Manic Manila and Splendid Sagada

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I landed in Manila safe and sound but didn't get to my hostel until fairly late. The traffic in Manila is totally nuts. It's not that they are crazier drivers than anywhere else I've been (just as crazy), it's that there's just so many people and not enough road! Everything is locked into inching gridlock...

I spent one night at the hostel and an entire day wandering around Manila before jumping on a night bus to the North Lauzon area - to Banaue to be specific.

Manila was interesting, I stayed in a more tourist/backpacker sort of area but it still had a weird vibe. Most people at my hostel didn't leave it and I honestly didn't see a lot of tourists wandering around. It gave me a strange feeling that I haven't experienced in any other city thus far, like I wasn't entirely welcome. I did enjoy my wanderings though and saw a fair amount of the city including a huge park - although it was midday and the humidity made it feel like 38 degrees - I still enjoyed the sightseeing.

The night bus was surprisingly pretty good, somehow I actually slept reasonably well! We arrived in Banaue around 6 am and I arranged to get a guide to take me on a trek through the rice terraced countryside to some hot springs. It was a nice hike and we saw some very rural areas. I feel like it was a bit more authentic than the trek we did through the rice paddies in Sapa, Vietnam. I was the only tourist on the trail the whole morning and I was also the only person who was at the hot springs. It was a great morning and my guide took me around on a tricycle - which in the Philippines is a motorbike with a sidecar car that is almost entirely enclosed and decorated rather hilariously. We drove through lots of small villages and saw a lot of everyday uninterrupted life. One thing I saw that stuck with me was witnessing a woman beating a rather large, green and scary looking snake to death with a big stick. I don't know if it was poisonous or what but she was hell bent on destroying that thing!

My guide dropped me off at a beautiful viewpoint overlooking the whole valley filled with rice terraces which is a world heritage site. I was picked up by a local “bus” - basically just a minivan - and we wound our way through the mountains for two hours to Bontoc. In Bontoc I transferred to a Jeepney, which is another bus type thing that took me to Sagada. Jeepneys are a Filipino tradition, they look kind of like school buses but were originally made from army jeeps left after the war.

Once in Sagada I found a good guesthouse and wandered the town a bit. I went to a teahouse for a late lunch and drank a whole pot of tea, a special tea called “mountain tea”. When I looked it up online it said it's ironwort leaves which have a lot of healthy properties - like aiding digestion, helping fight off colds and a myriad of other claims. It also tasted quite nice!

The next day I hired a guide to take me through some caves. You can't do go to any tourist sites around Sagada without a registered guide, which is also cool because we pay the guides directly and it's really helpful for the local tourism. Prices are fixed for everything and the guides say it has helped the town a lot to have it that controlled and makes it fairer.

Anyways, the tour guide I hired (it was just the two of us) had us walk through the town to the mouth of Lumiang Burial Cave which has some of the famous hanging coffins in its mouth. 100+ years ago people placed their dead in small wooden coffins and wedged them high up in the mouths of caves or under cliff overhangs. It wasn't until they were converted to Christianity that they began to use a graveyard.

We went into the cave and it was one of the coolest things I've ever done. We wore flip flops, the guide had an old school lantern, he gave me a small light to see by, no helmets, no safety ropes, no proper paths or anything. We had to crawl and lower ourselves through some holes that I had to squeeze to fit through down into dark passageways deep under boulders and rock falls. We waded through underground rivers, scaled across rock faces with the bottom so far below we couldn't see it in the darkness. Once I had to use a rope to climb up a rock wall and crawl through a small creek coming out of the wall to progress. There was also an immense cavern that was filed with bats - my guide told me if you get dripped on and it feels cold it's holy water, if it feels warm it's holy shit (bat guano). He was a pretty funny guy actually!

It took us two hours to crawl through the cave. As long as I didn't stop to think about how deep underground we were it was fine, but the guide told me that some people have major panic attacks in the small spaces. Eventually we ended up passing into another cave system where we found a whole bunch of other tourists - the Sumaging cave. Many people opt to just explore that cave since it's pretty easy to get in and out of compared to what we had passed through. It was also very beautiful and had many interesting rocks formations and water features.

It was a fairly long walk back to town since we had actually travelled about 2km underground. Apparently I was a minor celebrity among the guides as it usually takes groups 4-5 hours to do the whole cave circuit and my guide and I did it in only 2 hours. I admit I'm glad I'm strong because there were many times I was quite challenged to pass through some spaces using only my arms to lower my whole body down. I got back to my guesthouse and napped for a few hours before going for dinner and some beers.

My last day in Sagada I went and had a traditional Filipino breakfast - garlic rice, a local type of sausage, fried egg and really good locally grown and roasted coffee. I wandered up to an old church thinking i could go see the Catholic graveyard without a guide but of course I was stopped, so I joined a group who had already coordinated a guide and went with them through the graveyard and down into the Echo Valley where we saw more hanging coffins. The area is all limestone karsts which is unusual to see so high up in the mountains - we also saw some areas where there were fossilized shells in the rock. It's called echo valley for obvious reasons, it's really fun to yell down and hear the perfect echo come back!

I spent the rest of the afternoon eating and doing some local shopping. I had to buy some mountain tea to bring home!

Tomorrow I will be starting the multi-stage return journey to Manila through Bontoc and Banaue again. I've booked into a fancy hotel for one night in Manila - I have a whole day there and wanted to spend it in comfort and a bit of luxury - before I fly down to Palawan to do some sailing and more diving!

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Comments

[Deb]

Spelunking
Wow! What a journey. I admire your bravery in the depths of that cave and the streets of Manila. Once again I have to say I love the variety of local activities you are engaging in! I hope your luxury stay in Manila is fantasia! Thinking of you, as always. Stay safe. Xoox