Philippines as a Tourist Paradise

They certainly do. My wife's uncle manages a large commercial chicken farm on Luzon. But not enough eggs on Luzon evidently as Bantayan supplies them a heap of eggs.

My wife is terrified of typhoons.
Her family lost their house years ago when she was young.
This was north of Cebu island.
She is happy in England with the colder weather and the lack of big winds
Oh, her makeup doesn't run in the UK too

Well, I wouldn't be too impressed with them if they ripped the roof of my house. I appreciate that some people will be unluckier than others as one whistles through the skies above. But some poor folk will undoubtedly cop it and that will be down to luck / bad luck more than anything. Judging by the devastation left by Bopha there is more to the destruction than just wind and rain alone.

Yes, my wife says she would rather be colder than too hot.

When I see the natives build their huts here with branches and twigs it always reminds me about the story of the three little pigs.. Typhoons replace the wolf in the Philippine version.

So what kind of materials are used to build a wolf proof roof?

Having been through quite a few typhoons and hurricanes in my sea-going days, they do tend to be weather phenomena that I choose to avoid if at all possible. Perversely, perhaps, I actually rather enjoyed severe weather at sea, it certainly blew away the cobwebs and infinitely preferable to the long lazy beam swell often encountered when transiting the Indian Ocean causing one's ship to roll like a cow on wet grass; it grows kind of old after a few hours never mind the 10+ days of the crossing. Bad weather is not fun in the North Sea, near the Dutch and German coasts and the entrance to the Baltic, however as much of it is still mined and the buoyed channels are not that wide.

Whilst we don't get typhoons at all in Davao, we do get severe-ish weather from time to time, mostly in the form of (wet) microbursts (analogous to a reverse tornado). These can result in a huge amount of rain being dumped accompanied by very strong gusts of wind which, fortunately, tend to last a short period of time - up to a minute or so. We had one such on Friday evening which deposited about four inches of water on the western side of the city (microbursts tend to be very localised). However no roads were flooded or houses under water, the city's drainage system ensured that.

Yes. I identify with your sea going experiences.

The modern trend is to have roofs with a steep pitch constructed out of 4mm steel angle iron which is welded to the rebar of the vertical columns. Most roof coverings are sheet steel formed to look like tile and the edges are protected by wrap-around guttering which, in cross-section, looks like the capital letter "G".

Great for baking the little piggies inside!

Steel or timber trusses..
Believe it or not the costs are about the same.. DIY and 4" nails not a good idea!! Employ a good carpenter or welder to assemble.
Our trusses are made from 6" bamboo strapped together with thick nylon fishing line..Extremely strong!!
Our roof covering is nipa tiles also tied on with nylon..A fantastic heat insulator.. A fishing net stretches over the top of the roof to stop fierce winds blowing and flipping the nipa in the wrong direction..

Another good way to keep a house cool here is to design the roof so it shades the walls.. Our eves are 3 meters wide and the walls are in shade from dawn till dusk.
Not that it matters in this pic as it was pissing down at the time!!

Well for owners who don't follow their architects' advice, yes they are! A good architect will suggest that the inside of the roof is covered with 4 - 6 mm foil-backed insulating foam sheeting, ridge and soffit vents are installed and a 4 - 6 inch layer of dried rice hulls (sealed in sacks) is laid. Sacks of rice hulls make for excellent insulation - very high "R" factor - even better than Nipa which is also a very good insulator.

The coolest houses do tend to be those constructed from natural materials whether that be western-style timber-frame or Nipa.

An interesting aspect of houses here in Cambodia is that they have high ceilings, the roof is inclined upwards towards the front of the house and at the top of the highest wall is a series of lateral slots acting as vents. I've found them relatively cool.

Houses in the Philippines tend to have low ceilings and no means of heated air escaping.

This is true.. The vents here on metal roofs are at low eves level below the guttering..A hot box.
Our roof is high with Thai style vents at high level at both ends. Im surpised its not standard practice here..
One solution are turbo vents.. Seeing more of them fitted in our area these days.

World’s best cruise ship MS Europa drops anchor in Boracay


"Regarded one of – if not THE best – luxury liners in the world, the MS Europa arrived in Boracay Island with some 750 European tourists and crew on board.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) in Boracay said the MS Europa docked at the Cagban jetty port in Boracay Island where several local government officials in Aklan and concerned lined government agencies gave a warm welcome for the visiting tourists."

http://goodnewspilipinas.com/2013/03/26/worlds-best-cruise-ship-ms-europa-drops-anchor-in-boracay/

Old news, John, old news! I did read that the Europa's stay was a mere 3 hours - which is about all that Boracay merits: the ship's pool-side loungers are far more comfortable and you can swim in its pool.

I rather think P&O would contest the description "world's best cruise ship" as they would state that the newly named Royal Princess and her yet to be launched sister ship Regal Princess are much more luxurious.

Not that old in that it demonstrates that cruise ships do indeed pull in to the Philippines...

Yes and with alarming regularity, 3 a year!

I thought you were in favour of not bringing the good people of the Philippines down? The more cruise ships the better.....to get people to spend all their luvverly lolly in the Philippines!