Churyaa Hotel Bontoc

... tamales in banana leaves. And small ripe bananas and oranges.<br> And the source of life are the rice terraces and the fonts of water springing from limestone. Asians have been agriculturalists from time immemorial. This land is tame. Undulating walls of piled rock and earth make level growing fields. Bowing to modern comfort, black pipes crisscross the palpable sky, carrying water from spring and creek to the boggy rice ponds. Following the roads here ...

... a nice community feeling to the place. There is only one place that you can arrange tours and the prices are fixed ...

... The first picture explains all apart from very cold uncomfortable ...

... the Environmental Protection Agency. They were really nice people. They asked me all kinds of questions about where I was from, Canada and what I thought of the Philippines. They even asked to take pictures with me, which will be posted on the Philippine EPA website. These guys were in great shape; they weren't out of breath or sweating at all and they did the whole hike in flip-flops. We slowly made our way back to the hotel. It was a tough hike as a lot ...

... moi un fusil !!! Banana pancake avec le meme spectacle, J'espere vraiment le retenir grave en moi comme d'autres endroits particuliers qui m'ont marque dans mes voyages, a des degres divers, pour diverses raisons (la beaute, le lieu, le moment, souvent magiques)... Benares, la baie d'Along, Lavalette, le Yemen, j'en oublie plein... Ce sont ceux qui me viennent ici... Descente vers des chutes proches (45 minutes), traversee des rizieres, je ne suis toujours pas tres ...

Salut tout le monde, Nous allons bien. Nous sommes toujours a Sagada. Hier soir nous avons rencontre un couple de francais qui nous ont amene manger du chien. He oui, nous avons essayer. Je vous entend deja "japper" sur la question. Ici c'est tres commun et je dois avouer que tout ce que j'ai mange depuis que je voyage, au moin je sais pour une fois ce qu'il y avait dans mon plat. Pas tres bon finalement. Rejean dit que ca goute un peu comme de l ...

... was rainy, it was sweaty, and it was very tiring. Was it worth it? When we reached Batad, the answer was clearly yes. Huge monsters hewn out of the mountain rock by their bare hands 2000 years ago. Using the most primitive of tools, and a lot of broken rocks, the local tribes had created out of inhospitable terrain a rice growing paradise. It really did take your breath away, maybe partially attributable to the bloody trekking, but no doubt a large part due to ...

Hallo zusammen, ich bin heute morgen von Banaue nach Bontoc gefahren, meine erste Fahrt in einem Jeepney-Bus, da die Strecke nur 45km lang war und man sie in 2 1/2h fahren kann (jau, die Strasse ist in einem schrecklichen Zustand). Solche Kurzstrecken werden nicht von grossen Bussen bedient, die fangen erst ab 100km an:-) In Banaue hat es geregnet und die Fahrt war ...

Here's the lowdown on the Philippines (or the bits we've seen so far, anyway). We've been a bit out of touch because of patchy internet services on the Filipino islands, not helped by the Taiwan earthquake. As Hannah reported, Manila's not a particularly nice place. In fact it's a bit of a dump (apologies to Manillans). Rant follows: Traffic choked, smelly like nowhere we've been since India (but without the hints of spicy cooking and jasmine), seedy, lots of homeless ...

Got up early and went to the bus station, arrived at 07.00. The bus to Bontoc left at 08.45 (!), and was packed with people. After a long and not so pleasnt bus trip we arrived in Bontoc, where we got off and bought some snacks. Bontoc is bigger and much more of a "real" city than Banaue. The trip here was 80 PHP/person.