The Philippines, the archipelago with over 7600 islands, of which about 880 are inhabited. Myself, I was only on two of them, Luzon, the main island, and the small island of Borocay. In the north of Luzon, the Philippine Cordilleras extend and surrounded by hills, are the famous rice terraces of Banaue located, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, estimated to be over 2000 years old. Like an amphitheatre, they nestle against the steep slopes of the surrounding mountains and leave the visitor in amazement. Another cultural highlight is a probably unique burial ritual in Sagada, hanging coffins in the rock walls. This is only rarely practiced today, but the coffins can still be seen and the locals like to talk about this old tradition. Perhaps someone remembers the volcanic eruption of Pinatubo, also located on Luzon. The remains of this eruption can still be seen very clearly. The ash mountains in the surrounding, very impressive and hardly imaginable that all of this should have come from one single volcanic eruption. However, if you consider that the mountain has lost almost 300 meters ...