Back to Manila after a flight from Boracay…

As we already visited the city upon our arrival we directly booked a night bus to go up North to Banaue which is the starting point for the rice terraces visit.

Long time ago we didn’t enjoy a night bus and we know why… our sleep was rather limited… Music in our ears, stops every 1h to load extra people on the bus and no road in some areas… A good cocktail to make it a really short night!  We arrived around 7h30 in Banaue… where we directly went to our guesthouse for a well-deserved breakfast!

Our plan was to visit the rice terraces… World heritage listed, they are impressive not only for their  beauty but because they were created around 2000 years by the Ifugao. Batad’s amphitheatre-like stone-walled rice terraces are widely considered the world’s most striking.

We tried to gather a few people in order to form a group to do a day excursion at a reasonable price for everyone!  Again, a special hello to Jess, Ben and Marion with whom we spent the day! 

We left the hostel at 7:00 AM (yes, it is not that we are sleeping until 10 AM every day ;-) ) with a jeepney (to give you an idea, it is what you would get if you crossed a jeep with a bus) for a 1h30 drive into the mountains.  From there, we had a 1h walk to the Batad amphitheatre and then a 3 hours walk through the rice terraces.  The views were a-ma-zing!  Now we know why it is listed as UNESCO world heritage!

After this day of hiking, it was time already for us to take a night bus back to Manila as our Philippines journey stops already here!  We are currently at the airport of Manila waiting for our flight to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city). See you in Vietnam for the next post!

PS/ I nearly lost Marjan during the last night bus trip… she got locked into the bus toilets! Fortunately, thanks to the help of the bus driver and a German guy, we got her out! J  We are still two on the road!!!!

14-02-2011 om 02:27 geschreven door Marjan & Isa  

Philippines, here we come!

We didn’t know at all what to expect about Manila… we heard so many “bad” things about this city but at the end, let say that we have been positively surprised.  On the opposite of our other destinations, The Philippines are less “the place to be” for backpackers.  It is a bit out of the beaten tracks… so you don’t meet so many fellow travelers.

What to say about Manila? It is an enormous metropolis counting around 11 million inhabitants so bigger than Belgium!  So as mentioned in the Lonely Planet, “this is exactly the sort of place in which there is bound to be a good bit of chaos”.  We are not only talking about the traffic here ;-) The city is composed of different “cities”, the most touristic ones being Intramuros, Malate, Ermita & Makati.

We have been visiting the three!  Intramuros is the historic part of Manila where you can visit the Fort Santiago built by the Spanish in the 16^th century.  Malate and Ermite is where the most guesthouses are located and Makati is the financial district of the city where most shopping malls are located!

We also had the chance to admire the sunset on Manila from the famous Roxas Boulevard… Don’t forget that Manila is a seaside city with a big harbor activity.

In a summary, again an Asian controversial city where on the one hand, you have all shopping malls and “posh areas” and on the other hand, areas with loads of townships.

After passing two days in Manila, we left the famous metropolis to take an internal flight to Kalibo in order to go to Boracay island. Boracay is well known for its glorious White Beach with white sand, turquoise water and amazing sunsets. Check the pictures below… you won’t be disappointed!

Arriving on the island, the weather was unfortunately not as we expected it… but after two days we got one day of sun and a beautiful sunset J  I won’t be long describing what we did as it can be summarized in a few words being… sleeping, eating, sunbathing, swimming and partying! A good program isn’t it? ;-) I’m sure you are jealous!  A special hello to the people we met over there… Mike, Alison and Sam J

After relaxing for a few days at the beach, it was time to get back to Manila again to explore the Northern region.  We wanted to visit the famous Batad rice terraces classified as world heritage by the UNESCO!  See you there…

14-02-2011 om 02:24 geschreven door Marjan & Isa