Irene and Matthias on the Philippines, 2005

Philippines......Honestly I did never really know anything about the Philippines, besides that the ADB has its Headquaters in Manila, and i linked Manila with crime and shooting. YOU? I mean, what did you really know about this country. Green, yes. Rice, ok. Well...lets find out.

On my first trip back into the arms of my beloved bao bei, we decided to take once again the advantage of AirAsia and to go for our most favorite shared hobby. Tripping....so lets get some strenght, namely Mee Mee Hoon (yummy)and of we go...

Our first stop was - after we left Manila (or better Pasay City) as soon as possible - the Pagsaghan Waterfalls, close to St. Cruz…about 100 KM in the South of Manila. The 3 ½ hours ride made us realize being back in Asia. The streets gave us no chance to read or to drink (and we tried it) and made us realize that we will have to skip even more of our stopovers, due the max. speed has been 50 km/h, which was seldom reached because the bus would have jumped higher than a meter and moreover had to stop every few km to pick up people or traders.

The falls have been very nice. It takes a 45 minutes canoe ride (the prizes are set by the government and it is even forbidden to tip, because some years ago the skippers took exorbitant prizes, which made the government interfere.) through a canyon, where they shot most of the jungle boat trip scene of “Apocalypse Now” and even when we were there they shot a new movie, but we could not find out which one. It was almost the only place we met tourist (mostly Korean) for the whole trip.

We went on to San Pablo to find out that the train schedule for the only train track on the Philippines has been reduced to one train in each direction a day. Of course we did missed the train to Naga, where we initially planned to hike on the Mt. Mayon (the most dangerous Volcano worldwide – still extremely active (last burst 2002) and you can see the lave lake from the edge (only about 40-50 meter below)).

Skipping Mt. Mayon as well we stayed in San Pablo, that has about 7 Volcano Lakes and explored the surroundings. Oh….I forgot. FOOD. We had our first real contact with local food in San Pablo. The food varies between pork, beef, chicken and fish + RICE. The chicken is good – it is roasted. But the rest consist mostly only of innards, and the fish is not cleaned – but fried. The Sate is small or big intestines…..I did not ask for the rest….but it tasted mostly like pure fat. Well….they have quite a range on breakfast biscuits and cakes; that makes the breakfast to a feast compared to the rest of the day.

We stayed in San Pablo to go the next day. The experiences this night have been quite nice. The Philippines are at least 1-2 time zones behind Indonesia (, which is 1 hour before Singapore-they cheated). But for the same economical reasons as Malaysia (that is normally one hour behind Singapore as well) the Ph did not adjusted there time and kept the same time zone as Singapore. This means……..it’s getting dark at 6 pm and due electricity is rare and streets lamps are actually not existing, your options to walk around are quite limited. So we joined some street gambling and some bingo and returned early to our hostel (300 Pesos a night for both (55 Pesos are one US$)).

We spent the day by walking around the lakes, looking for other lakes, Shopping on the local food market, buying some beer fot the nights

, in which we played Carcassone...like always. :) But before that the kids showed us how to jump!

The Jeepneys are the local buses. These are restovers of the World War II, but the creativity of the Philippinos worked wonders.

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A kiss of a dragon.

Trycycles are of course everywhere. The Philippines are not different!

The next day we went to Banaue which is like 400 Km (11 hours) in the north. We really hope it was a misunderstanding, but they sent us to Baguio first. Baguio is 250 km north from Manila and only 100 km west from Banaue, but it took us another 8 hours (bus left at 8pm) to go from Baguio to Banaue…..we have reached the mountains !!!! We have no idea why we have been sent to Baguio, because there are direct busses to Banaue from Manila – where we had to change anyway. The people on the PH are really amazing and not to beat regarding openness, friendliness and kindness. Perhaps they just did not know.

Mein Mund an Deiner Brust

Irene, Du bist wirklich wunderschoen.

However, Banaue. It is known for its rice terraces. They are called the 8th world wonder. I don’t know if this is true, but they have been amazing.

We walked around the area the whole day and even went into the terraces for a 3 hours “hike” (with flip flops). A young girl was as friendly to show us around – but took 250 Pesos. It is really amazing btw. My most favourite topic “microfinance” is present everywhere, what gives me some good opportunity to annoy some people with my questions. Every village has at least 2 Rural Banks and almost everybody in the Philippines has a job. But you can not only see that, you feel it when in contact with people. Of course they ask if you want to buy something, but they stop with your first “no”. And kids are stopping begging immediately when giving some candy. Money is not that important than in the rest of Asia, what makes life as a tourist very comfortable. On the other hand….I have been main attraction wherever I came to. Not only that everybody smiled and laughed or even waved to me….many came and said “hi” and “good bye” and touched me, shook my hand and some even blessed me sometimes. It is weird but you feel good seeing so much friendliness around.

One of the 8th world wonders....

The next day we took a tricycle to Batad junction, from where we hiked for 3-4 hours (we have been quite out of shape) to this village, Batad, that is truly in a different world.

No cars, no streets, no telephone, no nothing. To walk around means to walk on the terraces or trough the “gardens” of the inhabitants. They have some paths, esp. where it is quite steep, but even those crossed the “gardens” of them. Still. The people smile to you and invite you….They talk to you and show you around (e.g. the waterfall), share their food and homes….the kids played with you.

It was really nice and even the food was 3 times the normal prize, it was the first and only good food we had. And if you have a chance….you really have to drink original rice wine….it is really yummy – and strong, my lord!!!!!

We went to bed quite early to get up at 3 am, hiked back in the dark with ONE headlamp, to reach the junction at 5:45 to reach Banaue at 6:45 to get the bus to Dangupan, that is close to the 100 Islands national park, to spent our last days at the beach. The 13 hours ride, changing in Baguio has not been the best. We arrived in the night, and spent 1 day around this area, a bit spoiled, bought some local CDs and spent the next day on a lonely beach…..with sun and rain in a good mix.

It has been really a nice trip and we CAN recommend the Ph for further trips. Due almost everybody speaks English (science is taught in English and almost everybody went to school (10 years – or at least elementary school for 4 years – the government schools are free of charge and private schools are around 1000 Pesos a months)) and the people are very open, it is not to difficult to come around. The problems of the limited travel speed should be better in the south due you have to take a boat all the time, but the street are worse – I wonder how? Still…..most of the deep south is strictly to avoid. Bohol and everything that is further down is No-Mans-Land. The government has no influence at all, terrorists groups and war lords are ruling everything, esp. in the Muslim areas, and fights are ongoing. It was btw the first time the Lonely Planet was a bit short on almost everything and for a 2 year old edition not up to date at all…….a shame

c u next time...