As much as I loved China, it was time to move on from the coldness there and onto some sunshine. To the Philippines I headed. The Philippines, an archipelago, has many beaches but I decided that I would venture north into their “mountainous” region first. I highjacked a Russian, who would keep popping up in my adventures in the Philippines, and escaped the diesel scented, traffic jammed city of Manila. I’m glad I did this because it was up here that I noticed some South East Asian customs that I didn’t take note of elsewhere. For example, the orange stained teeth and red splotches on the ground from the betel leaf chewing, and the not so pleasant spitting and snot bombs.
People travel north to Banaue to discover the rice terraces. Banaue or Bagiou are the entrance points into this region. Although, not the rainy season for the province of Luzon, Banaue was experiencing quite a lot of rain for this period of the year. But we took a risk and ventured up there anyway. Initially, we bypassed Banaue due to rain, but did come back to do the trek through Batad famous for its amphitheater style stone rice terraces. This village has no roads to it. You have to trek down 45 minutes into a valley to reach the upper most part of the village and then continue to trek through the vastness of the rice terraces. As the terraces are made of stone, you have to marvel at the work required to make these terraces without any roads leading to the village. The views were absolutely stunning. Some of the terraces were empty and some had crops in it. I was so happy that I had returned to see Batad, as the view and the experience were definitely worth it.
We had also visited this sleepy town named Sagada which was 3 hours from Banaue. This town was a gem with its cozy guesthouses and quaint cafe and it was the gateway to adventure. Famous for its cave connection, this was so much fun and a must for anyone that visits the Philipines. I have always wanted to go spelunking and this was my first opportunity to do it. Of course, because it was in the Philippines, our only equipment was the gas lantern that our guide carried, and our only instruction was the rocks are slippery when wet. We spent 3.5 hours climbing through caves, or rather on our butts sliding across the rocks. We were sliding, climbing, hanging on ropes and traipsing through water. It’s called the cave connection because you pass between two caves. Fortunately because it wasn’t the high season, we only had to wade through knee high water instead of shoulder high. As we entered the second cave, we were serenaded by the sound of bats. I can’t put into words how exhilarating these 3.5 hours were as our nerves were high as we were noticing the drop offs on the other side of the rocks, should we not take the path or our guide. To add to the adventure, our lantern started to give out toward the end of the trip, but our guide was able to keep it going long enough for us to reach the light of the final opening before it went out completely.
I also had my first attempt at rock climbing. I climb indoors, but have never tried the real thing. The real thing is so much harder! It wouldn’t be so bad if someone would go and colour the stones to lay out the path that you must take. Fortuantely, I was given climbing shoes to help grip the stone better with my feet and I was given stretched out gloves as well. This helped but didn’t help because they started to slide off my hand. I’m not sure how high the climb was but I somehow managed to do it in one go and the guide was impressed and said that I did it in 5 minutes. It felt like eternity while i was doing it. I was overusing my grip because my feet didn’t feel as stable as they do on indoor walls. So after a rest, I attempted to do it again, but for some reason, there was a spot on the surface that was giving me trouble. I kept losing my grip and falling off. The guide and I were both perplexed at why this spot was giving so much trouble as I had done it before. As I was battling the surface, a group of Aussie’s passed by and at first started giving words of encouragement. Then one guy’s encouraging words turned into heckling. “Come on already, get up the wall!” This was not helping: tired, slipping, being watched and heckled was not the recipe for success. They moved on and I eventually figured out how to get past this area on the wall and I made it up the wall again. Back on the ground, the group returned and the guy asked if I made it up. So he decided that he would put his money where his mouth was and try climbing up. His first attempt saw him get up 1.5 metres before he stopped and asked to come back down. His second attempt, he got up higher, 2 metres and again came down because he was tired. He tried one more time and got higher, to the area that had caused me problems, but here he quit for his third and final time stating that he was just too tired. After being humbled, he returned to the ground and gave me praises for being able to go up the wall twice. Although, he filled me with pride, I still felt defeated by the wall, as I was so tired after those two climbs.
The north of Philippines is definitely a place to go and visit. Don’t just head for the beaches, but get a taste of all that the Philippines has to offer.
Marcia's Travels 