12/11/11 - Banaue, Bedat, Segada & Sebang - Philippines

Banaue & Bedat

We left Manilla after just a day and a half to head off to our first hot-spot  destination: The rice fields of Benaue and Bedat. There are hundreds of small farming communities built up on the mountain sides all over the Philippines which continue to use traditional farming methods dating back over a thousand years to harvest their staple food: rice. We decided to take the 9 hour coach ride up to the north of the main Luzon island to the two most famous of these rice fields. What fantastic views we had, well worth trekking up the mountain sides and through hot humid rainforest to see. The rice fields of Banaue boast UNESCO heritage status and signs call the thousand year old rice fields “the eighth wonder of the world”. I hope our photos can give you some idea of the magnitude of the terraced mountainsides, each step several meters in height, and such verdant green.

A brief note here on the horrors of that 9 (which actually turned out to be 10 and a half) hours bus journey. The bus ride was due to leave the bus station at 10pm and so Neil and I packed earplugs and a towel (backpacker version of a blanket) and hoped to settle down for a good night’s sleep…how wrong we were. I have to say that that has to be my worst journey so far. Yes it was even worse than the rickety old BA flight that somehow  flew us halfway round the world to Singapore. In fact probably the worst journey of my life, ever. In brief: Violent films with the sound turned up full were being played back to back the entire length of the journey. Air con blasted down on every one of us, and was not controllable, so that all up and down the coach you could see tissues and socks stuffed into the air vents above each passenger, all in desperation to keep one’s body temperature above 15 degrees. Furthermore, the range and imagination in various head attire was quite remarkable as Filipino’s and foreigners alike tried to keep their heads warm. I saw caps, woolly hats, a cowboy hat, towels, scarfs and even the bus curtains all swathed on people’s head. A dear Chinese – Filipino couple we met on the mountainside of Bedat just a day earlier was seated in front of us on the way back to Manilla and the lengths Richard went to keep his head from freezing – I took note of the layers! Two t-shirts were tied on his head- one over the back, and one on the front rather like a balaclava.  After this came a cloth- rather like a t-towel. After that came a small hand towel, and to finish he topped it off with a cap although how he managed to ram that on after all those layers I don’t know. It certainly amused me for a few minutes and kept my mind off how terribly travel sick I was feeling…..

Segada

The lovely thing about travelling is that you might have one dreadful experience (such as THAT coach journey) but it will soon be eclipsed by a really amazing one. We travelled three hours north from Banaue onto a beautifully tranquil village called Sagada to visit their famous caves. Now that journey was the best ever! Beautiful views of the mountains as we climbed higher and higher, and for an hour Neil and I joined a few other fearless (foolish?) travelers and scrambled up to sit on top of the bus for the Bontac - Segada leg. From there we gazed down in awed silence onto more rice terraces and mountain villages, and best of all a beautiful turquoise river that wound its way along, tumbling over rocks and bending round palm trees and the occasional wooden hut. Whilst I clung onto the bars with white knuckles, and grinning nervously at every bump and sway of the bus, Neil sat casually, his legs dangling down freely, clicking away on his camera happy as a sandboy and apparently oblivious to the perils if we were to all tumble off and down the steep mountain ravine below….

The caves at Segada were breathtaking, and we scrambled across rocks, slide down smooth limestone, squeezed through impossibly small gaps, slithered under low ceilings and Neil and I jumped into freezing cold waters in the large cavernous pools inside(much to everyone else’s surprise).  We saw stalagmites, stalagmites, columns and rock formations of all kinds that have slowly been formed over the past few hundred years. It was a combination of viewing and scrambling up, over and around these amazing pieces of rock. A risk assessment nightmare there were no helmets or harnesses in sight, yet some of the routes had periless drops either side, even in our walking shoes we slipped and slide our way along and quite frankly the moves we were expected to do were pretty bloody dangerous. There was no previous warning that we would be submerged into chest-deep water in key passing points of the route and it was pure co-incidence that I had run out of underwear and donned a black bikini that morning so I happily stripped off and waded right in! Neil on the other hand, had to go down to his boxers….!

07/11/11 Moving onto Palawan island

We flew from Manila onto one of the larger and more popular islands called Palawan, the main city being Puerto Princesa. We stayed in a sort of apartment which was part of a family’s home. They were very kind and welcoming and gave us advice with our trips and transport. We went to Honda Bay and took the cheapest boat ride out to the best corals for some snorkelling. We set out to sea on a local boat with a guide and the boatman. Before we had even used our snorkel and mask Neil somehow managed to loose his. I think in all the excitement Neil took a running jump off the platform and dived in, and must have somehow kicked his snorkeling gear into the water. Although he claims this is not true. Of course it sank straight to the bottom – about 10 metres deep. He emerged from the water and in a look of utter panic said, “Where’s my mask? Have you seen it? Where is it?!” At which point I burst out laughing and was not in a fit state to take him seriously or help. A few of the locals dived in to get it and couldn’t get deep enough; in the end it was our guide who gracefully dived in and saved the day. We saw a vast array of beautiful tropical fish, starfish, moray eel, parrot fish, puffer fish, ‘Dory’ from ‘Finding Nemo’ and various other ‘Finding Nemo’ characters. The sea was warm and clear and the fish were plentiful. We happily swam and snorkeled around the reefs for a good few hours.

Sebang

We then went on to Sebang as we work our way north up Palawan. We came here to visit the famous Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. In the morning we went on a 2 hour boat ride 4.2km into the world’s longest underground river and were again amazed by some truly amazing caves and rock formations. We then trekked for 3 hours through rainforest, up mountains and across beaches. We came across a group of monitor lizards (large and very dangerous lizards) and some over-eager Makak monkeys. Neil was trying to photograph the monkeys as they began appearing in the trees all around us. I then pulled out some food from our bag to tempt them closer which I thought Neil had suggested to do …..  (Neil steals the laptop!) … At which point my eyes widen, and the monkeys’ eyes’ lock onto the food in Phe’s hand.  I quickly ran forward and snatched the food from her and rammed it into my pocket out of harm’s way…causing all the monkeys to turn to me. Great.  I grabbed a stick and tried to look as intimidating as possible as they made aggressive body-language and edged in closer….  Let’s just say here that we eventually managed to escape unharmed after making a large detour around the ever-increasing number of angry monkeys that had gathered around. And Phe is not to be let near wild monkeys ever again.

We are off now from rainforests and tropical showers to island hopping and paradise beaches and hopefully sunnier skies J….bye for now.

Phe and Neil, x

29/10/11 True Manilla - Philippines

04/11/11 1 week in Luzon, Mainland Philippines

‘An assemblage of 7107 islands stretching some 1900km from the tip of Batanes to the Sulu archipelago, the Philippines stubbornly defies geographic generalisation. The typical island boasts a jungle-clad, mountainous interior and a sandy coastline flanked by aquamarine waters and the requisite coral reef.’ This is the opening description of the Philippines, according to the 10^th edition of the Philippines lonely plant guidebook. Tempted? We certainly were. So here we are in Palawan, just one of these stunning islands with sparkling emerald waters, white sandy beaches and endless opportunities for snorkeling with the fish. But first, I must recount to you our previous week spent in the main island of Philippines, Luzon.               

True Manilla

We flew to the capital, Manila, on Friday 28th last week. We turned up at a backpackers place called ‘Friendly’s Guesthouse’ recommended by the guide book and by Gigi. So there we were on arrival at Friendly’s guesthouse, wide-eyed and excited about our first proper backpacker destination. As it turned out, just a few hours after arriving we met a Filipino man over dinner at the guesthouse called Edwin, who told us his story. This shaped our whole view, experience and itinerary of our brief encounter with Manila. This is Edwin’s story:

Born in Manila as one of many street children, Edwin grew up on one of the largest shanty town communities (or ‘slums’) of Manila. As a young boy he would roam the streets begging for his daily bread until he chanced upon a kind, humanitarian American couple who would change his destiny forever. Aged 9 years old, they couple who were merely passing though Manila on holiday decided to sponsor him financially through his education, which is exactly what they did. 26 years on and Edwin is now well-educated, works part-time at Friendly’s Guesthouse, and is pursuing a career in acting, which has taken him to an international film festival across Europe. He continues regular contact with the American couple to this day.

A few packbackers got chatting to Edwin upon hearing of his roots, and expressed an interest to see what the real Manila is like – where he grew up – beyond the malls and the tourist spots, the sex-tourism industry which has a massive presence in the capital, and all the begging so typical of a developing country’s capital city. Obligingly, Edwin took these keen folk to the slum where he grew up. He introduced his friends and family to them and showed them the sights of where so many people live and work so hard for so little. The backpackers were moved by the wonderful people they met, who despite poverty and obviously difficult living conditions were so welcoming, and decided to give something back by buying a few local families some food supplies such as bags of rice and noodles. More backpacker’s who arrived  got wind of this trip and showed a keen interest to also be shown the sights; hence ‘True Manila’ was born: a glimpse into the slum-life of Manila through Edwin’s eyes .

Neil and I read this story in a diary lying around in the guesthouse and then immediately engaged in deep conversation with Edwin on our very first evening in the city. It didn’t take us much convincing to join 8 other European backpackers on our own True Manila tour with Edwin as our guide, for no costs.  So the next day we travelled by local Jeepney transport across the city and spent the day walking through the slums and the markets of Edwin’s home area. We ate delicious home cooked local food (Pork Adobe and rice) at his wife’s local food stall, met all his family including his own beautiful daughter and son, and played with the dozen’s of children who swarmed around us. The 10 of us then collectively put money in a pot and went to buy rice, noodles, tinned fish and milk powder for 25 families- cupboard essentials for any family in the slums according to Edwin. We also bought cakes for 50 children. The cakes were handed out to eager children with grubby hands but smiling faces, and the food to families whom Edwin carefully selected as the most in need. It was a moving experience, and a real eye-opener to see how several million people of Manila live in cramped and squalid conditions with no running water, haphazard electricity, no hygienic toilet facilities and with tin roofs over their heads.

As a celebration of this seemingly increasing grassroots movement, we were all presented with a unique friendship bracelet from Edwin. To show our thanks and appreciation in return, and as is the True Manila custom, we all gave a plant and wrote our name and country on the pot and presented this to Edwin; ours is a chili plant (chili-obsessed Neil chose this of course). There is now an enormous collection of plants on the balcony at Friendly’s, symbolising all the people who have been involved with the True Manila movement; there is even a facebook group in dedication to this. So watch this space, Edwin is hoping for even bigger things to come out of this and perhaps it will even make a mention in next year’s edition of the guidebook. We certainly hope so, as this is a genuinely worthwhile and selfless cause, set up by one of the nicest Filipino’s we have met so far, who is trying to make a difference whilst raising awareness to a growing group of people from all over the globe brought together in one cause.