Filipinos are enamoured of America and love the cinema . Standard fare in the Philippines is either the Hollywood blockbuster or the Pinoy (slang for "Filipino") blockbuster. You won't find much in the way of alternative cinema. Pinoy films usually have plots revolving around love, violence, sex or all three. Seeing a film in the Philippines isn't always a memorable experience because of the bizarre ticket system. You can't usually book a specific seat in advance, so you have to turn up and take potluck. Limitless tickets are sold, so you might end up standing at the back or sitting in an aisle. To make matters worse, films are screened continuously and you can enter the cinema at any time. All this makes for an endless number of disturbances that can drive even the most patient film lover to distraction.

By far the number one sport - again thanks to America - is basketball , with two hugely popular leagues playing games throughout the country. Matches in Manila are played at the Cuneta Astrodome on Roxas Boulevard.

Cockfighting might not be everyone's idea of fun, but there's no denying it's part of the Filipino psyche. National hero Jose Rizal said Filipino men love their roosters more than their children, and sometimes it seems he wasn't far wrong. Cockfights take place every Sunday in barangays (villages) throughout the archipelago, with farmers winning (or losing) the equivalent of a week's wages in what amounts to a two-minute explosion of feathers and blood. In Manila there are highly publicized "cock derbies" on which thousands, sometimes millions, of pesos are wagered.