Blogs from Sagada, Philippines, Asia

Our shortest travel day, it only took 2 hours to drive the 60km of hill bends to Sagada. On the way Alfredo asked if we wanted to go to Bontoc Museum. We didn’t know what was there but said yes anyway. It turned out to be a cool little museum about local culture including old photos of head hunters and burial rights. Bizarrely it also turned out to be in a school yard. We parked in the middle as the children were lined up doing singing practice of Christmas carols. We arrived at our homestay in Sagada in the late afternoon. A big wooden house on 2 levels a couple of kilometres out of town, it was lovely and quiet and the family very friendly. With sunset being early we wanted to head out for a ... read more

WEEK 3 : Manila – Sagada (18-24 Avril) Déjà ma troisième semaine aux Philippines… Ça y est, je commence à vraiment prendre mes marques et avoir une petite routine. Toutefois, celle-ci a été perturbée par des problèmes de portable. Déjà en France ce n'est pas la joie mais à l'étranger c'est carrément le cauchemar. Mon cher compagnon électronique ne voulant plus s'allumer, il m'a fallu me rendre dans un mall, au service client Samsung. Là, deux heures d'attente pour finalement m'entendre dire que Samsung Philippines n'a pas signé l'accord mondial pour la garantie internationale… En gros, malgré ma garantie, je vais devoir payer les frais de réparation… Super… Heureusement, après quelques manips, mon portable remarche par miracle… Je précise qu'auparavant j'avais été dans une boutique Samsung et que le vendeur, malgré ses multiples tentatives n'avait pas ... read more

We'd put off our trip to Sagada until after New Year's, given that we had heard that the place really fills up between Christmas and New Year's day. But we'd felt like we'd waited long enough, and even though it was only just New Year's Day, we decided to roll the dice and head up the mountain to Sagada. For the first time on our trip, things were actually closed. It was New Year's Day after all, but we strangely had no trouble at all on Christmas Day. We had moved from San Juan to Vigan by bus and jeepney without an issue, but here on New Year's day we were having some trouble. There weren't any buses or jeepney's operating in Bontoc. But, as Sebastien has said repeatedly in our time together, “There's always a ... read more

So I left Banaue somewhat unsure about my decision not to check out Batad. After all, it'd been touted by LP as the place for the most spectacular view of the Ifugao rice terraces. But for some reason or another I didn't feel like making the trek there. And so after just one night in Banaue, I made a U-turn back in the direction of Bontoc, towards my next destination Sagada. It didn't help that on the minivan ride there, I sat next to Ch'en, an Israeli female solo traveller who'd just returned from Batad, and regaled how amazing the view was. Oh well, maybe next time! In any case I took the opportunity to brush up on my Arab-Israeli conflict knowledge with Ch'en. I know, not the most light-hearted of conversational topics for a winding ... read more

Rano v pohode vstanie uz o 7/30. Vonku dazd. Podla predpovede mal skoncit okolo obeda. Siel som sa teda oholit. Zrkadlo nikde a tocka nesla otocit,chvalabohu zachod uz splachoval,vcera nie. Dole v resitke/lobby som poposielal maily,doslo mi aj prve narodeninove zelanie z ciny,ostatne ocakavam neskor,bo casovy posun. CS v legazpi zrejme nebude, chalan furt splieta,ze mi najde hotel a potom pojde so mnou na sopku a to som mu jasne uz 2x napisal,ze zhanam hlavne ubytko zdarma a nie ziadneho plateneho guideho. Dalsia baba sa chce len stretnut. Z puerta princesa mi zas dalsi poslal ponuku na 30.minutovu masaz zdarma a potom mi spravy daku prednasku o vyzive ci co. Som zvedavy na toho u ktoreho budem spat,ma strasne moc pozitivnych referencii a vyzera to,ze hostuje vo velkom. Zbezne som kukol CS aj v Indii,je tam ... read more