Manila

Manila is a city that people told me to leave as soon as I arrived. The city has the largest population in Asia. Many of its inhabitants come from all over the country and end up living on the street and under bridges.

It is difficult to go out in the city because locals told me that by taking a simple taxi ride I run the risk of getting kidnapped. I have tried to spend the least amount of time possible in Manila. But it's the hub of the country and spending a couple of nights there is unavoidable. However I ended end up having a good time in the city.

While I was there I went pearl shopping at Greenhills. There were just stalls after stalls and strings of pearls hanging from every one. My eyes hurt from examining them trying to find ones that match. If I couldn't find matching ones the vendor would pull out trays of pearls to find a mate and then make the earrings right in front of me.

Pearls everywhere

My last night abroad I met three students at a restaurant near my hostel. We ended up going to a nearby bar for drinks and karaoke - a popular pastime in the Philippines. We ate traditional Filipino pub food which includes Sisig, deep fried pork innards.

Karoke is a Filipino's favourite pastime

It was a great ending to a great trip.

Puerto Galera

For my last couple days abroad I headed to the beaches of Puerto Galera, on the island of Mindoro. From Manilla it was three hours by bus and then a really rocky boat ride. On the boat I ran into travellers I had met in Sagada and ended up sharing a room on Small Laguna Beach.

Puerto Galera at low tide

My first day there I decided to try diving. I did a fun dive since I didn't have a license. First I needed to learn how to breathe under water. The dive master took care of the boring things like inflating and deflating the vest and checking oxygen levels.

Learning to dive in the pool

After about an hour of that I was ready to go out into the Philippine Sea. Puerto Galera is known for it's diving and there are a lot of shipwrecks to see. However, that was beyond my level.

Resurfacing after jumping over the side of the boat oxygen tank first

Once underwater I saw coral, tropical fish and clams that opened and closed as you went near. It felt like discovering a completely different world. I had such a hard time moving around under water with all the gear on, especially with the flippers. I was afraid to kick too much because I thought I would hit the coral. We dived 10 meters and stayed under for 40 minutes, the longest amount of time possible before the oxygen ran out.

The nightlife in Puerto Galera consisted of mostly girly bars. Good for all the older men that go there for that reason, but so much for 20 something year old females. In many places the bar girls outnumbered actual patrons.

On my last day I soaked up as much sun as I could before I going back to Canada.

Mt. Pinatubo

I'm reaching the end of my trip and I've been trying to do and see as much as possible. After I left Sagada I went to Mt Pinatubo. Mt Pinatubo is a volcano that erupted in 1991. When it erupted the top blew off and is now a crater filled with water. It's located outside the town of Santa Juliana. When I arrived in the town I was dropped off at the travel agency that organizes the trip up the volcano. From there the president of the company picked me up and took me to a place to stay that night. When I asked about an Internet cafe he took me in a tricycle (a motorbike with a sidecar) to someone's home to use their personal computer. Later the restaurant I went to was in someone's garage. I guess the town doesn't have too many overnight guests.
The gorgeous view of crater lake at the top of Mt. Pinatubo

The next day I went up the volcano. First there was an hour long 4x4 ride where I was able to see a desert terrain covered in ash and rivers that were orange from sulfur.

Water stained with sulfur

I had to hike to the top to reach crater lake. It's not recommended to go swimming because the water is so deep the depth has never been measured. Nevertheless I went swimming with a life jacket. Afterwards I was able to get a massage at the spa that ran the trips up Mt. Pinatubo. I'm the one swimming in the middle of the crater

After a tricycle ride, Jeepney, bus and taxi ride I arrived back in Manila. The next morning I headed to Puerto Galera for a couple days on the beach.

one week left

Hanging coffins

It's been a while since I've written. Truth is, once I got here I just sort of got settled into a routine. It was nice for a while after traveling straight for so many weeks. But now I'm starting to get antsy and want to move on. I've been working on the video for the hospital for the past few weeks. It's a definitely an ambitious project and I wouldn't be able to finish it during my stay. I've been editing using Studio Plus and got some more experience using Adobe Photoshop. The video is starting to take shape. The section I've been working on is about toxins in the environment, and their adverse effect on human health. I've become pretty interested in the topic. It's easy to be concerned about health when you're in the mountains away from the pollution the cities. All the fruit and vegetables are grown locally, and there's no fast food anywhere. I wish there was more to work on with the video. I was looking forward hearing some of the testimonials when they were shot filmed. But that's the way things go. In the Philippines it takes a long time to get anything done.

When I'm not editing I hike, there's a lot of trails around Sagada. It's getting cold here. At night it drops to about 10 C - nothing compared to what it is in Canada. Except there's no heating here so I'm never really warm. My favourite restaurant here is the Yogurt House, which is famous for its homemade yogurt. The owner jokes that I'm there everyday. I'm almost, but no quite.

My favourite meal in Sagada - Yogurt House

Anyways soon I'll be moving on and discovering more of the Philippines, and then home. I'll keep you updated.

volunteering

I've been volunteering for about two weeks now. The juice fasting program at the hospital is on a bit of hiatus right now as Tom is doing some more research. Also soon there should be a similar program set up in Baguio (another town 6 hours away) and maybe eventually a couple of other hospitals in the Philippines. The program has run in Sagada for a year and it seems like many people in the town have tried it. As well people come from neighbouring towns and even abroad to participate. It has had success treating all sorts ailments including those with terminal cancer (however it has yet to be determined how effective it is in the long term.)

Sagada Hospital where I'm volunteering

The plan is to shoot a video, edit it (that's what I'm doing), and send it to networks in the Philippines, and other news networks in Asia. According to Tom it's a public relation dream here because most networks are so desperate for anything that if you give them a video they will run it. He has working with a network in the Philippines before and has a contact in India who owns a major network. Also the video will be posted on his website www.fasting.ws and YouTube.

For the first couple days you could say I participate in story meetings. Tom, the videographer, David, and I discussed some of the issues: who the target audience is, an Asia market so English is not their first language; where to shoot, mostly outside using the scenery of Sagada; lighting which are still be worked out after one day of shooting, the sun is really bright in the mountains; and how to make a video about fasting interesting. These discussions took place while Tom and David tore down a kitchen ceiling.

I have edited some b-roll of scenes in Sagada that was shot before I arrived. I have helped with some of the research for the video. I had gone to Baguio to renew my visa and while I was there I picked up some supplies that could refract the sunlight. There's only so much you can by in Sagada. I still have work to do put most of the project is on hold until the lighting is sorted out. Everyone else involved in the project is working on renovations around Tom's house.

Only 3 more weeks until I'm home.

Bontoc

I'm playing catch up on blogs right now. The day before my caving experience I had gone to Bontoc. Compared to Sagada this is a metropolis. I can do things like take out money. There's only one ATM in Sagada that's open from Tuesday to Thursday and it's unreliable.

Bontoc is an hour long, and once again, very bumpy trip. First I went to go see the Bontoc Museum. Some tribes in Northern Luzon still practice headhunting. At the museum there's some gruesome photos of the headhunters with their prize. At the back of the museum a village has been recreated and you can explore inside the traditional grass covered huts. They are so small you have to crouch down to get inside.

Riding on top of a Jeepney

After I ended up going to the rice terraces in Maligcong. The rice terraces are considered by some to be the 8th wonder of the world. Some mountains were terraced for rice fields over 2000 years ago. These plots have been passed down through generations. When I went they had already been harvested so it was mostly pools of muddy water. But you could still learn about growing rice which is a staple of the diet. A lot of the culture revolves around the harvesting and planting.

Rice terraces everywhere

The nightlife is thriving compared to Sagada. You can stay out until 10 pm. The plan was to do some karaoke, the national past time. Instead at the first two places bands were playing and at the last bar there was a lady boy show. By 10 pm the ladies brigade in their matching jackets was out to make sure that we left the bar. The next morning I was tired from my late night out.

Sagada

I've been in Sagada for over a week now; the longest place I've stayed since I started my journey. I've started some of the editing for the video. However since the shooting there's not much to do. Instead I've spent the weekend exploring the area.

Sagada is a small mountain village. It's supposed to be a backpackers haven and at certain times of year tourists outnumber locals. Although slowly more tourists are filtering in, I still don't believe that. However the typhoons have had caused a decline in tourism.

It's nearing the end of the rainy season, but it hasn't rained since I've arrived. Apparently after typhoons there's really nice weather. It cools down very quickly at nights. This is the first place I need to carry a sweater with me. The sun sets around 6 pm, and gets very dark since there's no street lights, so I also have to carry a flashlight when I go out for dinner.

There's not much of a nightlife in the town, since there's a curfew at 9 pm. All the restaurants and stores close by this time. And the ladies brigade (who are the older women in the community) makes the rounds to ensure everyone gets home. I've only been out late enough to witness this in the neighbouring town where curfew was at 10 pm.

Instead I've been taking in the nature while I'm here. There's a lot of hiking and caving to do in Sagada. I opted to the cave connection which is the most difficult option. I wanted to get the full cave experience. I spent four hours underground crawling though bat poop and clinging to rocks for dear life. There were a couple of times I wanted to give up although there was no going back only through. Every time I started to feel comfortable and couldn't imagine how it could get any more challenging, it did. At one time I had to climb along the side of a rock and could barely see where I was supposed to put my feet. Luckily my guide was amazing, and many times would act as a ladder, telling me to step on his knee or shoulder so that I could get to the next foothold. My guide described my caving skills as like teaching a two year old to climb stairs. I guess he wasn't too impressed.

Me and my caving buddy in front of limestone rock that looked like curtains.

The limestone formations were amazing to see and well worth the effort. But it will be awhile before I recover and go into a cave again.