Road trip part 4 - Sagada

After a night in Banaue we decided to move on to Sagada. We stayed it a very cute lodge called The Rock Inn that was aimed at backpackers. It is clean in a lovely location just a few miles out of the town itself.

Sagada's main tourist draw is it's hanging coffins. The people of Sagada have devised a unique burial ritual involving the placement of dead relatives into caves or hung from cliffs after carefully preparing a hollowed out log. 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. This ritual involves pushing the bodies into the tight spaces of the coffins, and often bones are cracked and broken as the process is completed.

After the deceased are put inside these coffins they are then brought to caves high in the cliffs where they join the coffins of other ancestors. The Segada people prefer to be buried in the cliffs than to be buried in the ground and have been doing this for more than 2,000 years.

In some caves hundreds of coffins are lined up, and unfortunately tourists are unregulated in this area, some have even taken some of the bones as souvenirs. We went to one of the caves that had lots of coffins. It was pretty bizarre. There were hundreds of stacked coffins there. I guess if you come from a culture where you bury the dead, seeing coffins out in the open, is always going to seem unusual. It was an interesting experience.

All of us in the cave.

Having a look a the coffins.

The sign asks onlookers not to remove anything from the coffins. As if you would!!! But it seems that people have removed bones as souvenirs. I can't imagine anyone wanting a more gruesome souvenir.

Awesome cafe that served home-made yoghurt. (Obviously) The food was yummy there.

Liz wearing some layers for our walk to the cave. The temperature is gorgeously cool there.

Luzon Road trip part 3 - Banaue

In Baguio we found out that it was a monster journey to Banaue, our next stop. Everyone told us we had to go down the road we had come up to go to Banaue - see purple line. It would take 11 hours to go that way. Rachael and Andy found this one guy who said that we could cut across the middle of Luzon but we wasn't sure if the roads were open or not. We decided to take the short cut - see yellow line as it would take 5 hours less.

The road was pretty hairy at times but the view was amazing.

We came across this humongous dam that wasn't on the map.

After a long time in the car we were excited about getting to Banaue. It is heavily featured in all the Philippine tourism information as it is a Unesco heritage site. When we arrived it was getting dark and it was raining. We were surprised that the town of Banaue itself was very run down and dirty and we wondered why the Philippine government doesn't ensure that one of it's top tourism attractions isn't protected more. We went on a hike of the famous rice terraces the next day and had an amazing time. We had an awesome tour guide who was able to explain lots about the area, the Ifugao tribe and how the rice terraces were cultivated. We really changed our minds about Banaue on the hike as the rice terraces themselves were absolutely beautiful and the view was amazing.

This is Rachael and Liz's "We don't like Banaue town" look.

This was the view from the inn we stayed at. The town was full of shacks and everything looked pretty bad but just beyond the town was the amazing rice terraces.

Some pictures of the terraces. This scene features on the 1000 peso note (php)

These old ladies were so tiny! We were like giants beside them. They were from the Ifugao tribe but were now too old to make a living from cultivating rice or weaving so they hung out around the tourist areas and made money from people taking pictures with them. Genius if you ask me. They were very sweet.

Some more rice terraces.

Rice terraces... sensing a theme?

A terrible picture of me, Andy, Rachael and Liz.

Banaue is definitely worth a visit. The hike through the rice terraces was one of the best things I've done in the Philippines.

Camp John Gay Hay - Baguio

Ok, so this is the 2nd part of our whistle-stop tour of Luzon. Our first overnight stop was on Baguio. A mountainous area known for it's cool climate and strawberries. We had booked into the most well known hotel there called Camp John Hay. We had been Calling it Camp John Gay all the way to Baguio as they seemed a bit incompetent when we had booked with them. They had forgotten bookings etc. When we arrived we were very happy to find out that they had successfully booked us in and the hotel was beautiful. The first thing we noticed was the cool temperature. We had been sweating our asses off in 35 degree heat in Manila for months and when we arrived in Baguio it was cool. The rooms didn't need AC and we even wore hoodies in the evening. In the hotel they even had a fire in the Piano Bar in the lobby. I was so excited to see a fire in the Philippines.

This is the awesome fire. It was behind glass.

The hotel itself was lovely, it looked very alpine ski lodge in design and was well kept. what was very bizarre was the grounds it was set it. They definitely need updating. It is set in acres of beautiful woodland but the non-woodland leisure areas are not very well kept.

This is the hotel.

Rachel has a sad face because there isn't any swings on the swing set in the rubbish playground

This is Andrew showcasing another rubbish part of the grounds.

Back to the nice part. They decorated the trees with eggs for Easter.

The next morning we went for a hike in the hotel's eco-trail. Liz was feeling much more energetic than I was and jogged part of the way!

She even managed some yoga at the top!

With the grounds of Camp John Hay there was a really weird feature called the Cemetery of Negativism. The stone marker at the entrance says:

“Negativism is man’s greatest self-imposed infliction, his most limiting factor, his heaviest burden,”

“No more, for here is buried the world’s negativism for all time,”
“Those who rest here have died not in vain -- but for you a stern reminder
-- as you leave this hill, remember that the rest of your life be more positive”.
“Have a good day -- treat today like it’s your last, though it’s the first day of the rest.”

The cemetery itself is supposed to lay to rest negative thoughts and actions. I was bizarre as it had little headstones with animal characters on them.

The stone marker.

Weird headstone.

More weird headstones.

Finally a mini Statue of Liberty!

We didn't explore the rest of Baguio as we were leaving the next day to go to Banaue. But all in all I enjoyed our trip to Camp John Gay Hay as the food and service was very good.

Whistle-stop tour of Northern Luzon part 1

As I was off school for the Easter holidays I decided to join some friends on a road trip of Northern Luzon. Rachael and Andy White were the designated (and awesome) drivers of a car named 'Hungis'. Hungis apparently refers to someone or something that is greedy. This is Kiwispeak of course. Hungis was named this due to his prior greedy nature with petrol, but actually turned out to be a bit of a legend. He took through busy roads, over mountains with gravel for roads that lots of people thought he could't take. Those people were wrong. He even made it through a river!

Liz and I took our roles as back seat drivers very seriously of course. We made playlists on our ipods, handed out snacks, got crumbs all over the seats and gave great driving advice which I'm sure Rachael and Andy really appreciated.

We headed off on Saturday morning early and set off towards Baguio. On the way there we passed this crazy place with massive Buddha sculptures outside so we stopped to have a look. It was a massive restaurant, with fish ponds and statues everywhere. Very random. The customers sat in little nippa huts and the chefs came to bbq meat outside their huts. Here are some pictures:

This Buddha statue was MASSIVE.

These sheep were attached to little carts. They looked like they were designed to pull children around.

I actually felt pretty guilty taking these pictures of the sheep as they looked so miserable.

Big Buddha heads.

Buddha ladies.

This was a very bizarre part of this restaurant complex. Basically, you pay money to release your anger and frustration by smashing plates. They didn't want you to swear though.

They have painted lots of causes for anger on the wall for you to aim at.

On another part of the complex the smashed plates were piled up in a huge heap.

Not sure what they do with these broken plates but it seemed wasteful.

This is Andy, Liz, Erap (Joseph Estrada - former ousted president who is currently running for office again) and Rachael.

This was a really bizarre and gross statue. It was a chef figure that was just outside the kitchen. It appeared as if it was peeing but everything was covered by a real apron. When Liz lifted up the apron, the chef statue was actually holding it's willy!!

Giant random Buddha hand.

More huge Buddhas.

Hair plaiting.

Crazy bike made from taps.

This monkey was advertising a game customers could compete in. If the managed to stand in front of monkey fountains without getting wet received a free kilo of fish for the chef to cook.

More road trip pictures to come.

Wakeboarding in Lago De Oro

A few weeks ago a group of us went to Lago De Oro in Batangas to go wake-boarding in a cable park. We had an early start at 5.15 to get a taxis to meet Gemma and Caroline before heading off. On the way to meet the girls we passed thousands of runners taking part in a marathon. It was already pretty hot although it was still dark so they had a tough time ahead of them. We called out some helpful running tips from the taxi window but the runners didn't really look like they were appreciative... I wonder why?

It was a beautiful day in Lago. The sun was shining all day as it has been since we came back after Christmas. I didn't take part in the wake-boarding but everyone else had a turn. Mike has become a big fan and has been back again since this trip.

This is the pool that I hung out by all day.The South China Sea was just beyond the resort. Instead of wake-boarding, I listened to my iPod, had a mani-pedi and read a book. It was a lovely day out. The food is good there and they have lovely pizza.

Mike with his wake board.

Mike getting pulled by the cable.

Caroline's landing after doing a jump.

Caroline is quite good at wake-boarding. She was the only person in our group that could do the jumps.

The sunsets are beautiful at Lago De Oro.