Philippine Islands – Discover the beauty of its 7,107 islands

LIKE a string of pearls spilled in the ocean, the Philippine Islands stretch out north and south for 1,150 miles (1,850 kilometers), forming a lustrous boundary between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. Nobody knows exactly how many islands there are spewing volcanoes constantly create new ones and crushing waves of the sea destroy others so it is simply said that there are “over 7,000.” Only about 4,000 of these are inhabited. Many others have no names or are yet to be trodden on by man.

On these countless tropical islands live eighty million people who speak over eighty-seven dialects and are of no less than eighty-one distinct ethnic groups! American, Spanish, Malay, Chinese and Arab influences have all left their unmistakable mark on these diverse and interesting people.

Few of us have the time and money to spend months acquainting ourselves with the people and culture of another

A good article writen by Jun Mercado i found about how pinoy characters is unique. Read his article about Pinoy below:

Pinoys are truly a unique people. In fact, they belong to a special class of people. With all their “weirdness”, Pinoys are a people “touched by God”.

In my global “wandering”, I have discovered three prominent characteristics that are typically Pinoy. First is the sense of family and clan “connectedness”. They may find themselves in the remotest part of any continent or in the middle of the oceans, they may live in strange foreign lands for years and even centuries, yet they would remain Pinoys at heart. Pinoys will always find their “home” – in their hearts and blood. “Pinoy kami at Pinas ang bayan”!

Today there are two powerful instruments that strengthen this Pinoy “interconnectedness”. The first is the fast and cheap communication facility through “texting” or SMS (which I believe

The short answer: a lot. The long answer: depends on how you look at it.

Whatever your viewpoint, here’s how $700 billion – the figure inked in the initial dead-in-the-water government bailout bill for Wall Street – compares to other vast sums.

NASA in fiscal year 2009 will launch several missions into space and pay for hundreds of people to operate a host of space telescopes and even remote robots on Mars and run a PR and media department that puts most large corporations to shame. The agency’s budget: $17.6 billion, or 2.5 percent of the bailout sum.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has an annual budget of $6.06 billion to support research and education on astronomy, chemistry, materials science, computing, engineering, earth sciences, nanoscience and physics (among others) at more than 1,900 universities and institutions across the United States.

You have to turn to much bigger initiatives, like war and defense, to get

Reasons to come, stay and live in the Philippines

Freedom to move around

- Islands of tropical beauty, surrounded by thousands of miles clear deep coastal waters and mountains up to 2900 mtrs above sea level,

- clean warm tropical ocean, year round about 26-29 C,

- year round temperature of 28 – 33 C or more,

- lush vegetation and millions of year round blossoming flowers, orchids, bushes

- sweet and delicious sun ripened tropical fruits, like some of the really sweetest and most delicious mango on this entire planet, papaya, coco nuts, year round strawberries and seasonal blueberries from the mountains of Baguio city, star apples, avocado and many more tropical delicious natural jewels,

- affordable cottages or apartments – or even really affordable houses with garden or beachfront

- freedom to enjoy life, sing or be loud and happy

- tropical mountains and thousands of islands to walk, explore and enjoy

- millions of smiling eyes, friendliness

Boracay is a tropical island located approximately 315km (200 miles) south of Manila and 2km off the northwest tip of the island of Panay in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. It is one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. The island comprises the barangays of Manoc-Manoc, Balabag, and Yapak (3 of the 17 barangays which make up the municipality of Malay), and is under the administrative control of the Philippine Tourism Authority in coordination with the Provincial Government of Aklan.
Geography
Boracay Island is located off the northwest corner of the island of Panay, and belongs to the Western Visayas island-group, or Region VI, of the Philippines. The island is approximately seven kilometers long, dog-bone shaped with the narrowest spot being less than one kilometer wide, and has a total land area of 10.32 square kilometers.
South-facing Cagban Beach is located across a small strait from

Bohol Island is the main island of Bohol Province in the Visayas. It lies southeast from Cebu Island across Cebu Strait (in some references called Bohol Strait) and southwest from Leyte Island, separated by the Camotes Sea and Canigao Channel. Bohol is also located north of Mindanao with Bohol Sea between them.

With a land area of 3269 km² and a coastline 261 km long, Bohol is the tenth largest island of the Philippines. The main island is surrounded by about 70 smaller islands, the largest of which are Panglao Island facing Tagbilaran City in the southwest and Lapining Island in the northeast.

Geography

The Island of Bohol is oval-shaped mainland surrounded with 73 smaller islands, having a gently rolling terrain, ideal for commercial and industrial site development. Bohol’s mountainous interior is home to rare and endangered flora and fauna. At certain points, hills drop steeply to the coast from