Before jumping into my Burma coverage, I need to share a disturbing problem I’ve had on my round-the-world trip: birds love to shit on me. On this round-the-world trip alone, 9 birds have crapped on my head.

I have yet to post on my weeks in Northern Luzon, trekking through the magnificant terraces of Batad and Cambulo and spelunking through caves in Sagada, but here is a small taste.

As most of you know, Typhoon Ketsana (or Ondoy in the Philippines) wreaked havoc across the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia. Metro Manila was almost entirely underwater, and remains in bad shape: they received a year’s worth of water in a mere 6 hours.

I just spent an unsuccessful afternoon at the Indonesian Embassy trying to convince them to process my visa with the requirements for Canadian nationals, despite the fact that I am in Manila. I kept waving my Canadian passport around aimlessly; they kept saying “You are in Manila. You will be treated as a Filipino national.” [...]

After 2 glorious months living on the edge of the Bacuit Bay, fishing for dinner and playing with the resident dogs, cats and small children, it is time to leave El Nido. Here is a list of the Top 40 things I will miss once I am gone.

On June 21st, I took the Atienza cargo ferry from El Nido to Coron Town. I took this ferry the last time I left El Nido, and while it was full of random cargo and lots of people, it wasn’t a disaster. This time, however, it was far less pleasant.

I walk around this country and often think of ways to express my love for it on this blog. It is hard to accurately synthesize what makes every day here a lesson in hilarity or, as a friend aptly noted a ‘carnival of lunacy’ in so many ways. With the patience of the unemployed, every day in the Philippines brings me something new to savour, and a new oddity to encounter. From relearning what air sirens mean, to watching a staunchly catholic country celebrate Miss Ladyboy Philippines 2009 to being swept along in the swirling current of daily life in a small town, this enigmatic country is full of contradictions and they are a pleasure to explore.

One of the great things about living in El Nido is the abundance of fresh, delicious seafood, at a price point that makes most tourists salivate. A whole grilled fish is usually the cheapest thing on the menu here (from 120-260 pesos/$2.50-$3.35), and is usually stuffed with herbs, tomatoes and onions.

I currently work and live in a town where air sirens go off every night to tell the errant children that they need to go to bed. Twice a night, actually – the first siren is a warning, the second a ‘get to bed now’. I love watching the tourists’ faces as they register that the loud wailing is, in fact, an air siren.