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Published: February 8th 2009
Jeepneys in front of Mt. Mayon
These are old military vehicles now colorfully decorated and used for cheap public transportation all over the PhilippinesAfter the first leg of our Chinese New Year holiday, Marc and I dropped in on the Philippines for 9 days. It was my second visit to this impoverished nation of islands, but the first time I really got off the beach and traveled around the intriguing Filipino countryside.
The one thing about the Philippines that left the most lasting impression on me was the intensity of kindness of the people, manifested in near constant smiles, cheerful hellos, and an overtly positive and energetic nature to almost all of the people that we came into contact with. This only served to reaffirm my long held belief that, contrary to what we might believe in the west, people who possess less are is many cases happier. I have experienced this first hand in poor nations throughout the world, but I can claim with near certainty that
I have never encountered so many friendly smiles anywhere in the world as I did in the Philippines.
Over the course of our visit we focused our travels on
Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, starting in the
capital, Manila, then visiting some beaches and volcanoes in the south, followed by some mountain trekking though rice terraces in the north. Throughout the duration of our stay it was a pleasant 30 degrees. What more could you ask for in January?
We arrived late at night to
Manila, the dirty heart of the Philippines. This is not a place that many people linger, understandably so. The streets of Manila are riddled with trash, brothels, and shady characters; and one gets the impression that safety is a major factor when even convenience stores need armed guards and
you must pass through x-ray machines, bag checks and gun drop boxes to get into shopping malls or the LRT. However, it is not actually quite as bad as it may sound. On my previous visit I enjoyed exploring Manila, including the colonial walled city of Intramuros.
We stayed in the 'tourist' district of Malate, with it's many cafes, shady bars, and massage parlors. However, we quickly found out how easy it is stumble unknowingly into
'real' Manila streets, many of which border on what many would describe as slums, where people lounge jovially in the streets, barbecuing meats, children run
around in mobs playing games, and hole in the wall shops sell penny-candies and low quality Filipino food.
The next morning we abandoned the smog and urban sprawl on an ultra cheap budget airline flight to Legaspi, a regional capital in southern Luzon. We had a truly impressive arrival at the Legaspi airport, with magnificent blue skies, tropical humidity in the air, and the
perfectly conical peak of active volcano Mt. Mayon looming directly over the airport.
From there we got a share-van from the bus station for an hour south to the coastal town of
Donsol, which is located in a large bay that
hosts an annual migration of colonies of enormous whale sharks, who flock here from the southern hemisphere to enjoy the water's rich concentration of plankton and to reproduce.
We checked into a very chill resort of cheap beach huts, not unlike any other beach resort found throughout more traveled areas of South East Asia. On day one I joined up with a group of travelers to hire out a boat and go
snorkel with the whale sharks. It was early in the season, so we only encountered two of them, but we
enjoyed multiple separate interactions. Our boatmen were particularly adept in their ability to locate the underwater giants, and then dump us into the water at the ideal location.
There was one encounter that I will never forget. I lunged off the side of the boat, taking a few seconds to adjust to my floating vantage point, when I realized that I was now
face to face with a 7 meter whale shark. It's giant lips parted slightly, taking in huge gulps of plankton saturated water, and then it swam directly under me, then entire length of it's enormous body passing mere feet below my momentarily paralyzed body.
The whale shark is neither whale nor shark, but it is in fact the largest fish species in existence, and it's earliest fossils date back to the age of the dinosaurs. I didn't quite know what to expect, but the thing that stuck in my mind the most, following the above mentioned experience, was the
exquisite spotted pattern of the fish's skin, as well as the sheer number of smaller fish that clung to it's sides, like a colony of groomers.
The remainder of the day was spent doing what
is most appropriate in the Philippine tropics:
drinking 50 cent mickeys (small bottles) of delicious local rum mixed with pineapple juice. We also strolled into the actual town of Donsol, where we were bombarded with smiles and hellos.
En route we actually took a wrong turn and walked for over an hour into the countryside, passing staring farmers, many of them bewildered by the rare intrusion of foreigners.
One man even invited us onto his porch, where he fed us shots of local firewater which he dubbed gin, and we in turn offered him a swig of our rum and juice concoction.
After this we headed back to
Legaspi City, a regional capital where once again few foreigners linger, a fact which we confirmed based on the surprised reactions, looks, and huge smiles we got from so many passing people. We ate lunch in a mall and felt awkward upon noticing that we were virtually the center of attention of the food court, and later when purchasing some pirated DVDs the girls in the shop were hitting on me quite aggressively, even touching my face. For at least a day or two I felt like
I understood what Hiking Mt. Mayon, the most active volcano in the Philppines
It has erupted several times in the last few hundred years, killing thousands of people. The most recent eruption was in 2006 an average day in the life of a girl is like.
When purchasing some things in a pharmacy, all of the employees, including
the pharmacists themselves, could not control their giggling at our mere presence, much like junior high boys physically unable to contain their giggles in class, and they had to take turns trying to ring in our purchase as they put their hands over their faces, laughing and unable to even look us in the eyes.
The focal point of our stay in Legaspi was to do a guided trek up the slopes of
Mt. Mayon, the most active volcano in the Philippines, which is considered
the world's most perfectly formed volcano due to it's completely symmetrical cone. It has
erupted several times over the last 200 years, killing thousands of people, and it's most recent eruption was in 2006. Even as we stayed in the region, there was constantly a small plume of smoke spurting from the peak.
The guide for our trek was mandatory due to the
immense labyrinth of thick jungle paths we needed to navigate to even approach the base of the peak. We also meandered through a tiny village where
an elderly man was showing off his nun chuck skills and let us give it a go, and small children ran down the street chasing rolling tires with sticks.
Once we started ascending the slopes of the volcano we were engulfed by clouds and then the rains came pouring down. We were completely drenched, and robbed of any satisfying views, but the sheer challenge of getting though the thick jungle and slippery, muddy paths proved to be the most exciting aspect of the climb. We finished our ascend at a trekker's camp, where there was a
small shrine to Our Lady de Mayon, patron saint of the volcano, had lunch, and then descended.
Back on flat land our guide took us to his neighborhood.
"You are very tall", screamed one child, peering out from her hiding spot behind a hut. "And very white!" shouted another, followed by many laughs on both sides. We posed in pictures with local families, and our guide showed us his collection of prized roosters, which he trained daily.
Cockfighting is an immensely popular activity in the Philippines, as it is in many poor and rural regions in the world, and peasant farmers bet
enormous amounts of money on these brutal events.
Next it was up to the northern region of Luzon, to the less visited but spectacularly scenic
Cordillera Mountains, home of the Ifugao tribes people. This leg of our journey was particularly rushed, perhaps some bad planning on my part, and worsened by the fact that Marc got some food poisoning on some of out longest and most exhausting days of travel (as well as having his phone stolen and stepping into a muddy rice paddy...).
However, I was quite determined to make it the
Banaue region, famous for it's 2000 year old terraced rice fields which line the mountain slopes and valley walls. We did eventually make it there, following a series of different forms of uncomfortable transportation, including the
ubiquitous Filipino Jeepney, remnants of the days of massive American military presence, but now
decked out in bright colors and paintings of Jesus, among other things, and used for public transportation throughout the Philippines.
We arrived to the village of Banaue itself, the principle town in the region and access point to the many villages and treks in the region. Then we had an hour long incredibly painful
Batad Village, Northern Luzon
The Ifugao people with their incredible rice terraces tricycle ride along an awful dirt road to the start of our hike. We trekked a 4 x 4 track up the side of the mountain and over a ridge, and then down to the
picturesque village of Batad, which is backed by an amphitheater-like wall of terraces. Here there was a small cluster of extremely cheap guesthouses where for only 4$ a person we got individual rooms, incredible views, and good conversation with the 4 only other travelers staying in the village that night.
Early the next morning we hiked out along a different route, following a ridge high up in the mountains, with breathtaking views up and down the valley, and finally returning to the main road where we
hitchhiked a relatively comfortable ride in a large truck and made our way back to Banaue.
From there it was an incredibly long day on the road back to
Tueguegaro, an ugly city in northern Luzon where fast food was somehow the best and apparently only choice for food (have I mentioned yet that most of Filipino food consists of hamburgers, fried chicken, peanuts, or rice with your choice of mysterious mushy lukewarm foods that have been
sitting in pots on the street all day). Then back to Manila, back home to Taipei, and that essentially sums up our Filipino experience!
For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com
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Vince
non-member comment
Now that's what I call an...
adventure! I'm in TPE now.