For those to whom the exotic place names in the Western Philippine Sea are just letters on a map, thanks to the proliferation of RoRo-type ferries, there is now the option of visiting these places simply by boarding a bus at a Manila terminal. This is a convenient and cheap way to get a sense of the Philippine archipelago. Just how easy is shown by the hundreds of YouTube videos being churned out by content providers like the one below.
As you watch the content provider buy his ticket, get meals etc remember that the Philippine peso is worth less than two US cents. The standard of accomodation may not be like the Japan ferries or the Swiss trains but it’s come a long way from the canvas cots on open decks and wooden windowed buses of yore. Best of all there are now actual standard commercial interfaces like ticket counters, boarding procedures and ample signage. Any moderately venturesome person can go pretty much anywhere by bus or rented car.
Those who would otherwise be trapped in Manila will probably be astonished at how big the Philippines actually is and how extensive the Visayas and Mindanao actually are; or that there’s an American university town called Dumaguete on the southeast coast of Negros Island? Just get on a bus and go there.