2008-Philippines-Southern Leyte

Southern Leyte

Description & Accessibility

(both Manila and Southern Leyte pages has the same Description & Accessibility document – but different picture albums)

The Philippine islands is a nation that is classified as a 3rd word country. There is variety of living standards from the wealthy to a large amount of poverty. As a tourist with no connections you may only see the best attractions, and perhaps that is all you may be interested in but you really do not know how the common people live if you do not venture out beyond the core tourist districts, however doing so has its risks and you should not do it alone, but with a trusted tour guide or someone you know well that lives there. Even with that you only get a taste, you would have to actually live with them outside of the tourist areas to get a better feeling. Quite often tourist from developed nations tend to not want to venture in the poorer areas and just want to see the areas that are show cased and actually condemn tours that dare venture in other areas, myself I like to see both the showcase tourist areas as well as see some of the areas that tourist seldom go to, at the same time I wish to do it in the safest way.

It seems to be common that citizens of 3rd world countries consider citizens from developed nations with the false sense that we are all living the life of luxury and all very wealthy. What they do not seem to realize is the cost of living is so much different. I could live like a king with my salary that I make in Canada in the Philippines but just considered just middle class here. You go into shopping center in Manila and as a person from a developed nation and all you see is bargains but for someone living in the Philippines and they will tell you everything is so expensive. All this can sometimes make you a target as in their eyes you are rich and they are not, whatever money you have on you is considered loose change in their eyes, ripping off money from you or just plain stealing it is to them just ripping off some petty cash from a big corporation. You should never opening display money, do not carry large amounts of money on you, have deep buttoned pockets which are hard to pick pocket, ladies use zippered purses that take more effort to open, and have hard to release straps that go around your neck so grab and run is harder to do.

You are also safer if you are traveling with one or more Filipino’s with you, not only do they know the area better, people are far less likely to bother you if you are with someone of their own nationality.
Do not be alarmed when seeing police and security guards everywhere, guns are not as concealed with police / security as you may be used to.

Do not wonder into poorer sections of the city unless it is with a organized tour, you can go from a rich part to a slum area within blocks.

My wife is from the Philippines, so I was ok and most of the people I met where actually quite pleasant.
I also would not go there during election year as rallies and protests can get out of hand at times particularly in the capital city. Protests can be common in the area of the presidential palace. Stay away from areas where protests are happening regardless of the cause or what you may feel is right or wrong – stay away from them.

Unless you have experience in driving in a 3rd world country I recommend you do not until you at least have had time to observe the driving there, horns are often you life line, and you should consider a higher use of vehicle horns as common place. Do not be alarmed by people coming out into the street to sell things, if you have your window open someone may stick a newspaper in front of you hoping to convince you to buy it, if the window is closed then they may hold it in front of the window. Air conditioned and closed windows is likely the best most times in the Manila area. United States state department has in the past has put out warning particularly regarding the south which the Mindanao area.

There is a lot of nice areas that as a tourist are nice to see. Airports in Manila are modern facilities, you cannot enter the terminal unless you have a valid airline ticket, friends that just come to meet you or to see you go cannot enter the terminal, when arriving in Manila there is a waiting area outside of the terminal building that serves as a meeting area.

Large number of hotels to choose from, taxis arranged through the hotel will be much higher in cost than arranging it privately but the hotel will only use reputable services. With us since we had family connections there we arranged rides privately.

Areas outside the metro Manila area or major cities in the Philippines and such common assumed items may not be there as normally expected. For example in the Tacloban airport terminal (Leyte) the terminal was far from modern, bathrooms had no seats on them, and no toilet paper, so therefore you should ALWAYS have some tissue in you pockets. I have heard there where plans to update that airport I was there in 2008 not sure if anything has been done in that regard yet.

Accessibility:

1st Airports: Manila has a very modern international and domestic terminals and very accessible.

The area in which we stayed I saw no housing that was accessible, travel in these areas had limited rolling capabilities because of ruff and uneven terrain. A strong person (sometimes two) was required to push me in some areas. Too ruff in some areas for powered mobility devices, but other sections would have been ok.

Manila however was more accessible, I would not go as far as say all, but would say that most of the area that is completely accessible by ramps, wheelchair lifts in the tourist / commercial and major shopping districts / malls. I never took any of the public transportation so I do not know if any of that is accessible.

Both hotels where accessible.

We went into a large shopping mall in the manila area and the only access to upper floors that could be seen was via escalators but after asking a security guard, there was accessible elevators but you had to ask for it as it was not in the public areas but the security guard will allow you to use it to get to other shopping floors.

From searches I did on the internet there appears to be some options in accessible tours, but I never took any as we went around with relatives while we where there.

By: Donald Kerr