Angeles City, Philippines

The city of ANGELES, a few kilometres north of San Fernando along the MacArthur Highway, is a dense, congested city that has little to recommend it excepting an annual festival called the Kuliat held in October. One of the most high-profile Kuliat events is the Battle of the Bands, with judges voting for the best up-and-coming groups in the country.

The city's main historical landmark is the Holy Rosary Cathedral in Rizal Street, built during the Spanish era and used as a military hospital by the US Army from 1899 to 1900. From 1896 to 1898, its backyard was an execution grounds for Filipino rebels against the Spanish forces. The Kamikaze Museum (daily 9am–5pm; free), at 2 Badjao St in the eastern suburb of Villa Gloria, is an interesting little museum in the home of noted artist Dan Dizon. It rarely gets many visitors, but is well worth the trip for anyone interested in the war years in the Philippines. It showcases Dizon's collections of original kamikaze pilots' uniforms, steel swords given only to kamikaze volunteers and portraits of the first five kamikaze pilots killed in suicide attacks on the Philippines. Dizon claims some 6500 Japanese fighters crashed their aircraft against US warships in kamikaze missions in the Philippines. A tricycle to Badjao Street from the city centre costs P25 and takes ten minutes.

There's a Philippine Rabbit bus terminal at the southern end of Henson Street, close to Mercury Drug Store and PCI Bank, from where buses head south to Manila and north to San Fernando in La Union. Jeepneys, north to Clark and south to San Fernando, leave from Rizal Street near the market. On Santo Rosario Street opposite Nepo Mall there are a handful of fast-food restaurants, including McDonald's and KFC.