Happy New Year!
I spent nearly 2 weeks traveling through Philippines with my college roommate Lillian and her boyfriend Chuck.
Dapitan
This was our first stop. Dapitan is located on the northwestern shore of Mindanao island in the Southern Philippines. This town of 50,000’s claim to fame was that the Filipino national hero Jose Rizal – leader during the Filipino independence from Spain – was exiled there for four years. Lillian’s mother’s family is from the town. Her grandfather and uncle acted as mayor and her aunt is currently the congresswoman from the district. We went to a family wedding, where everyone there was a cousin of Lillian’s. Her parents built a sprawling retirement home here two years ago, although the zen energy of the house is disrupted nightly by the sound of (bad) karaoke from a nearby restaurant and noisy roosters from their neighbor - who raises fighting cocks.
Boracay
We rang in 2007 on Boracay, a tiny island famed for its powdery white sand, located about 1 hour south of Manila (via a Dash 7). Papaw (traditional bamboo sailboats) dot the shore line waiting to take tourists out island hopping, fishing, and snorkeling. The beach is flanked by rows of coconut trees, which also act as a barrier to the hotels, restaurants, and bars that follow most of the 2 mile stretch of White Beach (what a creative name!) On new year’s eve, we bar hopped our way down the beach and eventually ended up lounging on bean bags on the beach listening to live bands reggae-fying classics. It was funny to hear a Filipino with dreadlocks singing “I’m an Englishman in New York.” Talk about cultural hodge-podge!
Banaue and Sagada
We traveled 8 hours north of Manila to Banaue, located deep in the Cordillera Mountains of Central Luzon. Banaue is famous for its 2,000-year-old rice terraces and irrigation system built by the native Ifugao tribe. We did a half day hike in the misty rain, often performing a balancing act – walking on a slippery 20cm wide rock ledge with muddy irrigation canal to one side and steep drop off to the terrace below on the other. It was good to have a low center of gravity! Although we all ended up with wet and muddy shoes! We passed countless waterfalls and meandered through small villages where inhabitants carved wooden masks that are sold in curio shops around town.
In Sagada, we explored an underground cave (with a guide and his kerosene lamp, of course!) I had been in caves before, but they’ve all been “touristfied” complete with stairs, rails, and unnatural colored lights illuminating the formations. This one, was pretty basic when it came to caving amenities! We crawled on all fours, waded through chest-level pools of freezing water, and contorted our bodies to squeezed and shimmy through tight crevasses. I definitely put my headlamp to good use!
Photos from the trip are now at http://picasaweb.google.com/sharonzhao/ThePhilippines
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