Yippee-ki-yay in the Philippines

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We flew back to the Philippines from Palau. In Manila we went on a tour of the "Coconut Palace" that Imelda had built with local products for the Pope when it was rumored that he was coming to visit his Asian flock. But he didn't come when he found out she blew millions on his accommodation. (As if Vatican City isn't a massive waste of parishoners' contributions! But in fairness I guess that was all built ages ago.) Yet the really shocking thing was that the tour guide told us that Brook Shields stayed in one of the rooms here as she was Marcos' MISTRESS! Ya think her publicity people and lawyers know that they are telling visitors this?

We took an overnight bus (never again!) to some villages in the mountains around Banaue ("Ba-now-ee") where rice terraces were built over 2,000 years ago with either mud walls or stone walls. They are billed as "the eighth natural wonder of the world." These people need to get over this whole natural wonder ranking thing. Anyway, the town was pretty cool (literally) though they love country music. But instead of chewing tobacco they chew betel nut and spit this red juice all over the street. It looks like they've had a national paintball war going on recently. And instead of eating Texas size steaks they eat, um, well, Fido (or should I spell that Phido? ;-) ) Yup, dog is the local delicacy. There are dogs running all over the place so I look at them and wonder who's going to end up in the cook pot each evening.

Next we went to the south end of the island of Negros which is a beautiful place with great diving. We could rent a beach house here with a pool for $500 a month. Don't think we didn't contemplate that for a while! Unfortunately our dive camera was in the shop and the rental camera we had sucked so very few pics. Lots of good muck diving with huge and multicolored frog fish, nudies and ghost pipe fish.

We ferried over to a small island called Bohol which is famous for the Chocolate Hills (kinda ho-hum) and one of the smallest primates in the world, the Philippine tarsier. They are adorable and watching them makes you want to take a nap. Their eyeballs can't move so wherever they look they have to move their head but luckily their neck swivels 180 degrees. And they have these fingers with what look like suckers on the tips of their fingers as if they could crawl up the side of a building like Spiderman.

Finally, we went to the Island of Cebu and a tiny island in the north called Malapascua. This place is famous for having thresher sharks hanging about all the time. Yes, we HAD to stay in a little bungalow on the beach for $20 a day. Our visa was about to expire so we had to leave (wahhhh!) and head back to Vietnam. So if you are sick of pictures of gorgeous beaches and sea critters, not to worry. No more beaches on the agenda for a long time.

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Photos

Coconut Palace
The palace's rooms are hexagon shaped which is what you'll see in the cross section of a coconut palm.

Table inlaid with coconut shell
They told us that the inlay was completed by children between 8 and 10 because they have small enough fingers to handle the tiny pieces. Um, who brags about child labor people?!

Fried pork belly
Even at Chili's they offer pork belly. It's amazing that people aren't dropping like flies from heart disease in this country. Any time you order pork it's more fat than meat. And not 'cuz they are trying to be cheap but because that's everyone's favorite part. Uck!

Ifugao house
Looks like a roof on stilts, huh? But under the thatch there's a square wooden room with a cooking hearth in the center.

Waterfall
After walking around the stone rice terraces, we hiked down a few hundred concrete steps to this waterfall. The waterborne breeze cooled us down quickly just in time to hike back UP. Ugh!

Local guy
Nice headdress. Cute dog. Cool way to make a living hanging out with your dog in your gorgeous valley of a backyard. (We paid him 20 cents for his pic.)

Wasp killing spider
We watched this huge wasp come down and sting this even larger poisonous spider in the road. The spider died and then the wasp dragged it off into the grass. Very Nat Geo!

motorcycle with side car, "Tricycle"
When you get to the neighborhood you want by Jeepney, you take a tricycle like this one to your final destination. Every major island in the Philippines has a slightly different design. These ones were some of the largest and most plush with cushy seats.

Albuquerque Church made of coral stone
I always knew we shouldn'a taken that left here. ;-)

Chocolate hills
These conical hills were formed (maybe) by ancient coral reefs that were uplifted. They look more like the avocado hills at this time but later in the dry season they are supposed to turn to chocolate. We prefer guacamole anyway. Accompanied by margaritas is good!

Wha? Wha happened? Last thing I knew I was sitting on a bar stool.
These little guys are related to the lemur and loris. They are called tarsiers because they have elongated tarsal (ankle) bones which allow them to jump up to an astonishing 15 feet. They are carnivorous and obviously nocturnal.

Coral stone bell tower
How cool to have stuff hanging around that's a few hundred years old?! We are so uber New World.

Mandarin fish mating
The female is a fraction the size of the male. They come up out of the coral at sunset to mate. Lucky you, the pictures are more colorful than real life as the flash brings out colors you can't see as the sun goes down.

Thresher shark
They use their long tail like a built in bull whip to stun their prey. Head 'em up, move 'em out, rawhide!

Sea horse
Giddyup! Hm, we've got bull whips and horses and sunsets, odd cowboy theme we've got going here.

Malapascua beach
Yeah, it's tough scoping out all these beautiful beaches for you guys. Someone's gotta do it though. :)