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Week 44- Y3(Jan 6th to Jan 12th) |
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Sunday:Two days til Philippines! Bring on the sunshine!!!! |
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Tuesday:
So I didn't sleep last night-- my flight from Seoul to
Manila was at 8 this morning, so I had to leave my
apartment at 4:30 am! When I got to the airport, I
was really surprised to find Jason, one of my friends
from the dance studio waiting in line at the currency
exchange counter-- turns out he's on his visa run to
Japan.
Anyway, the flight was easy and smooth. When I got
into the airport, my friend Bryant from Toronto told
me that he would be picking me up at "the posts
starting with V". This was mildly confusing, and it
took awhile for us to find each other, but finally we
did and we were on our way! Our first stop was lunch
in one of the many malls in Manila-- Filipinos
apparently loooove malls, and there are several
gigantic ones in Manila. This particular overlooks
Manila Bay, so it's a little nicer. After lunch, we
braved the insane Manila traffic to get to Bryant's
house, where I'll be staying in Manila. Bryant lives
in Quezon City, which is still a part of Manila. His
barangay (or neighbourhood) is very typical of a
Filipino neighbourhood-- narrow streets, little neighbourhood stores, houses really close together,
lots of kids and animals playing in the street-- crazy
and loud and colourful and lots of fun! Bryant's
family has lived in this particular house since 1957.
Living there now are Bryant's mom, dad, 2 brothers,
the brother's wife and their 2 kids. A busy
household! They also have a live-in maid, who cleans
and prepares all the meals. The whole family speaks
English exceptionally well, and Bryant's mom is a
total sweetheart-- very chatty and endearing!
I rested up for a little bit at the house, and then
Bryant and I went to Malate to meet up with his friend
Leo. Malate is kind of the financial district of
Manila-- when you're there it feels like Toronto!
Parts of Manila are so Westernized that it's hard to
remember where you are, but then other parts are so
distinctly Filipino that it's like a different world.
It's a really interesting city. We met Leo in this
area called the Greenbelt, which is kind of a bunch of
open-air connecting malls, restaurants and middle to
upscale shops. We had dinner at a restaurant called
the Banana Leaf, which serves all kinds of Asian food
on banana leaf plates. We had tilapia and chicken and
mango salad, plus I was introduced to the main beer of
the Philippines--San Miguel! Afterwards, we went for
some tea. So far I've been spoiled-- no one has let
me pay for anything! I can't wait to get out and
check things out tomorrow!
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Wednesday:
There was a huge festival downtown Manila today, so
instead of braving the festival, we decided to take a
day trip. The festival is the Black Nazarene
festival-- at the Quiapo Church, there is a life-size
image of Christ in ebony that is the only known black
image of Jesus in the world. Once a year the statue
is paraded through the streets. Filipinos have quite
the fanatic streak, especially when it comes to
Christianity, and apparently the festival can get
really out of hand-- most years, at least one person
gets trampled to death in the crowd (We learned on the
news later that this year was no exception-- 2 people
died).
So instead, Bryant and I drove 2 hours out of Manila
to Lake Taal. Lake Taal is a lake within a volcano
within a lake-- amazing! First we stopped in the town
of Tagaytay, which is perched on this long ridge high
above the lake-- there are amazing views from
everywhere in the town. We had lunch at a lovely
restaurant called Josephines, and I tried bangus
(milkfish), which is the main Filipino fish. The
restaurant had a really nice outdoor lookout point, so
we took some pictures and then we were on our way.
To get to the lake, we had to drive down this
incredibly steep and narrow road all the way down the
mountain. At the bottom, we had to hire a boat driver
and guide to take us to across the lake to the
volcano. The trip took about 20 minutes. Once on the
island, we hired 2 horses with guides to take us up to
the crater. When I say horses, I mean more like
donkeys-- these horses were so tiny that I felt guilty
for making it work so hard! The guide was also really
young, maybe 12 years old. Filipinos tend to put kids
to work at a really young age. Anyway, we rode up to
the crater, and discovered an amazing lake in the
middle of the crater, plus 360 degree panoramic views
of the whole outside lake. It was absolutely
stunning, and watching the sunset from there was even
better. One crappy thing-- after talking to some
other Filipinos at the top, we realized that we got
ripped off on the price of the horses. This is going
to happen a lot, just because I'm a foreigner. In
fact, I'm kind of surprised at how much people are
staring at me here-- I had assumed that Filipinos were
used to seeing foreigners, what with the Spanish and
American connections, plus the booming tourism
industry. But I'm still getting quite a bit of
attention. It's actually been really helpful to have
Bryant around, as he can haggle and ask question in
Tagalog (the main Filipino language).
Since it was getting dark, our guides took us down the
mountain really fast (turns out that my guide speaks
more Korean than English, due to the number of Korean
tourists!). We had to make the boat trip in the dark,
and it was pretty wet and uncomfortable-- these boats
are the not the most secure things I've ever seen.
And then we had the steep drive back up the mountain.
A long day, but totally worth it! Lake Taal is
famous for it's coconuts, and the main delicacy is
buko pie, which is a pie made with coconuts and kind
of a custard. We got a pie on the way home, freshly
baked, and ate in the car on the way back to Manila--
it was amazing! I'm going to be dreaming about this
pie for the next 6 months . . .
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Thursday:
Today was supposed to be all day sigthseeing around
Manila. However . . . the tires on the truck had to
be changed first for our road trip tomorrow. Bryant
and I were planning to get this all done early on in
the morning so we'd have the whole day, but alas, I
forgot to take "Filipino time" into account. First we
had to wait for his mother to wake up, and then we had
to wait for her to get ready. This ended up taking
quite a long time, so we took a walk around Bryant's
barangay (neighbourhood). I love it! It's busy and
bustling and colourful and crazy. There is an area by
the river that is occupied with squatters, who have
built little shacks along the river. Recently there
was a fire, and right now all these families have been
given temporary shelter at the basketball courts.
There's a real sense of community here. We also took
a little tricyle around the barangay-- tricycles are
motorcycles with a little side car attached. Really
fun!
By the time we got, Bryant's mom was ready and we
headed over to the mechanic to get the truck tuned up.
This ended up taking until 2pm! And then we had to
go back to the house to pick Julius (Bryant's
brother), so we didn't make it downtown until about
3:30. Our first stop was Quiapo, a very famous old
church that has a bunch of fortune tellers and
interesting salespeople in the plaza in front of it.
Apparently if you pay some money, you can do "prayer
by proxy", which means you can pay someone else to
pray for you if you don't have time!!! There are also
a lot of herbal remedies available in these stalls.
We walked through some of the market areas, and hopped
in a jeepney to Divisoria. A jeepney is like a large
jeep, and is the most common method of public
transportation. You just hop on, and pass your fare
forward and tap on the roof when you want to get off.
Divisoria is a huge market in Manila-- apparently it's
a little bit sketchy, so everyone has been a little
shocked that I wanted to go there at all, but when we
got there, it felt just like any old market in Asia.
Still Bryant and Julius were careful to make sure I
didn't get out of sight (it's like having a couple of
big brothers around). We needed to get back to the
car at Quiapo, so we took a kalesa through China Town.
A kalesa is basically a horse and carriage! These
used to be used all over Manila, but these days it's
only in a few areas. China Town was busy and
bustling. I love how vibrant this city is. However,
I'm kind of surprised that I'm being stared at as much
I am-- I guess tourists aren't really expected to go
to these areas. It's awesome to get the local
perspective.
After this, we drove to Intramuros. Intramuros is
this walled city within Manila. It used to be the
Spanish city, and has remained very much intact.
Unfortunately, it was almost sunset, and the church
and the fort were already closed, so we didn't get to
see any of Intramuros. I was pretty disappointed,
because this was the only day we had to see it, and I
missed out on it because of "Filipino time". I know
that if I was on my own, I could have seen the whole
city and more . . .
For dinner, we went to Malate, which is a popular
night area, and the foreigner district. We ate sisik
in an open air restaurant. Sisik is pork snout . . .
sometimes it's really better not to know what you're
eating . . . Filipinos have this dish called bulot,
which is an underdeveloped duck fetus egg. Apparently
I haven't been to the Philippines til I've tried it .
. . I'm definitely not planning on trying it!
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Friday (January 11): And so the road trip begins! Bryant and I woke up at
the crack of dawn to start our long drive up north.
We left at 5:30 for 2 reasons: 1st of all, it takes
about 9 hours to drive to Banaue, and the roads are
pretty rough. Second of all, Manila has this crazy
law where cars with certain license plate numbers
can't drive during rush hour 1 day a week. So
Bryant's truck can't be on the road in Manila on
Fridays between 7-10am and 3-7pm. This is supposed to
ease traffic (it's not working. Manila is a traffic
mess!). Anyway, we drove pretty peacefully for
several hours, through pretty little rural towns and
rice fields. I've noticed that it seems like most
towns and neighbourhoods are more colourful and lively
here-- there's usually lanterns or flowers or banners
hanging in the street. I feel like there's a much
stronger sense of community in the Philippines,
whereas I've never even met my neighbour in Seoul.
Anyway, it was easy-going for about the first 7 hours
. . . and then we started going up the mountain!
There were some difficult hairpin turns, but
fortunately Bryant is a pretty good driver, so I
wasn't too worried. We got to Banaue around 4pm, and
the town is really tiny, so it didn't take very long
to find a place to stay. Finding somewhere to park
was a different matter . . . in any case, not wanting
to waste any daylight, we basically dumped our stuff
in the room and took off to the viewpoint of the
famous
Banaue rice terraces. Banaue is a town that's really
high up in the mountains, and also the home of the
Ifugao tribe. The Ifugao people built terraced rice
fields up the sides of mountains about 2000 years ago.
They were functional-- a way to grow food even on
really difficult terrain. The Ifugao people have
maintained these rice terraces, and now they're
considered the "8th wonder of the world"! And
rightfully so-- they are absolutely beautiful, and it
boggles my mind that they were created 2000 years ago.
It was a little cloudy, but even so, the view from
the top of the mountain was pretty amazing. Sunset
from the top of the mountain was even better . . . And
I was pretty surprised to find ourselves alone up
there-- apparently it's low season for the mountain
provinces, so Banaue is just a sleepy little town
right now.
We had dinner at a little restaurant in town, and then
we went to a little bar with a live band. Since I was
the only Western female in the bar (actually the only
female period), I garnered quite a bit of attention.
I was a little creeped out and was pretty thankful to
have Bryant around . . .
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Saturday:
Bryant and I got up at the crack of dawn once again,
to squeeze in all the touring time we possibly can.
Unfortunately, it's raining and visibility is pretty
low, so this has thrown a little bit of a wrench into
our plans . . .
Saturday is market day for Banaue. We had hoped that
this would involve lots of cool traditional crafts and
what not, but as it turns out, the market is made up
of household stuff, to supply Banaue and the
surrounding towns with things they need! We're in
such a remote place that they can only buy these
things once a week . . .
After checking out the market, we crossed this very
wobbly-looking hanging footbridge and walked around
one of the villages. After climbing a steep and muddy
hill, we randomly came across a bronzesmith, who was
making beautiful silver and bronze necklaces! It's
kind of nice getting lost sometimes.
A little bit later on, we got in the car to drive to
Batad. Batad is supposed to have one of the most
beautiful rice terraces in the Philippines, and it's
actually so remote that you have to hike into Batad--
there are no roads going in. We didn't really have
time to do the hike, but we thought we'd drive to the
junction and see if we could catch some of the view.
The drive was terrible! Really bad and narrow dirt
roads on the side of a very steep mountain. When we
got there it was too foggy to see anything anyway, so
we went back the opposite direction to go to Sagada.
Now if I thought the road to Batad was bad . . . the 3
hour drive to Sagada was the most nerve-racking driver
EVER! It was pouring rain by this point, and it was
difficult to see even a few feet ahead. Add this to
the fact that we were on very narrow very steep dirt
roads on the side of sheer mountain drops, and you get
3 hours of nailbiting. There was no extra room for
cars to pass going in the opposite direction and there
were a few times where I literally thought we were
going to drive off the mountain . . . however, the
view was absolutely stunning (when I could actually
see it through the fog)!
We got to Sagada around 4pm and we quickly found the
cheapest place to stay. Sagada is a very very tiny
little town that takes about 10 minutes to walk
through. It's really laidback, and it's known for
hiking and caving. In fact, most of the surrounding
villages don't have roads at all, so they have to be
hiked to.
Since it was already pretty late, we went straight to
dinner at a place called the Bamboo Cafe. We had a
really nice and hearty meal there of fried rice and
beef in some kind of vinegar sauce. After dinner, we
were looking around for something to do, but there's
not much happening in Sagada-- in fact there's a 9
o'clock curfew for the whole town!!! I'm assuming
this is the town's way of curbing drunken antics |
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