Manila 2 - Keep on Trekkin'

(Not) Trekking Mt. Pinatubo

We awoke at 1:30am Sunday morning to begin our several-hour journey north to Sta. Julianna, outside of Tarlac/Capas, from which point we planned to take off in 4x4s and the hike to the top of Mt. Pinatubo, a volcanic mountain containing a lake. We had good instructions from our trek organizer, though a lot of these directions depended on things like, 'tell the driver you want to get out at the Capas McDonalds' and then 'tell the tricycle driver you're a guest of Sonia and Al, they'll know where to go.' Ok, let's give it a try!
We took a taxi to Cubao and found the Victory Liner bus company station and purchased tickets for the 3am bus. We bought and consumed some donuts and waited along with many other passengers, then almost missed our bus because we couldn't understand the announcements. Fortunately, Jacob decided to go ask someone around 3:05 if we should be worried, and they told us the bus was around the front of the building - good thing he asked! We boarded and settled in for what turned out to be a freezing cold ride - when they promise you air con on the bus, they are not joking around! A pleasant surprise was that the bus had free wifi. Another, less pleasant surprise, was that the bus driver's soundtrack of choice was non stop 80's heartbreak power ballads - our favorites being 'I can't cry loud enough for you to hear me' and 'Every Rose Has its Thorns' - and there were SO many more that I can't even begin to name. Thus passed the 2.5 hour bus ride.
The bus driver assistant came back to tell us we were at the McDonalds, and the moment we got off the bus, a tricycle driver came up to us asking 'Pinatubo, Pinatubo?' Well, I hadn't even been sure what a 'tricycle' meant, but I soon found out - it's this thing!

Only we got in the contraption at 5:30 in the morning, before it was really light enough to see it. We squeezed in with our backpack and, after stopping for fuel, the driver leaned down and said, 'ok, it's 26km from here' and gunned it! It was a bumpy, cramped ride, but what we could see of the countryside was beautiful. The road seemed almost methodically marred with potholes which the driver dodged admirably and, to my surprise, I even nodded off a time or two during the 45 minute ride!

We arrived at Sonia's place and were served breakfast of sweet roles, egg and Spam (actually, it was off-brand canned ham - trust us, we would know). Things were a little disorganized, as there was apparently some 50km running race taking place up and down the mountain, but due to the amount of rain the region had received, many of the 4x4 jeeps kept getting stuck in the river. While we waited to find out if we'd be allowed to hike (if it was safe enough) we met our fellow trekker, Francois from (of course) France. We waited around and debated whether or not it would be worth the money to pay for the trek, when it was likely that we wouldn't actually make it to the top of the volcano (since the jeeps would only be able to take us part of the way and we'd have to hike more of it on foot). Finally, the 4x4 driver arrived and announced that too many jeeps were getting stuck, so we shouldn't go.

Fortunately, Sonia was doing her best to deliver a good experience and to be fair, so she offered us a full refund, and then gave us the option of paying a smaller amount to a guide to take us trekking around the area to a lake and a village. We went for that and set off under the capable, if young, guidance of Robison and JR.
Basically, we set off straight into this picture on the right:

This is actually a really wide riverbed, alternating between muddy or dry areas and flowing water that varied in depth from ankle to knee. We very quickly gave up the pretense of keeping our shoes dry/clean - a good choice since we were soon wading through the river. The hardest part was that the sharp volcanic sand got into my socks and began to sandpaper the back of my ankles. I can't believe I decided not to wear my Chacos - they were made for this! After awhile we gave up on shoes altogether until we were out of the riverbed. 

Robison very kindly carried our lunch.

It was really pleasant, often silent hiking/walking and it was great to feel so far away from a big city - I had really been needing that! We passed these kiddos with the cart and ox (or cow? water buffalo?), who seemed to be staging a sit-in.

This kid kept splashing water in the ox's face, though I couldn't tell if he was trying to rouse the ox or cool him off. 

We finished crossing the river and then had to cross a couple areas that had standing water - less pleasant than flowing water but I pretended that there probably weren't leeches or amoebas that were going to eat my brain. We hiked up some hills and, when we passed a group of women and children, our guides borrowed a machete from them and Robison scrambled right up a palm tree and knocked coconuts down for us! 

JR hacked them open and then we drank up. So good!!

Shortly thereafter we arrived at the village, which is composed of several wooden houses. We were invited into one of the houses, although the residents were rather shy and stayed in the kitchen for the most part. But they made us coffee and let us sit on their sleep platforms while we ate our lunch. The hospitality and shelter was especially welcome, as while we ate the skies opened up and poured. Out the window of the house, we could see some of the kids running around and playing. Once it started raining, 2 of the young kids showed up again, sans clothes, and continued to play - I guess it was bath time!

This is Francois, our trekking partner.

The rain stopped quickly and we thanked our hosts before setting off again. It was amazing but also challenging to see what life is like for residents of the this village. On one hand, it seems peaceful and pastoral, and the kids seemed so happy. None of the houses have locks or even doors. But at the same time, this is also pretty extreme poverty. For most people here, there probably isn't much of a future outside this village, and I can't imagine that they have access to any sort of quality healthcare or much education. 

We trekked on, now finding the mud to be even squelchier, which was pretty fun. Jacob and I adapted the recent Twitter craze, Add a Word, Ruin a Movie, into a hiking game to pass the time. 










Back into the water. At this point it was running pretty fast and I was glad our guide held my hand most of the way through this section. It was somewhere about halfway across the river that I realized I had been sunburning the back of my calves for a good portion of the day, and all of our necks were looking pretty roasted as well! It was worth it though!

We arrived back at Sonia's about 4 hours after we left. We snapped a picture with our guides, thanked them and then hopped back into the tricycle - our driver from the morning had said he would wait for us, even though we could have been gone all day! I guess a guaranteed fare of 300 pesos (about $9 usd) is worth the wait. Francois came along too, sitting sideways behind the driver on the bike and, I hope, holding on tightly!
We arrived back at the McDonalds where we were able to flag down a bus to Manila almost instantly (I guess pretty much all buses go to Manila from there!) We got a little taste of Manila's infamous traffic on the long bus ride back, accompanied by a movie (which we couldn't understand) and then more power ballads. We got out at Pasay and took a cab to our apartment, after making plans with Francois to meet up and make a day trip down to Taal Lake the next day.
We showered, then spent half an hour trying to clean the sand out of our shoes! After watching a bit of Val Kilmer as Batman, we headed to one of the nightlife areas of Makati and ate at Ziggurat, a Lonely Planet recommendation. The menu was insanely long, featuring food from all over Africa and the Middle East - though unfortunately, it seemed like they only offered a portion of their menu on any given night. Jacob got some sort of Ethiopian ground beef tartar, though I can't remember the name, and I got chicken kebabs. We also tried beers flavored with cinnamon and ginger.

What was Plan A?

I guess we ended up in the 'girly club' area! However, we were so tired, we decided to forego a trip to 'Tickles' and just called it a night. Back at the apartment we promptly passed out while watching the next featured movie - the George Clooney Batman movie (yep, with Arnold as Mr. Freeze and Uma as Poison Ivy!) 

One more installment coming soon!

Manila - Day 1

Hello blog-reading friends! It's been a long time since my last post, but honestly, September was busy and not terribly exciting. We did make a day trip over to Pulau Ubin, a small island off Singapore, and that will have to count for our 'leaving Singapore' in September.

But we can live with that because we managed to schedule two trips in October! A week and a half ago we headed off to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, for a 4 day getaway.

We nervously watched the weather as our trip approached, as it turned out that a typhoon was also making a visit to Luzon (the largest island, on which you find Manila) the same weekend. We decided that if our flight was going, we'd go - and then we registered with the embassy, checked with some contacts there, and packed our rain jackets and extra plastic bags in anticipation of a wet weekend.

And our expectations of poor weather made it that much more awesome when the weather was fine! The first day had some rain, but we zipped up our rain jackets, secured our make-shift backpack cover and carried on. The other two days were just lovely, a resulted in considerable sunburn despite our best sun-screening efforts.

We arrived in Manila on Friday night and took an (expensive/rip-off) taxi ride to the Baqacionista Traveler's Hotel - run by a nice lady who rents out two of the room in an apartment building. Great location in Makati (one of the main business districts), and conveniently close to both McDonald's and 7/11. Have I praised 7/11 before on this blog? I'm not sure I've even been to a 7/11 in the States, but they're our go-to store when we travel. Water, sim cards, snacks, and they'll break the big bills you just got from the ATMs. Oh, and aircon. I'm a fan.

I should also mention that when we arrived, we switched on the TV and saw the second half of a terrible kid movie called Cop Dog. Spoiler: the ghost dog helps the kids solve the mystery of the boy's cop dad's death in a well. Ugh. And when we woke up and turned on the TV, it was on again at the exact same place in the movie! I'm ashamed to say, we kept watching again. 

Ok, on to Manila!

Meeting Manila

We started our day with McBreakfast (!) and then walked/bused/LRT'ed it up to Rizal Park in the 'old city.' We stumbled into a tourist office where two women were soon sweetly falling all over themselves to give us maps and point out the sites to see in Intramuros. So kind! We walked from Rizal to Intramuros ("Within the Walls") which was the old original city of Manila. Immediately, we noticed a major difference between this country and others we've visited in SE Asia - due to the long Spanish influence, Christianity (specifically Catholicism) is the most visible religion. Jacob said that it reminded him more of South America than Asia. However, Spanish language has been almost completely replaced by English, Tagalog and 'Taglish.'
We strolled through Intramuros, stopping into St. Agustin Chapel of the Adoration, and admiring the St. Agustin church from the outside (closed for a private service).

Catholic Saint, Chinese Dragon -
wasn't that a movie?

Adoration Chapel
The center of the sunburst contained the sacred wafer...
the Manila Wafer, shall we say? (#YouJustGotPunned)

Along the way we also passed the Manila Cathedral - beautiful from the outside, though undergoing renovation - and a monument to all the unknown soldiers and civilians who were killed during WWII and the Philippine's struggle against the Japanese occupation (and, to a slightly lesser degree, their struggle for independence from the U.S. as well).

 

We flagged down a ice cream cart vendor (with his push cart) and bought one cone each of the two flavors he had: jackfruit and cheese. CHEESE ICE CREAM!? I've had some weird ice creams (sweet corn, yam, durian, black sesame, mystery) but never before have I had ice cream flavored by yet another dairy product. It tasted like sweetened Velveeta and contained small chunks of feta-like cheese. I'd eat it again.

And as the cheesy ice cream passed his lips, he suddenly
saw into the future and knew that someday he would create
the ultimate dairy-flavored ice cream - BUTTER ICE CREAM.

Fueled by this double dose of dairy, we moved on to Fort Santiago, the stronghold of the Spanish colonial government. Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, was imprisoned here before he was executed for his anti-colonial writings. Although he did not really support revolution, his death sparked uprisings that eventually led to the expulsion of the Spanish.
In more recent times, it was the scene of the Battle of Manila, with American and Filipino forces fighting the occupying Japanese. It was possibly the worst (urban) bloodbath of the Asia-Pacific theatre during WWII.

Check out the artillery damage on the wall...

Not exactly sure who the priests are, but the clergy had a lot of power through much of the history of the Philippines.

Entrance to Fort Santiago

More ruins

Across the river from the Fort - some rather ominous clouds.

We stopped off at a small street vendor for lunch - not going to lie, as I sat down to eat, I acknowledged the fact the food poisoning was definitely a possibility. It was disconcerting afterwards when the nice lady vendor said 'thank you for giving our food a chance' - a chance?! BUT it was pretty good - noodles and barbecued pork, coke, and coffee.

Shortly after lunch, wouldn't you know it, we passed a place called Chocolate Churros!
So then this happened:

Our walk brought us to the National Museum, where our wet shoes squeaked down the halls as we passed through lots of different exhibits. Some really neat ones, some rather strange. A few disturbing.

Ancient clay vessels used to hold the bones of the deceased.

Take me to your leader.

Wow, what a beautiful, noble bir-
AHHH IT'S KILLING A MONKEY!

Another beautiful church.

We finished our walk in Rizal Park, passing the monument to Jose Rizal (on the spot where he was executed by firing squad). We then - and this was a mistake - hailed a horse carriage to take us several blocks to a bar called the Hobbit House. Perhaps I'll describe this experience in another blog entitled 'Scammed.' Basically, we got ripped off, felt more than slightly threatened, and were taken far beyond our destination! Alas. We went to the water front to calm down a bit and found ourselves at the Aristocrats restaurant, which came highly recommended by our friend Yap Ling (we've learned to trust his advice on all things food). Good food and cold beer helped us to relax a bit.

Along the waterfront.

Feeling a bit worn out and not wanting to walk back to the Hobbit House, we called it a night and hopped a (very cheap) cab back to the apartment. A quick stop at 7/11 to stock up on snacks and water, then early to bed because our itinerary for the next day began at 1:30am!

Tune in next time to hear about how we (didn't) climb Mt. Pinatubo (better than it sounds)!