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Published: June 12th 2019
The title is the story of our Philippines trip. Juxtapositions of loveliness and horribleness.
We were in the country to visit Magdalena’s sister who lives in Manila and I somehow managed to convince them that we ought to visit places that I hadn’t visited on my last trip to the Philippines.
Example 1: Under the sea off of Sabang vs Sabang the place We went to Puerto Galera only for the diving. Magdalena and Agnieszka wanted to learn to dive and I would do the Rescue course at the same time. Sabang itself is quite nasty. The “beach” is mostly chunks of concrete, the restaurants spill onto it with pipes emptying unknown liquids into the sea, behind this are narrow smelly alleyways, and the bars are inhabited by aging overweight white men each with their own tiny extremely young-looking extremely bored-looking Philippina.
However, go a few hundred metres from the shore, put on some scuba gear and sink to the bottom, and you’ll find a paradise. The coral reefs are incredible. Some of the most varied and healthiest I have ever seen. Hard corals of every imaginable type, soft corals wafting in the current, with
not a sign of bleaching nor damage. And the fish-life is beautiful to match; I didn’t see anything individually spectacular (maybe I’m spoilt) just the usual colourful reef fish but lots of them. It’s hard to perceive how somewhere so lovely coexists with somewhere so nasty.
Example 2: Sagada vs Banaue Sagada could be classed as a dark tourism location as the sights generally revolve around death. The hanging coffins and burial caves are what bring most people to the town. Despite this, it’s a friendly place in a beautiful setting with quite a lot to do. We were initially disappointed to learn that nothing could be visited without a guide but the tourist office in town arranged things for us and the price was low. And our guide was great. We only wanted to visit the coffins in the mouth of the cave but ended up on a four-hour journey through the cave system to emerge who knows where. The journey involved climbing, wading, squeezing through narrow passages, it was much more extreme and much more fun than we anticipated. The cave was pretty too with some really big caverns and strange rock formations –
as well as the odd coffin and skull.
We organised for the same guide to take us to the hanging coffins the next day which are a short walk from town past the church and interesting cemetery. The older coffins, as in the caves, are quite small. Not because the people were small but because people were placed in a foetal position. When Christian missionaries arrived, they changed the tradition insisting that corpses had to be laid straight with arms across the chest. However, the missionaries were fine about the continuation of hanging the coffins or placing them in caves. This practice has only diminished in the last decade or so. The coffins were hung or placed first then the community would form a human chain and the corpse would be passed along and put into the waiting coffin.
Walking back through town, the streets are fairly quiet, there was a street market where we bought some delicious local honey (still using on our porridge in the morning) and we found a nice crepe maker.
Banaue town on the other hand was awful. All roads are very busy and narrow so dangerous to walk along. It’s ugly,
Taal Volcano crater
The world's biggest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island.dirty, pretty smelly and you have to watch out for people spitting moma (betel nut) everywhere. It reminded me of travelling in parts of India. We struggled to find a decent place to eat and our guesthouse was fusty and damp.
Example 3: Maligcong Rice Terraces Hike vs Banaue and Batad Rice Terraces Hike We called in at Maligcong just to break up the journey to Banaue from Sagada. We had no idea what to expect and no plan. On arrival in the village at the end of the very long winding uphill cul-de-sac, we asked around the couple of empty guesthouses to find out where the rice terraces were. We eventually roused a young girl who went to fetch her mum. Mum then offered to be our guide. Magdalena accepted before any discussion of cost – more on that later.
We were led up a hill through a bit of a forest. Initially this was surprising as there were no rice terraces in sight. Then we emerged onto a ridge and the view was spectacular. I’ve seen some rice terraces round and about the world but none as stunning as at Maligcong. We then
descended and walked in and amongst the rice terraces, which was even more satisfying than the view from above. Rather than being all vivid green, many of the rice terraces were just being planted with many, surprisingly cheerful given how arduous it looked, people working away. Some terraces were being flooded, others planted or repaired, others were being ploughed, and in some the rice was well grown, leading to a beautiful patchwork or colour. Strolling/balancing along the mud and stone-built terrace walls for a few hours was delightful and we saw no other tourists. I’ve rarely taken so many photographs in such a short amount of time.
After 3 hours or so we returned to the lady’s house. Including bottles of water and frozen coconut on sticks she charged us… I can’t remember but we were amazed by how little it was. Hopefully, tourist hoards will not discover this place and turn it into:
Batad Rice Terraces was a whole different experience. Don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely stunning. Perhaps it is a more dramatic setting than Maligcong. At Batad you have a steep amphitheatre of terraces clinging to a steep valley side that was lush and
Santa Maria Church
Near to Vigan and one of UNESCO's "Baroque Churches of the Philippines". green at the time of our visit. However, as an experience, Maligcong wins hands down. We were advised that we’d need a guide, which is probably correct as trails are numerous. The guesthouse in Banaue continuously advised us that many of our requested routes on the map were too far and too strenuous. The map had suggested walking times and many trails were stated as being 5-7 hours despite not appearing to be great in distance. We decided on a route and a guide was arranged.
The next morning our guide, high on moma, unbeknownst to us missed out the first part of our requested route. We then reached Batad a lot sooner than expected. The half-day trek which we had been warned against in the guesthouse as it was “boring through forest” was actually really beautiful with lovely views but it only took a couple of hours. We then had to convince the guide to take us up the highest part of Batad terraces – he didn’t want to and we completed the final part of it on our own. Then down to the waterfall for a refreshing swim and back out. It was lovely but there are
a lot of people and we would have liked to have hiked much further. We’d haggled down the price but it was still vastly more expensive than Maligcong.
Apparently, after becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site the local people are paid to maintain the appearance of the rice terraces. Hence, the dominant industry here is tourism rather than agriculture. The aim of the people working in the tourism industry here seems to be to extract the maximum amount of money from the tourists for the minimum effort. Here’s hoping that Maligcong won’t be absorbed into the UNESCO site.
Example 4: East Asian Food vs Philippino Food Ok, so this is a nice thing next to a nasty thing. The nice thing being the food in all countries close to the Philippines: Thai food, Malaysian food, Vietnamese food – all delicious. Food in the Philippines? Rubbish. I assume it was ruined by Spanish colonialism or American colonialism; probably the latter as every dish is now laced with sugar. Fast food outlets are everywhere and even the French fries are sweet. And you have to beg not to get sugar added to your already naturally sweet
fresh mango juice. The best meal we had on the trip? Korean. The best meal I had the last time I was in the Philippines? Thai.
Example 5: BGC Manila vs most of the rest of Manila I didn’t like Manila that much last time I was there. I remembered a huge sprawling city with a lot of traffic and pollution, and mucky not very attractive streets. This time we were in a posh apartment in a posh part of town where there were trees, green parks and wide boulevards. We also got a spa treatment as a Christmas present which may be the main reason I liked Manila this time round (except for the volcanic grit all over body scrub which at times was pretty painful).
Example 6: Taal Volcano Crater vs village at the bottom and the walk up I’m struggling a bit now to find more contrasting examples. The highlight here was a place I had heard about being a fan of obscure geographical facts. See one of the photos for Vulcan Point Island within Taal Volcano’s crater lake that sits on an island within Lake Taal. The wonderful
Tappiya Waterfall, Batad
It was very refreshing after the trek down though at the back of your mind was always the knowledge of the looming long hot trek back up again. geo-fact being: Vulcan Point Island is the world’s largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island. The nasty bit? Well the hike up wasn’t too pleasant as it was boiling hot and the majority of tourists, seemingly dominantly overweight Philippinos and Koreans, go up there on the backs of struggling skinny horses who stir up a lot of choking volcanic dust.
Example 7: Vigan vs … hmm Now I have run out of nasty things to judge it against. Vigan was lovely. It’s an old Spanish colonial town with cobbled streets lined with pretty wooden mansions. Horses and traps clip clop past and there is very little other traffic. In the evening the streets are lively with pedestrians, music, ice cream, empanadas and freshly squeezed juices.
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