Philippines - Manila & the North

We turned up in the Philippines on Election Day so it was a public holiday - many shops were closed but we managed to find a cheap pension to stay in which also had a hotpot restaurant below, where we had dinner. Within 6 hours of landing we had walked around the former Chinese settlement of Intramuros, the Manila Cathedral and the ruins of Fort Santiago, all in the heart of the city. Much of it has been destroyed, either by invaders or earthquakes during the last few hundred years, and rebuilt. As far as sights in Manila, that was all we wanted to see. There are loads of taxi-like vehicles called "Jeepneys" everywhere. They are much cheaper than taxis but I've yet to figure out exactly where they go. They are painted bright colours, with all sorts of horns, aerials, badges, air fresheners and every other tacky accessory you can think of. They seat 12 but you can get about 25 locals in quite comfortably.

Images from Intramuros the Manila Cathedral and the ruins of Fort Santiago

The morning after we arrived we booked our plane tickets to Boracay Island (for Saturday) and caught a bus to Baguio in Northern Luzon (7 hours away). Baguio is the gateway to the rice terraces in the north and our stay there was brief - only one night - first thing the following morning we were back on another bus, this time for 9 hours, heading further north to the town on Banaue, the heart of the terrace scenery. We found a ridiculously cheap lodge for less than $2 a night for the both of us, with superb views of the valley. Sitting on a bus for the best part of two days can be very tiring so that night the both of us slept for 12 hours.

The view from our lodge in Banaue

At the lodge we had been offered a tour of the surrounding terraces at a cost of 500 pesos for the both of us, including a guide. "You must take a guide sir, the path is very narrow and hard to find in places." we were told. "Nonsense" I said, "We'll do it on our own". I was very pleased with myself when I managed to arrange a tricycle ride to the lookout point and the start of the highly touted tour for only 70 pesos. I was even more pleased when we came across some of the traditional Ifugoa people and had my photo taken with them. And even 30 minutes into our walk I was still pleased with how thing were progressing but rice terraces can be very dangerous. At times we had to carefully negotiate narrow paths with delicate rice paddies on one side and 30 foot drops on the other. After about an hour we both began to regret not getting a guide because we were no longer sure if we were still on the correct path. We had both fallen on several occasions - Sara into a couple of rice paddies and I twice had the earth fall from beneath my feet while trying to steel my way around the edge of one of the embankments. In short, the path lasted about 500m and then quickly vanished. I'm not sure what the locals must have said to themselves when they saw two foreigners traipsing around their fields, in the hot sun, with no hats and not much water, trying to find a set of stairs leading either up or down. The 90 minute walk took us over 3 hours but we can honestly say that we have explored every avenue of the rice terraces at Banaue. The locals call them the eighth wonder of the world and I'm not inclined to argue.

A couple of Ifugoa people. So short, I had to squat down

The view from the top - choose your route carefully

Sara making her way down

Rest stop

One of the small huts dotted along the hillside

The view from the bottom

After a brief recovery period we boarded the worlds worst timed overnight bus - leaving Banaue at 5pm and pulling into some previously undisclosed location in Manila at 2am. Luckily the bus was virtually empty so we were able to stretch out and sleep. Once back in Manila we caught a taxi back to our old pension, but because they were full we ended up staying at the one next door. We have one night left here in Manila and at 9am tomorrow we fly south to the island of Boracay to spend 11 days on the beach.

The aftermath of a day in the sun with fair skin and no sun block