We arrived in Manila (another plane thankfully finished with) and walked out of the airport. I didn't want to take a taxi and figured that we should be able to take some public transport out of here, so we walked out of terminal three and headed left. From there its only around a 500m walk and you reach a roundabout where there are jeepneys towards the LRT and MRT stations. We got on one of these for 8 pesos and sped off across Manila and got totally lost. We had to ask a lot of locals where we were and how to get to the MRT stations. They were really friendly and everyone helped us out. We noticed straight away that the people were significantly more helpful than they had been in Malaysia. Eventually some students told us that the LRT and MRT finished at 10pm and that we were too late anyway. Shit. We got down and hailed a taxi. He agreed to the meter and we went hurtling in what I assumed was the wrong direction. He was just going straight, straight and straight. Shit. We were going to be taken to the cleaners. I was frantically trying to find some reference point on the map to see if we were going in the right direction. Eventually I found one, just before he pulled up and told us we had reached the SM megamall. Hmm. He had driven directly and quickly to the destination. A rarity. He could have taken us to the cleaners and decided not to. I have to add Philippines to the list of honest taxi drivers, which includes only Russia so far. We got down and the Mall was closed. Shit. So we walked to Johanna's house and managed to get a sim card from a 24 hour shop. We texted her and entered her super nice apartment building. We chatted for a while before heading off to bed. They are a nice couple, but we didn't have the greatest chemistry, which is always a shame when you couchsurf.
The next morning Johanna made us a traditional Filipino breakfast, which was nice and we also had some buffalo cheese. Very creamy. We then set off for the GCIS art gallery. Manila has probably the worst air quality of any city I have been to. Just awful. Yet it has an energy and people are moving around. Everyone is buzzing and friendly. Everything about the Philippines reminded me more of Latin America than it did of Asia. The art gallery is really cool. They had all the recent winners of their art competition and it was an impressive collection. The guy working there even took time to show us around a bit. From there we walked to Intramuros. The old town is nice. Its mostly been touched up, but the walls are cool and it was nice to wander round some Spanish colonial buildings again. We had a lot of hassle from horse carriage owners who wanted us to take a ride with them, when we weren't really that interested. While visiting the fort I was interviews by some Filipino students as to what I knew about Rizal and why I was visiting the fort if I did not know him. I told them I knew a bit and that I was a fan or architecture. It was weird to be grilled on my historical knowledge. After the old town we wandered over to Chinatown where some random drunk guy hit on Cannelle. She was a little surprised by how much poverty there was in Manila. We even saw a young kid sleeping and walking on top of one of the bridge girders. Everyone was still being super nice to us. I had the feeling that we were going to really enjoy the Philippines, despite the shithole air quality. At least it didn't look like a cloud of piss, like LA. In the evening we met Ian and Johanna and they took us out to a local restaurant where we tried food from Palawan. Most of it was good and the seafood soup was delicious. I was having trouble working out why people mock their food so much. For me it was good so far. They even made us try the specialty duck egg embryo, which was an acquired taste. We had the tame version, where the embryo is only a few days old. Then we went onto a gig venue, where they had rock bands playing that night. Was a cool little place, if a little expensive. There was a funky rock band, followed by some thrash country mix, which was interesting and lastly there was a thrash metal (the annoying screamy, can't hear the singer type) band fronted by a very good looking lead singer. She had a nice voice, but it got lost in all the screaming. Very odd. Still it was a fun experience and then we met one of Johanna's friends who was working as a documentary maker about shoes that were given to poor kids for free so that they can get to school. Was an interesting night and we were still loving the atmosphere in the city.
The next morning we went and bought some snorkelling gear. We will finally get to use it in the next couple of days. With snorkel rental being expensive and buying a set being 10 euros it was a no brainer really. So many good places to snorkel, even if we dive some of them as well. Then we went to lunch with Mike and his couchsurfers (an Israeli and a French guy). He was a local guy who invited us to lunch and paid for everything. Seriously. What a generous guy. We had an almighty feast of all types of local food, from pork knuckles to a Bicol spicy vegetable dish. It was all delicious and he followed it up by taking us to have halo-halo, which is a Filipino pudding and not as nice as the mains. It was like a gluttony meeting. He has his own restaurant and we will have to go and try it when we are in Manila. We were continuing to enjoy the Filipino food and in general I'd say it was better than all the other South East Asian countries except maybe Malaysia, but perhaps that's because I don't like rice. Afterwards we continued out bumming around with locals, by going for coffee with Angelique (who we'd met in Hanoi) and another couchsurfer. We had a great day of just chilling out and chatting. The people are super cool here. The other girl even worked for 118 and could nail the English accent. Quite scary. We left the key with the security at Johanna's flat and I walked all the way to Cubao with my bag. Took quite a while. Cannelle took the train but I figured it was too packed. All the buses were full except the more expensive express bus, but in the end we opted for the 1am option. It arrived in Baguio at 7am and its never a good idea to take a short time night bus as you never get enough sleep to justify it. Just before we took the bus we went to a 7/11 to buy some bananas and the guy went to open a new box because the ones we were buying were a little bruised. Fuck me. The people are too nice here. Take note Laos. If you treat people like that then they will recommend your country. Awesome people.
We arrived half dead in Baguio and a local guy offered to take us to a cheap hotel after we told him 1200 pesos was too expensive. He walked us all over until he found a place and even haggled the price down. I waited for him to ask for commission or a tip. Nope. Nada. Ah it felt so nice not to have to fight for everything. We went to a cafe for breakfast and then ran into a problem with the laundry. The express service was very expensive. Shit. We decided to leave it for two days, go to Kabayan and pick it up afterwards. They gave us a discount. What the hell. You can tell they were an American and Spanish colony. Super friendly and exceptional customer service. We went hiking in Camp John Hay. Its a really nice pine forest area and we hiked up to the viewpoint, though they told us to be wary for stray golf balls. Its a very pretty, pleasant town. It won't knock your socks off, but its well worth stopping by. We found a weird joke cemetery which was quite funny, but no viewpoint. Shitty. The mini golf is not worth the trek as we didn't even play it and we always play it. We went to Volante and had a great pizza before I chatted with my mum online. We went to bed early as we were knackered from the night bus and off to Kabayan the next day.
We missed the alarm and were late for the bus, but luckily the first one wasn't until 10am so we missed nothing. LP says the bus fee is 170 pesos. They said it was 135. When the hell does that ever happen. I was beginning to love this country. Pure honesty. The guy handling the baggage recommended that we take the seat behind the driver as it had the best views. What the fuck. No trying to screw us for extra money, piling past us and sticking the foreigners in the shitty seats. What kind of country is this. They obviously have a lot to learn about South East Asian tourism and how to treat a foreigner like shit or an ATM. I guess that's why they are off the tourism radar. They'll learn eventually. For now though we can just enjoy travelling in a super nice country. A woman offered Cannelle some bananas. Ah its like Vietnam. No wonder the Dutch couple had looked nostalgic. The views on the bus are beautiful. Sit on the left to see the stunning terraces and lake. Lots of colours as well. Rich landscape. Different to Ha Giang, but also really cool. I think Cannelle accidentally ordered a guide for us, so he was surprised when we said that we didn't need one. There is only one hotel in town, so naturally its a beautiful pine wood chalet which charges only 500 pesos when they have a monopoly. What's wrong with these people. Do they want people to love their country or something. The guide fees are a bit ridiculous with 200 pesos to the national museum round the corner and right up to 1500 for Timbac. We decided to walk on our own to Tinongchol burial rock. A local pointed us to the start of the trail, which if you head towards the national museum and see the sign to turn left. Head straight in front of you instead and there is a little trailhead. It looks like you are walking into someone's garden but its a trail. It winds round the cliffs so you can see the beautiful rice terraces and continues round for 3km (just keep going straight) until you see a big iron bridge over the river on your left. Cross that and head up the road (the entrance to the burial rock is on the right about 500m up the hill. You will need to get they key first, which is held in the village above the bridge on the side you come from. Just ask around. Its a 20 peso donation for the key. They have cock fights out here on sundays and we just missed them. The burial rock is nice and has a swift colony that circle around it. The walk there is stunning though. Its not worth the guide fee, but its more than worth the donation. Its not difficult to find it yourself, which is a trend we found in the Cordilleras. We went back to town and had dinner in a Chinese guys place. Food was shit (maybe this is the fabled Filipino shit food), but the old guy was super nice. Not many tourists get out to these parts and everyone is smiley. Probably more so if you took a tour lol. We got some food from the supermarket for breakfast the next day and we were going looking for Pongasan Cave. We had decided not to do Timbac or Mt Pulag as they were a bit expensive and guides are mandatory.
In the morning we had breakfast with a rude and moaning French couple. Cannelle begins to suspect that her countrymen always complain. Sort of true apart from the free spirited ones, but they tend to be Anglophiles anyway. The guide popped up briefly in the morning again (he was liked Where's Wally) and then disappeared. The French couple hiked nowhere and were paying a fortune to leave via the North route. They didn't seem to have any fun, but they continued to fuel our should we/shouldn't we decision on Palawan. I lean towards no for El Nido (sounds like a glorified south of Thailand) and yes for Coron (but transport means it will probably be no). We set off and walked the steadily up and up route to Bangao for 7km. There we got the key for Pongasan Cave and they asked if we needed a guide. We said no and set off straight up. Its really steep. Really, really steep. There are many trails, but when the path splits take the left (with the two logs and bit of tape). This path winds up and up the hill, constantly crossing and recrossing a super steep path. You could take that one, but I would hazard that its probably a bit too sleep. You could slide down it at the end though if you felt like it. After a steep climb (I even abandoned the water halfway for hand holds) we got to a cave. Be careful of the palm leaf looking plants. They slice through you if you grip them. I tried to open it with a key. No luck. Cannelle had thought there was nothing in it. We went higher still and then I realised I had tried to open it with our room key. Fucking idiot I am. So we went back down and sure enough it was the key and the cave. Its on your left when the path stops winding and merges with the steep one. The bottom lock opened, but the top one didn't. Shit. It was rusted or broken or they gave us the wrong keys. All this way. All that effort and we wouldn't be able to have a look inside. Fuck sake. No mummies again. We descended despondently and gave the keys back. Shitty. Still it was a nice walk. Not as nice as the day before, but nice. We grabbed a noodle soup lunch and went to the National Museum. Its small, but interesting and we finally got to see a mummy. The process of creating the mummy almost made Cannnelle sick and its an interesting read. Lastly we decided to head to the Opdas mass burial cave where there was a crazy dog intent upon denying us access. When we eventually got past him, we visited the pile of skulls and bones. Then we went to sit on the wall overlooking the village and Where's Wally found us again. He said his kids had told him that we had passed and that villagers had asked him why he had allowed us to go walking on our own. Its very easy to find stuff yourself and not worth the money was the obvious answer, but he seemed ok as long as we had not visited Timbac on our own. If you want to save money, you can hike most of these things yourself. It will upset the locals a bit. If you want to make more friends and money is no object, then taking a guide will make you popular. You can decide for yourself what is more important for you. We took our dinner from the supermarket as locals had started to give us less friendly looks and there we chatted with some Filipino guys on holiday. They were off to climb Mt Pulag. They left us a long list of things to see in Sagada. Such nice people.
In the morning we got the bus back to Baguio. It was jammed, but everyone piled off in town and then people moved so that we could sit together. Considerate of them or they just didn't want to sit next to foreigners. We got back and went to get our visa extension. We stayed in Baguio Village Inn this time. Bargain 700 pesos as it had hot water. The process is super smooth if expensive. Manila is the only place where you can get a non express visa and that takes 10 days, so prepare yourself for the 3030 peso fee. We were now legally allowed to stay until our flight. Thank God. We were too lazy to do anything though I'd still like to see the Ben Cab museum. We got pizza again, before I snuck off to buy some candles for Cannelle's birthday. The only ones I could get were ultra tacky giant numbers from a bookstore. Oh well. Beggars can't be choosers. In the morning we chatted with a Spanish guy about seeing the whales (they had stonewalled us when we called them about volunteering and we decided to scrap that plan in the end) and took the bus to Sagada. 220 pesos. Again cheaper than LP. So far, so excellent.
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