the catholic church. Others claim that he was manufactured as a local hero/marthyr by the Americans during their occupation (in the process they also introduced some dollars that looked surprisingly familiar, a national holiday on July 4th, and some other US "stuff").

We then walked around the city walls back towards the Natural History Museum:

The natural history museum was last inside the city: Manila Natural History Museum

That was it for Manila, after that we were off to Puerto Princesa, a quick 1.5H flight away.

earthquake simulator

It was right next to the Google Buildings, and worth 2 hours.

The vendor buildings were interesting in that they had nap rooms apparently due to staff being there 24x7 to do support, and they also had lots of lockers maybe due to vendors not allowed to bring recording devices inside the building (which includes phones), they were probably also helpful for people who bring scooter helmets which may not fit at their small desk.
We went to see NETP (2 buildings), WCC, and UBT1 which had 10 different floors. The density was also quite high, but when we came to visit not too many people were working, it was probably a quiet time.

Some pictures:

nice padded elevator in case you go insane :)

nap rooms, called snug rooms

lockers for each person working there

they had little birdies and they were hungry :)

weirdest flat turtle I had ever seen

foot spa

To ened td the evening, they had a light show:

the likeness is unmistakable :)

We went with Bryan Malvataan, +63 917 203 2792, https://www.facebook.com/ilovetaalvolcano/ and he took good care of us, as well as found a driver to get us from/to Manila to his location at a much much better price than we would have gotten from a tour operator.

It's a 2H-ish drive from Manila, then a boat ride to the first island. From there, you take horses or hike up (not a very difficult hike, maybe 30mn if you're in good shape, 60mn if not), and then you ge the view of a crater lake while being on an island that is itself in a crater lake. Not bad :)

Huge crater lake

2H+ drive

we took the horses for fun, but Jennifer didn't get the pink one :)

very light volcanic activity

After lunch, our driver took us to Picnic Grove. It had a so so nature trail with a couple ziplines and a very small animal interaction place that wasn't the best we've seen, but it was super cheap, so that was hard to argue :)

baby croc

The Museum is a fair one at best, but then again it costs a whole 20 cents to get in. It's a 10mn walk from terminal 3 without luggage, and a bit farther than you'd want to walk if you do have luggage.
The indoor collection is a few planes and pictures, while the outdoor collection has a few planes and helis. It takes about 1H to get through both:

line for the security check, then line for signing in, and then line to check in your bag

Our guide was quite good and gave us good explanations of each room, as well as on how the republic, worked.

one year, the independent candidate got 0 votes, he apparently forgot to vote for himself :)

The highlight is the underground river tour, which is known as one of the 7 new natural wonders of the world. It's a 2H+ van ride to Sabang, where we then wait in line to take a boat to another nearer location where you finally take the paddle boat to the cave.

We then stayed around Sabang, and saw some water monitors:

tree snake

They had a long zipline over the water, which sounded cool, but the idiots set it up wrong, and sent us all backwards, making the arrival dicey. Sadly Jennifer arrived backwards and hit her neck on the tires supposed to slow her down :(

we all ended up backwards

that's where Jennifer got hurt, being sent backwards

After taking Jennifer to the ER to get her checked out and get her pain and anti inflamatory drugs. Thankfully the drugs did wonders and she mostly recovered by the next morning. That evening we did make phone calls to our doctor to get his suggestions and making sure we took the best steps for her. Due to the time difference, we had to wait until 23:00 though, so while she rested in the room, I went to the firefly watching tour that Arturo had already booked. Taking pictures outside of the sunset was almost impossible though, small dots of light from a moving boat is kind of mission impossible:

wonderful pictures of fireflies...

The next morning, Jennifer was doing a lot better, so we went on a city tour. Puerto Princesa is full of tricycles that can actually take up to 5 people (although not in comfort). Some are quite nicely decorated:

they had packed vans acting as busses

and those tricycles were everywhere

We went to a local cathedral:

We then went to a couple of WWII sites, where general McArthur came back and liberated the country from the Japanese. Sadly the Japanese killed untold people on their way out, including faking an air raid, having the POW go in a trench, and then setting the trench on fire, shooting people who jumped out :(

this photo is a bit funny because it had to be staged twice (i.e. it's entirely fake)

And that was it for Puerto Princesa, we then went back to our hotel to board our liveaboard.