Philippines

We fly to Manila and cycle in Philippines for 2 weeks. In January it is warm, 26 to 33 degrees, and some rain in the afternoon. 105 million people and its very crowded and the roads are narrow so we have to be careful. In Manila 13 million people and the road junctions are difficult to negotiate, map reading is needed to avoid the worst ones. The famous Jeepney are everywhere and the problem is they stop suddenly just in front of you the restart with clouds of black diesel smoke. So you have to anticipate them but there are so many its difficult. So for comparison Bangkok is bad but Manila is worse and the the traffic pollution is terrible. The first excursion is to Tagatay which is a town on the rim of a volcano 70 kilometres south of Manila and 700 metres of ascent , a hard day for old guys. 4 days after we visit Tagaytay the volcano erupts and everything is covered in white ash. Fortunately we move to the north. But the effect is dramatic as the airport is closed for 2 days. Our second trip to the north is to Baguio. Baguio is a mountain city at 1500 metres in the north of Luzon It is a tourist centre like Tufen in Taiwan. Many pubs and easy to walk around. Temperature is 16 at night and 24 in the day, very nice. It a good place to visit. Then we cycle down hill for 1500 metres to the sea coast in the north of Luzon. We continue south to Taclan city then south again to Angeles city. Compared to the other SE Asia countries Japan and Taiwan are highly organised and easy to get around , you can take your bike on the train but have to put in a bag. Hainan in China has excellent wide roads with cycle lanes and all motorbikes and cars are electric so no pollution. Myanmar and Vietnam , its quiet outside the cities and easy cycling. Philippines is crowded with narrow roads so we have to be careful also there is serious traffic pollution. So it interesting but challenging. All Asean countries are really interesting but it takes some effort to organise cycling there.