Good country, exhausting tourist industry

Philippines is a genuinely beautiful and interesting place. Intramuros Manila is worth every superlative thrown at it. The halo-halo is legitimately excellent. English widely spoken gave the trip real depth.

What I struggled with: the tourist infrastructure around the headline sites in Vigan is relentlessly commercial and typhoon season disrupts plans is a genuine friction point. You can feel the gap between authentic Philippines and the packaged version sold to tourists. The authentic version wins, but you have to work to find it.