Fun fact#310
Philippines has more than 7,600 islands
The Philippine archipelago counts over 7,600 islands, and new surveys keep adding a few more.
Philippines
More than 7,600 islands, an underground river, and rice terraces older than most cathedrals.
6 entries · 3 stories, 3 fun facts
Philippines at a glance
The practical numbers, before the stories.
- Capital
- Manila
- Currency
- Philippine peso (PHP)
- Official language
- Filipino and English
- Climate
- Tropical maritime. Typhoon season runs roughly June–November, heaviest in the north and east.
- Best time to go
- December–May
- Time zone
- UTC+8
- Driving side
- Right
- Plugs and voltage
- Type A / B / C, 220 V
Worth knowing: Sockets look American but carry 220 V. Plugging in a 110 V appliance without a converter will destroy it.
Planning a trip to Philippines
The decisions that determine whether the trip works, whichever country you are going to.
The Philippine archipelago counts over 7,600 islands, and new surveys keep adding a few more. The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River flows more than eight kilometres through a limestone cave straight into the sea. The Ifugao rice terraces at Banaue were carved into the Cordillera by hand roughly 2,000 years ago and are still farmed by the descendants of the people who built them.
Below you will also find the jeepney where fares pass forward hand to hand from the back and nobody loses a coin, and the typhoon week that stranded us somewhere far better than our itinerary.
Entries from Philippines
Fun fact#312
The Philippines has an underground river
The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River flows more than eight kilometres through a limestone cave straight into the sea.
Fun fact#314
Banaue's rice terraces are 2,000 years old
Carved into the Cordillera by hand, the Ifugao terraces are still farmed by the descendants of their builders.
Story#506
The jeepney route
Routes are painted on the side and fares are passed forward hand to hand from the back. Nobody loses a coin. Nobody keeps the change.
Story#509
Island hopping fuel stop
The boat stopped at a beach with a hut and a barrel of diesel. The refuelling took twenty minutes and the swimming took the rest of the afternoon.
Story#512
Typhoon week
The ferries stopped for four days. We ended up in a fishing village with four other stranded travellers, learned to play a local card game badly, and were sad to leave.
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Philippines is one of 36 countries in the library. Read straight through a continent, or start from the map of everywhere we have written about.