What the hell happened here?

While sightseeing around Metro Manila on Google Maps I found this bizarre monstrosity just east of SM North EDSA in Quezon City.

View in Google Maps

How did they get into this situation where the have this wild mishmash of irregularly shaped buildings of different colored roofs and no apparent roads? It makes me dizzy just looking at it, like an M. C. Escher optical illusion. The roofs overlap and slice through each other, with buildings ending arbitrarily and giving way to a spattering of slums.

Is there some inherent inability for Filipinos to think in straight lines?

As a remedy, I flew over to Ontario, CA, in an area dominated by business parks and warehouses.

View in Google Maps

 Ahh... much better.

Philippine High Speed Rail Map

Here's an imaginary map of a high speed rail network that spans the Philippines, connecting all the major cities from Laoag in the north to Tawi-Tawi way down south, and even the Tubbataha reef in the middle of the Sulu Sea.

This is not a real thing that exists, or a thing that will ever exist. But it is something to feed our dreams.

Inspired by the various world metro maps out there on the internet.

Philippines High-resolution Satellite Imagery on Google Earth - July 2013

Here's an update to the high-resolution satellite coverage of Google Earth/Maps in the Philippines. I've been making and updating a map like this for the past two years (see June 2012 and April 2011), so might as well keep it going.

Compared to the rather disappointing update last time, in the past year apparently Google's been doing a good job adding high-res coverage to a lot of new areas, including Boracay and Panglao. As you can see on the map, there's now significantly more red than non-red. Amount of coverage is now at 85.8%.

• 54.7% in April 2011
• 60.1% in June 2012
• 85.8% in July 2013

Only big glaring omissions on the map is the large swath of eastern Bohol, and the mountainous areas in inland Mindoro. The largest uncovered city is Kidapawan (population 125,447).

My Philippines Island Hopping Update

Last weekend I got to go to Cagayan de Oro for a day to attend a wedding, marking the first time I visited Mindanao, our country's second largest island. The visit was less than 24 hours, but at least I can say I've been there.

This is what the map of the Philippines would now look like if it only included islands that I have set foot on:

Un-visited islands are in very faint gray. Most of the smaller islands I've been to are too tiny to even be visible on this map.

Major islands I've visited (land area over 500 sq. km):

• Luzon
• Mindanao
• Negros
• Palawan
• Panay
• Leyte
• Cebu
• Bohol

Smaller islands, with the city or municipality they're part of:

• Siquijor
• Panglao (Panglao, Bohol)
• Mactan (Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu)
• Boracay (Malay, Aklan)
• Crystal Cove (off of Boracay, Malay, Alkan)
• Bantayan (Bantayan, Cebu)
• Malapascua (Daanbantayan, Cebu)
• Apo Island (Dauin, Negros Oriental)
• Balicasag (Panglao, Bohol)
• Virgin Island (Panglao, Bohol)
• Grande Island (in Subic Bay, Bataan)
• Maribago (Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu)
• Lagen (El Nido, Palawan)
• Miniloc (El Nido, Palawan)
• Dibuluan (El Nido, Palawan)
• Entalula (El Nido, Palawan)
• Pinasil (El Nido, Palawan)
• Vigan (El Nido, Palawan)
• Corregidor (Cavite City, Cavite)

The only large islands I haven't get been to are Samar, Mindoro and Masbate, and I don't imagine I'll be going there any time soon. Not much interesting to see there I'm afraid.

Philippines High-resolution Satellite Imagery on Google Earth - June 2012

Here's an update to the post I made last year, showing the extent of high-resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth/Maps. Areas in red have high-res coverage.

I started work on this hoping to see some real progression over the past year, but it was actually a bit disappointing to find that there wasn't a whole lot of additional area that was covered. A lot of the updates recently are just newer satellite imagery for places that already had coverage. Anyway, most of the important stuff is covered, including the top 70 most populous cities in this country. That's every city with a population above 160,000.

Still not covered are the tourism hotspots of Boracay and Panglao. Something to hope for.