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Following a severe case of "Rock Fever" after spending months on Koh Tao, Thailand, my friend and I decided to go traveling in the Philippines. The scary stories and warnings were many, but we decided to go to see for ourselves - after all, few people get scared off by the same things, and we were also a bit curious and adventurous.
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We flew from Bangkok to Manila, so it was a natural first stop. Whatever warning we got about staying the the capitol of the Philippines, unfortunately turned out to have some truth in it, so we only stayed a couple of days. Manilas population is in excess of 10 million, and the crime rate is high. The thing I never could get used to, is the signs reading "No firearms or deadly weapons behind this point" that you will find in virtually every guesthouse, restaurant, shop, etc. in Manila.
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Beware of over friendly Filipinos - ignoring them can be difficult, but is strongly recommended. Don't believe "policemen" that stop you and the street, asking you to check you money to see if you have any false bills. Be careful trying to tip off government officials to get out of the queue for visa extension - in many cases you'll lose your money as some of these "immigration officers" are false, and will still have to spend the whole day queuing in front of different counters.
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We stayed in the Eremita area, which was okay, but I've never looked as much over my shoulder as I did there. A great place for getting firsthand, useful information is a pub called Hang's 'n - and they've got what must be the worlds best chicken wings.
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The US Clark Air Base used to be outside Angeles, but closed down after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. The city is now busy serving sex-tourists, and sadly, Angeles fully deserves the bad reputation it's got. However, there is another reason for going there too:
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Mt. Pinatubo erupted in June '91, ejecting more than 5 billion cubic meters of ash and pyroclastic debris, producing eruption columns 18 km (11 miles) wide at the base and heights reaching up to 40 km (25 miles) in the atmosphere, and above the volcano. Pinatubo unleashed three major destructive agents: Ash fall, pyroclastic flow and lahar that caused destruction to Central Luzon's infrastructure and rendered more than 86,000 hectares (332 sqm.) agricultural land into virtual wasteland.
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Mt. Pinatubo's eruption is the world's most violent
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and destructive volcanic event of the 20th century. In its wake 847 people lay dead, 184 injured, 23 missing, and more than 1 million people displaced. Hundreds of millions of dollars in private properties and infrastructure were totally ruined. Irrigation systems, water service facilities, power transmission and lateral lines, roads bridges and other infrastructures were damaged mainly by lahars while houses and public buildings collapsed from the weight of accumulated ash deposits. Commercial and industrial operations were suspended while more than 650,000 workers were forced out of work because of the destruction of their farms, shops, factories and work places. By December 1991, 61 municipalities and two cities had been declared as disaster areas.
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For months, the ejected volcanic materials remained suspended in the atmosphere, reaching as far as Russia and North America. This phenomenon caused the world's temperature to fall by an average of 1 deg. C (33.8 deg. F).
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Spending a day wandering and climbing in the area surrounding Mt. Pinatubo is a special experience - it felt like it must be to explore the moon, except for the
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gravity part. Beware that there is lot's of quicksand there, quicksand that "moves around", so it's virtually impossible to set up warning signs. There are plenty of excellent tour guides there - go with them! Before we went hiking, we thought that the quicksand-warnings were clever sales stories from the guides, but during our excursion, our guide walked into it up to his hips, and my friend up to knees. There is also a park center with plenty of information about the eruption, and they show movies and slides of the time before, under and after Mt. Pinatubo showed muscles.
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Why go to Baguio? Situated at an altitude of about 1500 meters (4.921 feet), giving milder temperatures in the summer, Baguio once served as a summer capital. It is still a place Filipinos from Manila and suburbs retreat to in the hottest season. It is a
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laid-back town, with plenty of parks and recreational areas.
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Back to the initial question... the answer is: No reason to go there! Not unless you look for faith healers - Baguio is overcrowded with them, mostly fakes. We only stopped there for one night on our way to the mountain provinces, but managed to get a glimpse of a rather interesting temple/church: Bell Church.
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The Bell Church is a cluster of small, ornate, pagoda-roofed temples set on a hill near La Trinidad. It was originally a Buddhist temple, but nowadays the priest practices a strange mix of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Christianity.
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Sagada
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From Baguio we went up in the Mountain region, to Sagada - altitude 2 194 m (7.198 feet). Sagada is famous for its hanging coffins and burial caves. Sagada is also said to be the Philippine Shangri-La.
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The people in Sagada is very friendly, but still they've found it necessary to practice curfew time at 9 pm. The buildings looks like poor sheds from the
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outside, but accommodation is charming and cosy, but remember to order a bucket of hot water the evening before you need it - unless you're comfortable with very cold showers.
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First day in Sagada, we decided to visit Echo Valley - or Valley of the Dead, as the locals refer to it. Centuries ago, the people of Sagada came up with a ceremonial burial ritual which involved placing the dead into hollowed-out logs and entombing the coffins in caves. These coffins are carved by the elderly before they die; if they are too ill or weak their son or other close relative will do it for them. The hanging coffins is an extension of this tradition.
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This ritual involves placing the bodies in a fetal position, pushing them into the tight spaces of the coffins, and often bones are cracked and broken as the process is completed. They believe that the dead bodies have to be positioned as if they were in the mother's womb, as
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they go back to this pre-birth stage after death. After the deceased are put inside these coffins they are then brought to caves high in the limestone cliffs, or into seemingly impossible locations and suspended on the cliff's face, where they join the coffins of other ancestors. Some of the bodies are mummified by stuffing lots of salt into the mouth of the diseased.
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If the dead was a great warrior or a good chieftain, those carrying the decomposed bodies sometimes tried to catch the drippings because they believed they would inherit the skills of the dead men. There is often a scramble by relatives and friends to carry up the bodies of their loved ones but the task is usually given to heavily built people.
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In some caves hundreds of coffins are lined up, located just inside the mouth of
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the cave. The coffins are never placed deeper inside the caves, because they believe the caves are full of evil spirits.
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both the dead and other peoples customs and culture. Help preserving the rich Sagadian culture - let the dead rest in peace!
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The next day we hired a local guide to explore the Sumaging Cave, south of Sagada. The cave is created by water erosion, and has a magnificent and unorthodox display of stalactites, stalagmites and fascinating chambers - many with imaginative and describing names. A part of the cave, know as The Tunnel consists of a series of tiny passages requiring crawling to pass through - any experience with limbo will come in handy here.
Historically, the cave served as hiding place of Filipino soldiers and Guerillas during World War II. In pre-Christian Sagada, this was also a habitat and eventually also became burial grounds for the Igorot People. Due to looting grave robbers, no burial graves are found there today. A mind-blowing fact is that Sagada, on an altitude of 2 194 m (7.198 feet), once was underneath the sea - fossilized seashells embedded in the walls are found several places in the Sumaging Cave.
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To fully explore the cave, it is necessary to hire a guide equipped with kerosene lanterns and ropes. I recommend to start early in the morning, to avoid too many other parties - the cave can get pretty crowded, and then you'll loose the feeling of being a "true explorer". We started our descent 8 am, and only met one other group on our way out again. The entrance of the cave indicate the massiveness, and manmade steps make the initial descent easy. You cannot miss the distinct smell and sound of thousands of bats, but after passing them near the mouth of the cave, the rest of the descent is completely bat-free.
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After passing the bats, you remove your footwear. Walking barefoot on the rocks give an excellent grip, and the absence of sunlight means no algae to slip on. You will pass waterfalls,
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and excellent swimming opportunities are offered by the many water-filled pools at the bottom. I decided to jump in one of them, and it was... refreshing! :o) Also a strange feeling to go for a swim 100 m (328 feet) below the earth's surface.
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A place definitely worth visiting, is the Eduardo Masferrè Studio. The photographer Eduardo Masferrè, early recognized what "civilization" would do to the societies of the mountain regions of North Luzon. From the 40s to the 60s, he traveled around the region, documenting the priceless cultures of the various tribes. These trips were quite an achievement, as the tribes were (and some still are) head hunters, and extremely skeptical to strangers.
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His concern to to document the lives of those people before the onrush of the modern world changes them irrevocably. earned him a distinguished title as one of the country's cultural heroes in 1999.
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Masferrè was the child of a Spanish soldier and a Kankanaey woman from Sagada. He was born in Sagada, but left to study in Spain when he was five years old. Later, he came back to Sagada and worked with the American missionaries.
His interest in photography started during his teenage years. Working as a teacher at St. Mary's School, he took up photography as a hobby, bought his first camera in 1933 and he was self-taught in the art of photography.
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Banaue
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From Sagada, we went to what we had heard was the wonderful village of Banaue... we didn't find anything wonderful about it, in fact it was quite sad and boring.
However, the trip to Banaue is was a beautiful ride through the mountains.
Banaue has breathtaking rice terraces,
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but they somehow bleach a bit after visiting Batad. Our only reason for going to Banaue was to get a good nights sleep, and a chance to start early on our hike to Batad.
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Top of page
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Batad
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The village of Batad, famous for its amphitheater -shaped rice terraces, is found on the World Cultural Heritage list.
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We were told that the trip Batad, would be a real off-the-beaten-track experience, which it indeed was. We were also well advised to start the trip early. After a 12 km (7 miles) jeepney ride outside Banaue, we got "kicked out" in what appeared to be The Middle of Nothing of Luzon. After some looking, we found a steep and slick dirt track, and for two hours, it was all uphill - good thing we started the climb 7 am, before the sun got too strong. At the top, a man selling refreshments waited for the two of us - if you find hot, overpriced Coke refreshing. The view was breathtaking - we were overlooking the
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Batad rice terraces, and in the valley below we could see the palm-covered roofs of small huts and the steeple of the village church.
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From the top, we had an hour descent on small steps built into the rock walls, on dirt tracks, and sometimes balancing on the edges of the rice terraces. The ancient walls, with sheer drops on either side, were built by hand using primitive tools. Most were moss-covered, and many were coming loose.
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It is estimated that the Ifugao people started building the rice terraces 2000 years ago, and new ones are constantly added. They rise from the valley to heights up to 914 m
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(3.000 feet), the height of a twenty storey building - a substantial feat of engineering, which leads to some referring to them as the eight wonder of the world.
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When we arrived in the village, people everywhere met us with their hand hold out and the word "Peso". That was a big disappointment, but the nature and rice terraces more than made up for it. Seeing Batad means a lot of sweat, and sometimes you might wonder what you're doing - but it's definitely worth it.
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Puerto Galera
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After traveling the in the mountain region for some time, it was time to get wet again, so we headed for Sabang, Puerto Galera, on the island of Mindoro, which is just south of Manila.
Puerto Galera attracts travelers, and divers prefer Sabang, where you find most of the dive shops.
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Sabang used to be a backpacker-trap, but now it has turned into a regular tourist trap.
We spent most days diving, afternoons on the floating bar anchored in the bay, and nights on various pubs and clubs. Sabang is great party!
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PMT - Filipino Maybe Time
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Traveling in the Philippines really taught me a good lesson about the limits of my patience... and how to stretch them.
From Puerto Galera, we decided to go island hopping, and that's when we learned:
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- Nothing runs on scheduled time
- There's absolutely no point in getting angry/frustrated
- Never make plans for connecting boats or buses without paying attention to above facts.
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This goes for every kind of public transportation outside the bigger cities, and we soon got kind of used to it - even if it meant that we needed to stay an extra night in the middle of absolutely nothing. We also soon agreed that the lesser stressful ways of traveling was either by outriggers or jeepneys. Of course, they never run on time either, but it is definitely the nicest way of traveling - even when you get a two hour unscheduled stop because your jeepney driver has forgotten to fill up the fuel tank before leaving the village. This happened when we crossed Tablas Island, on our way to Boracay - and according to one of the locals it happened quite frequently.
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Boracay is a tourist-trap island, briefly described in the diving section of my web page. When we decided to leave Boracay, we experienced the worst, or maybe best(?), example of PMT. My friend went to the official tourist information office, to find out the best way to get to Cebu. She came back with brochures and timetables, and we decided to go by outrigger to the island of Panay, and then by ferry to Cebu. So far, so good... and the outrigger from Boracay was almost on time. Arriving in Caticlan at Panay, we went to Kalibo, which is the closest village to Roxas, where the ferry left from. In Kalibo, we got this sudden urge to get our information about the ferry to Cebu confirmed - which turned out to be impossible, as nobody knew nothing about anything... We then decided to take a taxi to the terminal in Roxas to check with the ferry company, and that turned out to be a vise decision. When we arrived, there was no ferry in sight, which we found a bit strange as it was supposed to have arrived the same morning - and depart again in the afternoon. In the terminal, it was nobody in sight, but in some offices near by, we found a helpful man who informed me that the ferry didn't leave until the next day... So much for the official tourist information on Boracay!
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We went back to Kalibo to find a place to sleep, and as there isn't much to see and do in Kalibo, we decided to go back to Roxas after breakfast. Again, a wise decision! The man we had talked to in Roxas the day before told us that the ferry would leave at two o'clock, but when we arrived we learned that it were scheduled to leave at noon. When we bought our tickets, we asked them how long the trip was, and they answered 8 hours. Well onboard, we discovered
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that we had first-class tickets to our own cabin w/shower, and thought this was a bit strange fore an eight hour ride... until we met the officers who said "...8 hrs??? No, no, no - that's Mondays - today's Wednesday, and then trip takes 26 hrs. Enjoy trip - take pictures of us. Very nice. Yes?" Well, yes - and no! We had a nice, relaxing trip, but we arrived in Cebu when Easter holidays had started, so virtually everything was closed. We managed to find a place to stay and something to eat - and lucky enough, a bus to Moalboal the next day.
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My vocabulary isn't big enough to describe the bus trip from Cebu to Moalboal, neither in English nor Norwegian - but I was scared! Can't remember being that scared before, and was the happiest person in the southern hemisphere when we finally arrived.
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Basically, there are three reasons for visiting Moalboal:
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- Scuba diving
- Mountain biking
- Chilling out in paradise
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We went there because of the diving, but found that the laid back life was a great add-on value. Another add-on is that you can get both dark rye bread and proper coffee there... TA-DA!
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We planned to go island hopping further south, but it was lot's of conflicts in the area, so we decided to skip it.
My overall opinion of the Philippines is that it is a beautiful country, with a diverse and stunning nature - it's definitely worth it going there. However, traveling as women can be pretty annoying and stressful, so my advise is to travel with a man - he can be your brother, cousin, father, uncle, friend, whatever, just remember to introduce him as your husband... then you will escape most annoyances, and be free to fully enjoy a truly interesting country.
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