Episode 14 The Travel Show

The Philippines - like no other country,

a unique blend of indigenous, Asian, Spanish and American influences.

Recently in the eye of one of the worst storms ever,

yet, like no other country, perhaps, still smiling through adversity.

On my journey from the capital to the idyllic islands,

I travel through the lush landscape

and have a close encounter with the world's oldest primate...

(Eyes are astonishing. Psyching me out now, staring at me.)

..before being healed by a shaman,

and getting a taste of how people here are addicted to entertainment.

Illusion! CROWD LAUGHS

We smile, and that's part of our therapy.

We like to make other people smile.

They get me literally dancing in the streets.

I can't dance! Let alone in traffic.

So, join me as I island hop, skip and jump

through the country in search of the Filipino factor.

The Philippines is one of the

fastest-growing economies in the world.

With its diverse landscape and stunning array of wildlife,

most tourists tend to head straight out of the city

towards the countryside and tropical beaches.

The capital, Manila, does not enjoy the best reputation.

An urban jungle, they call it, with very little to show for itself.

Well, let's see if we can't prove them wrong,

and we're going to start by hitting the road

in one of the most iconic vehicles in the world, the Jeepney.

And what fine specimens they are, these garishly pimped-up relics

from the American occupation after the Second World War.

Metro Manila is actually four cities stuck together to make up

the world's most densely populated mega city...

joined together by huge, clogged up multi-lane highways.

SIRENS BLARE, HORNS HONK TYRES SCREECH

Sometimes you are just desperate for some light relief.

MUSIC: "Dance Wiv Me" by Dizzee Rascal

# Why you all over there on your Jack Jones?

# You need to let me get behind your backbone

# Cos I'm the man for the job Let me work it

# I won't waste no time I'll make it worth it... #

For the past ten years, five days a week, under the blazing sun,

Ramiro Hinojas has been strutting, spinning, duck-walking and beckoning

in the midst of the huge onslaught of traffic

coming from all directions.

HE CHUCKLES

It would just put the driver off, if you ask me.

They get so distracted they start to crash!

Oh, and he doubles up as a traffic cop, too.

Some of them horn. They horn, they honk their horn.

And then some of them sign the thumb.

And some of them clap their hands

We'll try in the middle. Yes. I will follow you.

This, hands.

Then back.

I'd like to blame my dodgy dance moves on the fact I'm facing

traffic coming at me from four different directions.

But you can make up your own minds.

This was to be the first of many times in my trip

when I realised that Filipinos live to entertain and be entertained.

# Get away from the bar Tell your boyfriend hold your jar

# And dance with me. #

If you look hard enough in the city

there are serene little havens of greenery,

and, in fact, if it hadn't been for

the mass destruction of World War II,

this city could still be clinging on to its title as the Paris of Asia.

And it's here in the beautiful gardens of the Intramuros district

in the old city you find monuments to Manila's colonial splendour.

Ladies and gentlemen, walk this way!

And the city's most entertaining advocate.

I wouldn't say it's an attractive city -

I'd say it's an exciting city.

I'd say it's a different kind of city.

I'd say it's a city worth taking time for.

I mean, really, if you want to experience something

that's nothing like anything in our neighbourhood,

then you've got to take a little risk.

You've got to take a little time.

One, two, three, and...

HE SINGS THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL ANTHEM

Carlos is sensitive to the accusation that after

three centuries of Spanish and then 60 years of American occupation,

the Philippines is a country without its own identity.

The lack of identity IS the Philippine identity. We're hybrid.

I wouldn't say that we're particularly exotic.

Don't come to the Philippines...

Ladies and gentlemen, please take a seat.

Don't come to the Philippines if you want to go for noodles,

if you want to find temples,

if you want to find, sort of, your typical Asia.

I mean, all of our neighbours have got that over there.

Come to the Philippines for its arts and culture,

cos you'll really be surprised by the quality,

the home-grown quality of arts and culture that you're going to find.

And talking of hybrids, here's one cultural influence

dating back nearly 2,000 years that's very close to home.

Now, while most people might associate

the Americans and the Spanish

as having most sway over Filipino culture,

let's not forget the Chinese.

Both historically and in the modern sense,

they have a big hold over this country,

and in fact, this area is the oldest Chinatown in the world.

It dates back to the late 16th century.

Gerik's great-grandfather opened a delicatessen here in Manila

more than a century ago, and followed that up with a restaurant,

coffee shop and bakery.

Filipinos and the Chinese have been in transaction, in barter,

even before the Spaniards came to the Philippines.

So actually we have a longer relationship with the Filipinos

than any other culture.

But the sense of community between the Chinese and Filipinos today

goes far deeper than culinary exchange.

Gerik's family bought ten fire engines to serve the city,

and enrolled 4,500 volunteers.

All the profits from the coffee shop go towards this service.

And guess who's tagging along for a ride today?

I tell you what - it's going to be

a pretty unique way of seeing this city.

OK, let's do it.

SIREN BLARES

HORN HONKS

Manila is notoriously difficult to drive around,

so how on earth do you manage it in a massive fire truck like this?

Well, I've been driving a fire truck since I was 17, 18 years old.

I started being a fire volunteer when I was 12.

HE HONKS HORN

Back in a regular vehicle,

and a reminder of the other health hazard of driving in this city...

RADIO PLAYS LOVE SONG

..the Filipino addiction to the cheesy power ballad.

Luckily, an antidote is at hand.

HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

This man's a bit of a legend around these parts -

and indigenous music, not American pop radio, is what inspires him.

APPLAUSE We have an audience!

Indigenous music would be considered, usually, pre-Spanish.

Before the Spanish came,

the musics that were here were the tribal people,

the Chinese were here, the Arabs were here, the Indians were here,

but they were not colonisers the way the Spanish were.

You've got a instrument here. Give me an example of how that works.

This is called a tubing.

Want to try it? Yeah.

Open a little bit wider. Turn your lips in.

Give it a go. Ayyy, ayyy, ayyy.

You don't actually vocalise! Just the shape.

We like to make other people smile. I guess we are like natural therapists.

We are natural therapists, that's probably one reason

why the OFWs, the overseas Filipino workers, carry that.

You have a lot of teachers, therapists...

And both therapy, of sorts, and entertainment can be found

even in the rougher ends of town, like the red light district.

The Hobbit House, founded by a fan of Tolkien

and The Lord Of The Rings more than 40 years ago.

A novelty bar where most people have forgotten the novelty

within a few minutes of walking in...

which suits the staff perfectly!

Some people might say that this is like a freak show,

that in a way the little people are being exploited.

What do you say to that? I think, no, it's not a freak show.

Because this bar, the owner of this bar,

wants to help little people, like me, to have normal work.

They have their own work where they belong.

And outside the glitzy, expensive clubs

that you can find in any major city,

when it comes to creating an edgier scene,

Manila is finding its pioneers.

This used to be a second-hand car parts warehouse.

Now it's an urban collective.

Manila's got a lot of potential, especially music-wise.

There's definitely a lot of upcoming kids, you know,

like making music, producing.

HIGH-SPEED DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

And younger artists are keen to

explode the cliched image of their country.

At first it was a little bit...

It was quite a struggle. It was a struggle, you know.

We're female artists and DJs.

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

When we were starting, it was really hard because first of all,

the music scene here in the Philippines

is still dominated by men.

So, when we came on the scene,

we were just like another one of those like,

"Oh, it's just going to pass."

Like, "Oh, let's give them a couple of months or a year,

"they're going to pass."

I think with us combined, because when we play, we spin together,

the logic is like this - a DJ with two hands can do a lot

but a DJ, a duo with four hands can do so much more. Yeah.

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

Manila mania goes on well into the small hours

but it's time for us to leave the big city

and head out for some fresh sea air.

Early the next morning,

and it's time to do the hop, skip and jump from island to island

that makes the Philippines so unique.

This is the fast catamaran that takes you from Cebu

to the island of Bohol.

At two hours, it still slower than a plane,

but so much more a scenic way to island hop.

The Philippines have never made claims to any kind of exoticism

that their neighbours like Malaysia and Thailand boast of.

But that belies the fact they have some of the most beautiful

and pure white sand beaches in the world.

But towards the end of 2013, a twin natural disaster struck

with a force that the world has rarely witnessed.

First, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in central Philippines, hitting Cebu.

But neighbouring Bohol bore the brunt of it

and was literally torn apart.

And then weeks later,

the most powerful typhoon in human history to hit landfall -

super typhoon Haiyan, or Yolanda as it's known locally,

left a trail of destruction and more than 6,000 people dead.

3.5 million people were displaced by winds of up to 330km per hour.

But what followed pays testimony

to the resilience of the people of the Philippines.

Hi. Hi, sir. Welcome to Baclayon Church. Thank you.

Would you like to help us? I would love to help you, of course.

Thank you very much, sir. Wow, you're working hard in this searing heat.

Yes, very hot. It's really hot.

'Agnes, who works in the Baclayon Church,

'came as soon as she heard about the quake.'

How did you feel when you first came here and you saw that?

We were so sad, because, well,

this is the one of the tourist attractions in our province

and this is the oldest stone church,

so we felt very sad for what happened to our church.

At that time we didn't know

if we were going to restore

or if we had funding for the restoration of our church.

This is just phase one of a project that they estimate

will take ten years to complete.

In a sense they were lucky -

two other churches actually built on the fault line

were completely destroyed and some buildings unrecognisable.

Has it undermined, has it lessened your faith?

Or does it increase your faith?

No, no, it strengthened our faith to God, actually,

because Bohol islanders, as many people know,

we are a very religious people and we have this deep faith to God.

Tourism stopped completely after the church... Yes.

How bad was that for you and how much do you need tourists?

We need them very badly because, you know, it can really help us,

tourism, because the truth is we need the financial support.

The earthquake was so strong, Bohol's most famous and unique

land formation, the Chocolate Hills, have been fundamentally altered.

But here, they're turning a disaster into an opportunity

by developing something called geo-tourism -

witnessing first-hand our ever-changing landscapes.

All this damage was caused by the earthquake? Yes.

Essentially, prior to the earthquake last October 2013,

the platform was much, much wider.

The central part of Bohol moved 55cm, or slightly more than half a metre,

closer to Cebu immediately during the earthquake.

So essentially, we're here at the foot of one of the hills...

And Rene showed me something rarely seen before -

the inside of a Chocolate Hill, split open by the quake.

During the earthquake, the shaking or the shock

was so strong here that landslides affected many hills.

So either half or at least a third of the hills

would be brought down by the strong ground shaking.

And if you want to get the most panoramic view of these

almost identical freaks of nature, try this view from on high.

This is one of only two bicycle zip-lines in the world.

Both are in the Philippines and both only opened this year.

Another example of turning natural disaster into opportunity here.

This one's especially for thrill-seekers.

Floating restaurants on Bohol are a staple of the tourist itinerary

and rightly so - a chance to sample some local food.

The crab is from the river we're sailing on.

But only now are they recovering here from the fallout from the quake

after a 50% drop in tourist arrivals.

November and December was really very slow

and then it's just overcoming the fear factor.

We just have to show that we're still safe to be here.

# I will survive

# Oh, as long as I know how to love... #

And Lourdes says there's something in the national psyche

that can handle no matter what is thrown at Filipinos.

They always believe that there's really

a light at the end of the tunnel.

You really just have to work hard and crawl out to reach the light.

# ..I've got all my life to live

# I've got all my love to give

# I will survive

# Hey-ey... #

INSECTS CHIRP

Oh, yeah, there it is.

And talking of survival, maybe inspiration comes from

one resident of Bohol who knows all about that - the tarsier...

..the oldest surviving primate in the world.

We're talking 45 million years on this planet.

And for some reason, this incredibly reclusive

and endangered creature decided it would stick around for us.

This is an incredibly lucky moment.

I am inches away from this tarsier.

These animals are really solitary, shy, sensitive.

If he or she was scared of me, they'd go for me like that.

So far, so good.

The eyes are astonishing - psyching me out now, staring at me.

Actually, this guy, the world's leading expert on the animal,

is the reason the tarsier is hanging around.

Once himself a poacher in the 1970s, now gamekeeper and protector.

Why is it in danger of being extinct?

Because of the destruction of the habitat.

Mostly the farmer here - slash and burn farming.

My next stop - the pure white beaches

of the tiny island of Panglao.

Unlike racier resorts in more commercialised countries

like Thailand and Malaysia nearby,

it's blissfully undeveloped.

SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

And clinging on to some of its ancient rituals too,

like shamanic healing.

SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

As salaam alaikum. Thank you.

As my journey comes to an end, a chance to reflect.

The Filipinos, well, they're an incredibly generous people -

always welcoming, always entertaining,

and happy to give of their time to outsiders.

BRASS BAND PLAYS

And with its love of music, ceremony and religion,

this country is more akin, I would say,

to South America than the rest of Southeast Asia.

Hopes are high that international tourism to here

will be boosted over the next few years and, let's face it,

this country has got some in-built advantages -

English is widely spoken,

there's an incredible natural environment here.

And for the Filipinos, the whole world is a stage -

an all-dancing, all-smiling, all-singing spectacle,

and they want you to join in.

And just maybe, THAT is the Filipino factor.

Ted, I wondered if... I'm not interested

in coming to see Lady Gaga, sir.

The Fast Show Special -

part of the big bumper bank holiday comedy 50th birthday weekend.