I'm back in Manila for a few days after traveling north to Bagiuo, Sagada, Bontoc, Besao, and Banaue. A lot of shit has happened, and I'm a little pressed for time because this internet cafe is expensive and noisy (there are about fifteen Koreans playing Counterstrike and StarCraft at full blast while another kid is having the time of his life listening to Cartman sing "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch") so this won't be a comprehensive report. The last few days have been some of the most exciting, terrifying, disgusting, and memorable moments of my life. Let us break it down:
The next day I met Madonna (a friend from World Vision in Puerto) at the bus terminal and we continued our journey to Bagiuo. Bagiuo is a beautiful city that sort of looks like Corner Brook. It's a city of about 300,000 built on very hilly terrain, so the roads are constantly snaking up and down in every-which direction. I took a bunch of photos that I'll post on Facebook when I get the chance. While here I visited a few neat places starting with the Strawberry Fields of La Trinadad. I bought two bottles of homemade strawberry wine and a jar of strawberry jam. The wine ended up leaking all over my bag, ruining my guidebook, staining my clothes, and saturating my camera which then became a delicious home for teeny tiny ants. I left the jam in the fridge of the place I was staying. So, besides all the pictures I snapped, all I took away from La Trinadad was a kickass hammock and the memory of eating one day old chick. Sam, Madonna's friend and our guide, bought it for me and to be polite I tried some. It's exactly what it sounds like: a one day old baby chick with a stick rammed up its ass and out of its neck, roasted to "perfection". You're supposed to eat the whole thing - head, guts, bones and all. For the record, it tasted absolutely nothing like chicken. Madonna insists it's delicious, but she's a liar. Delicious is very very subjective concept. I suppose it is delicious when compared to something relatively more foul (ie. a chunk of shit), but on it's own it's disgusting. It's a shame too. It could've grown up to be a hearty soup or a nugget. Poor little guy didn't even get a chance to be delicious. Breaks my heart.
I left Puerto Princesa on the 20th and arrived in Malate (part of Metro Manila) that same day. Andrew was here for the day so he showed me around a little:
"Here's the internet cafe, there's the Starbucks, here's homeless family, there's a group of transvestite prostitutes..." And so on.
Actually I'm tempted not to write this, but here goes. We walked up the road, past the homeless family and were approached by the lady-boy hookers. We ignored the cat-calls and whistles but I had to respond when one of them grabbed me in a bear hug from behind. I wriggled away by twisting his wrist and narrowly avoided getting grabbed by the junk. Helllloo Manila!!
Andrew left the next day and I explored the city a bit on my own. North of Malate is the city of Intramurous, a walled city within a city dating back to Spanish colonial time. I took a lot of pictures and I'll post them on Facebook when I get back to Puerto. On the way to Intramurous I was approached by five or six outstanding gentlemen who tried to sell me everything from genuine Molex watches to Raybad sunglasses. My favorite was the seedy, sallow little man who slunk out of an alley with a brochure. The brochure had pictures of guns all up and down the inside. I figured he was providing me with options as to how I was to be mugged, but I was wrong. This guns were merely a small sample of the variety of weapons I could shoot at his firing range. I said I wasn't interested, which was a bold-faced lie, and started to walk away. It was at this point that he pulled out another brochure with pictures of women all up and down. Oh Manila....you scamp.
"Here's the internet cafe, there's the Starbucks, here's homeless family, there's a group of transvestite prostitutes..." And so on.
Actually I'm tempted not to write this, but here goes. We walked up the road, past the homeless family and were approached by the lady-boy hookers. We ignored the cat-calls and whistles but I had to respond when one of them grabbed me in a bear hug from behind. I wriggled away by twisting his wrist and narrowly avoided getting grabbed by the junk. Helllloo Manila!!
Andrew left the next day and I explored the city a bit on my own. North of Malate is the city of Intramurous, a walled city within a city dating back to Spanish colonial time. I took a lot of pictures and I'll post them on Facebook when I get back to Puerto. On the way to Intramurous I was approached by five or six outstanding gentlemen who tried to sell me everything from genuine Molex watches to Raybad sunglasses. My favorite was the seedy, sallow little man who slunk out of an alley with a brochure. The brochure had pictures of guns all up and down the inside. I figured he was providing me with options as to how I was to be mugged, but I was wrong. This guns were merely a small sample of the variety of weapons I could shoot at his firing range. I said I wasn't interested, which was a bold-faced lie, and started to walk away. It was at this point that he pulled out another brochure with pictures of women all up and down. Oh Manila....you scamp.
The next day I met Madonna (a friend from World Vision in Puerto) at the bus terminal and we continued our journey to Bagiuo. Bagiuo is a beautiful city that sort of looks like Corner Brook. It's a city of about 300,000 built on very hilly terrain, so the roads are constantly snaking up and down in every-which direction. I took a bunch of photos that I'll post on Facebook when I get the chance. While here I visited a few neat places starting with the Strawberry Fields of La Trinadad. I bought two bottles of homemade strawberry wine and a jar of strawberry jam. The wine ended up leaking all over my bag, ruining my guidebook, staining my clothes, and saturating my camera which then became a delicious home for teeny tiny ants. I left the jam in the fridge of the place I was staying. So, besides all the pictures I snapped, all I took away from La Trinadad was a kickass hammock and the memory of eating one day old chick. Sam, Madonna's friend and our guide, bought it for me and to be polite I tried some. It's exactly what it sounds like: a one day old baby chick with a stick rammed up its ass and out of its neck, roasted to "perfection". You're supposed to eat the whole thing - head, guts, bones and all. For the record, it tasted absolutely nothing like chicken. Madonna insists it's delicious, but she's a liar. Delicious is very very subjective concept. I suppose it is delicious when compared to something relatively more foul (ie. a chunk of shit), but on it's own it's disgusting. It's a shame too. It could've grown up to be a hearty soup or a nugget. Poor little guy didn't even get a chance to be delicious. Breaks my heart.
We also visted Mines View, a grand lookout over Bagiuo's mountainous terrain, and Camp John Hay, a popular picnic location in the same vein as Bowring Park, just hillier. I guess I should also mention that Bagiuo is pretty damn cold. At night it drops to about 5 degrees. On the way to Bagiuo we had to drive through a mountain range in Benguet province. It was so far up in the mountains, and at such a high altitude that it actually began to snow. Nuts.
One of my favorite parts of this mini-vacation was trekking through a huge cave network in Sagada, a town north of Bagiuo. We hired a guide in Sagada and walked 20 minutes to the mouth of the cave. I was told to wear sandals and shorts because there were parts of the cave where you had to submerge yourself in order to pass. I don't have a decent pair of sandals, but since I didn't want to ruin my jaw-dropping Sonnix I decided to wear my shitty shower sandals that are barely even good for standing in, let alone traversing slippy limestone escarpments. I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss the complete lack of safety provided by this tour. The guide had us climbing over wet, slippery rocks above sheer drops. At one point we had to shimmy, barefoot, down between two rock walls with a waterfall running over us. We also had to use a rope to climb a near vertical cliff. I never really expected anything different. After all, it's not unusual to see a family of five buzzing through the city on a motorcycle. Dad in front, baby balanced on his lap; mom in back, groceries in one hand, infant in the other; big brother or sister hanging off the back; all gloriously helmet free. The cave was pretty awesome though. We were crawling all over the place like fucking spider monkeys, slipping in the water and wading though chest deep underground lakes.
I wrote another entry in my notebook about my experience back to Manila. It covers more of the terrifying and disgusting elements of my journey, so I'll post that soon. I'm in Legaspi now and have already booked a day trip to climb Mt. Mayon and hike around the lava fields. Should be fun. I've only been in Legaspi a few hours and I already can't wait to get out. Msybe I'm just in a bad mood, but most people here seem to have brain damage. It took 15 minutes, 15 fucking minutes, to explain to the saleslady that yes, I do want a medium sized raincoat, but no, I do not want it in neon pink. This escaped her. I went to the supermarket to buy a bottle of water and an apple and no less than 20 people rammed into me from every possible direction, always looking in the opposite direction or at their feet. Come on people...two year olds do that.
That's all for now.
That's all for now.
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