Philippines Part 3 (Vigan, Laoag, Manila and Taal volcano)

Not sure if I mentioned the bitch of a journey we had to get to Vigan.  The lying bitch in Banaue wanted us to pay 450 pesos for the bus to Baguio even though the price was 330.  She told us the bus was bigger and so the price was higher.  We found the original jeepney driver who took us to Solano for only 100 pesos.  From there we jumped onto another jeepney to Buyombang for 30 pesos.  It was a complete waste of money as we could have just stayed in Solano and waited for the bus to come by.  After around 30 minutes of waiting, the original bus from Banaue came by.  Low and behold the price was now just 200 pesos to go all the way to Baguio.  So we had paid the 330 pesos that was the price and not the 450 like all the other tourists who were on this bus.  I would recommend grabbing the jeepney to Solano and just waiting there for the Banaue bus to pass through.  Should be 100 and 220 more or less.  We went back over the mountains by Kabayan and grabbed a noodle soup.  We grabbed a McDo and I found out that Spurs had lost 1-0 at home to Fulham.  Shitty as that was going to hurt us in the race for 4^th.  For 80 pesos we got a local bus to San Fernando and after a bit of a wait we finally picked up a bus for 202 pesos to Vigan.  So instead of the 800 pesos we had been quoted to get to Vigan, we ended up paying only 612.  The last bus even gave us a 1 peso discount because we started off without a seat.  How generous!  We found a cheap room in Vigan for two nights and finally got some rest.

In the morning we took a bus out to Santa Maria church.  Its UNESCO and its nice, but its somewhat overrated.  Not really worth going out of your way to see, but it’s a nice morning trip.  Then we visited the historic old city.  The centre is very cute.  Reminded me a lot of Latin America.  Its definitely the prettiest town in the Philippines, although the historic centre is very small.  It does not take very long to visit the city.  Only around a couple of hours.  You could almost day trip it from Baguio in a long day.  I did some writing and that was the last time I came back to this blog.  There was some shitty tv about Alaska gold mining and that was about all we did that day.

The next day we got an early bus to Laoag.  We grabbed a hotel and set off for Pagudpud for the day.  We’d heard it was a really nice beach town.  It was 100 pesos for the first bus and 60 for the second.  This turned out to be a disappointing trip.  The famous windmills are just a bunch of wind turbines along the coast.  Underwhelming.  The famous lighthouse is so-so and not worth going out of your way to track down.  When you arrive it’s a very long walk down to the beaches as well.  We stopped for lunch at a great German restaurant and had schnitzel.  They wanted 40 pesos to enter the private beach and I didn’t want to pay so we ended up just going back.  Laoag the town itself is quite nice.  Nicer than we expected.  Yet we couldn’t help feeling that it was a waste of time coming to the North of the Philippines.  We have felt that we could have had the time again to change our decisions with where we visited here.  So much to see and not enough time.  Everything in Vigan and Laoag was nice, but they weren’t worth the three days we lost to get there.  Pagudpud was especially not worth it, because we would see many great beaches in the Visayas.  We watched Oz which is a good film, but not great.  Very apt for the North of the Philippines.  We found some people to climb Pinatubo with and so we decided to head back to Manila for a couple of days.

There were no morning non-aircon buses to Manila.  Shitty.  So we grabbed a bus to Vigan and from there we picked one up to Manila.  The people texted us about the Pinatubo climb, but we had no credit and we were trapped on the bus ride from hell.  So fucking long.  So fucking long.  I don’t wish this trip from Laoag to Manila on anyone.  When we finally arrived in Manila we couldn’t find a cheap hotel.  Everything in Malate was either closed or no longer cheap.  After a long slog we eventually went to the Adriatic Hotel for 3 nights.  It’s a bit of a sexpat den, but it’s the cheapest there is.

The next day we headed to Taal volcano.  On the bus a local guy started chatting with us.  The usual Filipino friendliness.  He told us that its not worth visiting the volcano itself and that the most impressive thing is the view from the crater.  We got mobbed by tricycle drivers the moment we stepped off the bus and everyone wanted us to take a boat tour with them.  We navigated the swarm of touts and the local guy invited us for cakes and coffee in a really nice place.  Amazing apple crumble.  He also invited us to come and stay at his house in the mountains.  Its frustrating sometimes to travel with a time limit.  It should be easier next trip when we only have a money limit.  The local guy gave us a ride to the park from where you get a great view over the volcano.  Its really beautiful.  Immense.  We just chilled out while watching it.  In the evening we grabbed some schwarma  and now had a spare day in Manila.

What better way to spend a spare day than doing a laundry.  We sorted that out in the morning and it was long overdue.  Then we watched the Silver Linings Playbook, which is much better than I was expecting.  The end also made sense now.  We had seen just the last 5 minutes in Krabi and it had made no sense whatsoever.  We then went for dinner with Mike again.  He again was super generous and at his restaurant he bought a huge feast for us and an American and Italian couchsurfer.  Again it was amazing food.  Following the meal we went to his brother’s place for drinks.  It was another good night in the Philippines and another illustration of the generosity of the people.  When we finished we walked back from Malati to Makate.  Some teens sent us the wrong way and that added an hour to the walking time.  If you don’t know where the place is can you stop giving fucking directions.  People say that Manila is a dangerous city, but its not really.  Bad air, bad traffic yeah, but dangerous no.