Michael Palin’s latest adventure sees him exploring one of the most fascinatingly complex and contradictory regions on earth: the Philippines. It’s a popular tourist destination, but also a place of extreme poverty for many. It’s a nation where religious beliefs are strongly held and divorce is illegal, but where political unrest and violence regularly mar everyday life. And, of course, it’s a country still dominated by the legacy of the Marcos family, not least the infamous husband and wife team of Ferdinand and Imelda, whose 21-year rule was dominated by scandal and allegations of corruption.
In the course of Michael’s epic journey he gets to see the Philippines archipelago in all its beauty, variety and many paradoxes. At one moment he’s exploring the rubbish dump topped with houses that is Manila’s Smokey Mountain; the next he is wandering along the idyllic sandy beaches of Cadlao Island. He watches prisoners on remand stage a dance spectacular, wanders the ruins of a town destroyed in a five-month battle between Jihadists and government forces, and, in the waters off one of the Philippines’ most far-flung possessions, witnesses a nail-biting stand-off with a Chinese coastguard vessel. He meets some of the warmest and friendliest people he has ever encountered. And at the very end, he finds himself as close to the Marcos family as it’s possible to get – in a meeting that he never thought possible.
Infused throughout with Michael’s characteristic warmth and humour, this richly illustrated journal of his trip will prove essential reading for the keen traveller and the armchair enthusiast alike.
