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Published: April 29th 2008
right in banaue at the moment, after a rather jokes trip on another ferry where the attendants appared to fall in love with us and didnt do much work just stood and talked to us for 19 hours.
then we arrived in manilla and spend the WHOLE DAY in mall of asia ie filipino brent cross that even had an m&s. feels surreal going there though with all the extreme povery in manilla then u walk into an air conditioned wonderland with starbucks. oh capitalism.
anyho then we got the auto bus up to banaue. we have had our fair share of cold air con while taking busses around SEA but ths bus was a joke, i had on two jumpers tracksuit bottoms and socks and still flet like i was contracting pneumonia. and now we are all ill! good times. also we arrived in banaue which is actually in a cloud, as in as cloudy as when you go through a cloud on an aeroplane and we were freezing and missing the sun so we slept all day.
next day we id some trekking to see the batad rice terraces apparently known as the 8th wonder of the world, and they were pretty amazing. me and Belinda tried some beetle nut, the crazy red stuff that they all chew 247. which consisted of a bit of leaf, the nut and some white powder that looked suspiciously like cocaine. it tasted like chewing a leaf mixed with sawdust, and made your gums numb. Give me a strongbow any day.
We also had a wee dip in a waterfall, despite the fact it was freezing and then some Taiwanese men wanted to take a photo with us, wonder why when we were in soaking wet underwear! Slightly uncomfortable and damp walk back, and it didnt help the illness. Yesterday me and Bel went to a hot spring and sat about in a sulphur bath all day. Yummy. Tonight we get the Florida bus back to manila, and I intend to wear 105 layres. And tomorrow we get the plane to oz! not sure what it will be like being in ‘western’ civilization after 3 months in south east asia! And we have to say goodbye to bel which is very sad, but I can’t say I will miss having to share single beds with her! Havnt had a good night sleep for weeks
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Pete Daws
non-member comment
Filipino
Glad to hear you've enjoyed the Philippines - I'd do almost anything to be back there again (well almost) - your stories we're very evocative although I obviously didn't get chatted up by boatloads of men - but Hannah would have done had I not been there with her!!!