From Banaue to Baguio (Philippines)

Now that you know how hard it is to get IN the city of Banaue, let me tell you about our adventure to get OUT of Banaue. Our goal was to reach Vigan, famous for being the only remaining city dating back to the Spanish time (the rest had been bombarded during WWII), as soon as possible. I love Asia but I was so trilled at the idea of catching a glimpse of Spanish taste, architecture, atmosphere and possibly food (probably not) in the middle of Asia, after all these months spent in uber colorful countries. I imagine Vigan to be all tones of grey, brown and red with cobblestones and old houses.

So first step, we took a fully packed jeepney from Banaue to the main road. Darn it, a landslide which occurred the same morning was blocking the road. Everybody had to get out and walk over it. Yes, that means people including small children and merchandise such as chicken, bottles of water, chips, chairs, etc. There were boxes and boxes everywhere, waiting to be hand transported to the other side. A lady told us it was scary since landslides usually happen after a heavy rain. But this one just happened without reason.

After climbing over it, we took another jeepney to Lagawe (45min). From there, another jeepney to Solano (3 hours). Then a minivan all the way to Baguio (5 hours).

If you calculate that the same morning, we have walked 1 hour uphill + 45 min downhill + 1 hour hitchhiking and that we left from Batad at 8h30am, it means we arrived in Baguio pretty late and that we were dead tired.

After a few attempts in dodgy lodges (including a place with 5 cockroaches in the entrance. The guy just stepped on them and left them there. Hasn't he heard about cockroaches eating each other?), we finally found a place in the middle of action, clean, spacious, with a window, a private bathroom, hot shower, a TV (that's like luxury) and double-OMG some 80 channels. The guys at the reception are really nice and there's an Internet shop in the same building for hummmm 30 cents per hour. So we like Baguio and decided to stay for 2 nights.

Heading to Vigan today. Hopefully the trip to get there won't be as tiring as our latest experiences.

Banaue/Batad (Philippines)

tricycle from Banaue to the main road before Batad

in the tricycle

rice fields

Nis in front of the rice fields

sun is burning hot

our ride

the end of the road

jeepney that we could have taken

rice fields

on our way to Batad

Batad Village

Tappiya Waterfalls (Batad, Philippines)

Just completed enough exercice to keep me fit for a whole month. Let me elaborate.

It started with a overnight bus ride (12 hours) from Manila to Banaue, a small village in the Cordilleras Mountains, in the northern part of the Philippines, famous because of it's beautiful rice fields. So it's 6am, we have barely slept and we realize we're in the middle of nowhere. No problem, a jeepney for the price of 10 pesos each (20 cents), will drive us to town. The guy drops us in a restaurant, tells us to order breakfast and comes back with a map of the surroundings. The reason why we hate overnight trips is that your brain goes gaga and you can't think properly. Decisions are quickly made because you're too tired to think and use your good judgement. Sometimes, when it's really early and everthing is still closed, you just don't have any other options than to follow the guy and do whatever he says. But it wasn't one of those mornings.

We listened to him talk, had breakfast without hurrying, then went calmly to the information center (a shack really). Conclusion? We can get to Batad (the actual place where you can see the rice terrasses) for way cheaper.

We left our big backpacks in the restaurant for a small fee (1$ per day) and took a tricycle (a motorcycle attached to a box. Annis and I were squeezed in the box while Math rode behind the driver) with only 2 small backpacks. It took us 45 minutes. Then, we had to hike for an hour up a chain of mountains because the road is too rough for tricycles. We could have rent a jeepney but hey, working our way up is all part of the fun :) After arriving at the top of the mountain, it was another 50 minutes of hiking our way down to the valley with the rice fields, to this famous village called Batad. For this section, there are no vehicule allowed. The only way in is on foot.

Hence, we were exhausted at our arrival, ate at the first spotted restaurant (a shack again) and checked ourselves in in the first lodge we see (a big bigger than a shack). The view was mesmerizing though. Simply beautiful. All the bright greeness as far as your eyes can see. The wind gently blowing through the fields. The whole picture is just so peaceful, it was worth all the hassle to get to this place.

And then we did the craziest thing for people with a major lack of sleep, who rode on a bumpy road (so bumpy I was stressed during the whole trip that the tires would explode)AND who walked for almost 2 hours up and down a freaking mountain. We decided to hike another hour to some 30m high waterfalls.

Now once again, it was totally worth it. On our way to these waterfalls, we walked through lushy rice fields with several women working. The surrounding mountains made us speechless except for the words "OMG, WOW!". Until we saw a strong river which starts at the bottom of the waterfalls. It was impressive because the water was so clear and so strong and mostly because we were the only humans in the area, miles away from everybody else. Because it's hard to get there and because it's the low season, we had the whole lodge for ourselves (8 rooms only, the family who owns the place, a mommy dog with her 6 puppies, a black-and-white cat, some chickens with their chicks and a black pig), the waterfalls for ourselves (I felt so small, fragile and insignificant next to the proof of Mother Nature's power) and the trails for ourselves (we barely met any tourist and only a couple of locals).

The way back from the waterfalls, however, was a real pain in the ass. While we cooled off in the river, it didn't take more than 10 minutes before we started sweating profusely. It wasn't the weather since it wasn't humid. It was just because the mountain was so steep. At some point, I was on my hands and feet and climbing my way up. Needless to say, we wanted to shower as soon as possible. The shower was quick and freezing cold because the water comes from the mountain (so pure and natural eh).

Now comes the no fun part. Math and Nis were fast asleep by 8h30pm and I was still reading when a huge cockroack came in the room. I was paralyzed with dread. I REALLY hate these creatures. That's when I realized there was another one on the ceiling. Noooooooo

At the end, Math kills one and the other one runs away. We were in a lodge in a lost village in the middle of mountains with no hot water, no mosquito net and cracks through which insects could come in. With the lights on, the room was soon becoming a party. So we closed the lights and try to sleep.

I woke up at 5am and saw the pink and orange sky above the green rice fields. I smiled and went back to sleep until 7 am.

Another dreadful episode: while I was peeing in the morning, a cockroach dropped from the ceiling and fell in my pants. The speed with which I got up, took off my pants and shook them frantically was impressive. Why me? I seriously hate them...

We left Batad at 8h30am. Since the only way in is on foot, the only way out is on foot as well. After an hour, we arrived at the top of the mountain. Darn it, we missed the public jeepney to get down to the main road. No problem, let's walk down. At the bottom, we were really stuck. We couldn't walk back to Banaue because that would mean another 3 hours on foot so we waited for a vehicule to pick us up. Lucky indeed! After 15 minutes, a guy in a small truck took us in. He wasn't asking for any money even though the ride lasted for an hour. So nice ;)

So that was our adventure in and out of the rice fields. I would definitely recommend them to anyone visiting the Philippines and who likes to trek. But I wouldn't do it a second time. Lack of courage.

A Chair Cristina Would Like (Singapore)

Pulau Tioman (Malaysia)

Last time I was in Singapore (merely 3.5 months ago), I was really excited because we were only starting our adventure (SGP was our first stop), we had a 40-food-items list to check out, we hadn't see Mish and Xingyan for 2 years and we wanted to explore the city which Xiuli talked so much about during our exchange in Belgium (especially the food). Though I didn't mention it (in case I would fail and break my promise), I always had in the back of my head the idea of coming back.

Hence, after touring the Malaysian Peninsula, it just seemed logical and appropriate (especially with Annis who haven't been here before) to stop by again.

This time however, I felt quite sad.

Although I enjoyed the 3 days spent with Xiuli and Mish, it's hard to say goodbye at the end. 

This time, for sure, I won't be coming back for at least a year, maybe more, maybe never again.

Blehhh, distances suck.

Salad, Bread, Cheese, Yogourt, Tropicana --> Craving Western Food

Robinson's (Manila, Philippines)

Robinson's (Manila, Philippines)

Manila sucks a bit even though it has the 3rd largest shopping mall (Mall of Asia) in the world. (The two biggest are in China. It seems Edmonton Mall in Canada is a very old story.) I felt unsafe walking in the streets after dark, even with Annis and Math by my side. There are a lot of families literally living on the streets with cardboxes and hamacs. The worst scene was when we were strolling next to a golf course. People dressed in expensive clothing were hitting balls while on the other side of the fence, a family was trying to cool off in the shade of a row of trees. Poverty is omnipresent in a large part of the city. Mothers with their pack of children often beg for money.

However, it's a great city for its food. After several months spent in SEA, it was awesome to get freshly baked bread, a whole roasted chicken (3$), Tropicana juice (1.25$ for 1 liter), yummy yogourt (2$ for 500g), etc. It's a bit weird that there are almost no food stalls in the streets. But the huge Robinson's supermarket filled with Western food helped a lot with our cravings.

In Manila right now. We went to the Department of Tourism to get some more information. It just got us even more confused. So many places to go, so many diving sites (ship wrecks, hectares of corals and crazy species like whale sharks and manta rays), so many activities (climbing a volcano on a 2-day trek, visiting rice fields) but so little time! For once, we have to plan carefully since we have already booked our ticket for the 20th June back to Hong Kong. I would have prefer to wander as much as we would feel like it, without thinking about time, without discarding destinations, without compromises. What a headache... We need to discuss about it. The sooner, the better. Time is ticking.