Rock Inn Sagada

Think a village of indigenous intellectuals. I have been up too late most nights playing chess with my local hosts. I lose most of the time. Bleary eyed they find the appropriate counter-move. I look up in dismay and disbelief. I am met by a summer-toothed grin(as in some are here some are there) and eyeballs swimming in gin. Sometimes there is giggling. Often there is a crowd. Everyone is chattering in the local dialect. I am alone against the whole village waging a private war. I don ...

Hanging 500 feet above the river's surface, my stomach turns just a little. I know I should stop leaning over the edge of the bus, but I can't help the urge to get as close as I can to death's face without tasting it's teeth. You can ride on top of the bus here. Did I emphasize that enough? YOU CAN RIDE ON TOP OF THE BUS HERE! Yeah, I would prefer this at most times. It's like a sleeper coach convertible with a view. And really, don't shake your head. It ...

The next day again with Israeli guys our plan was to visit Hungduan, spider web rice terraces. There is no regular means of transport so we had to charter a tricycle. It's a story itself as all the drivers constitute one big mafia, keeping the price up. Even if they agree on a lower price, the others threaten them and they call off. It took us a while to figure out how it worked and eventually walked a bit further from the centre ...

Sagada is a small isolated town in the mountain province of North Luzon. Its altitude provides a rest from the stifling ...

... part wasn't too bad but I was already dreading the return journey. Our free "guide" took us to the Batad Pensione and Restaurant Elemeros, where Janice proceeded to negotiate the price down from 200 pesos to 150 per person. From the pension we had amazing views of the amphitheatre like terraces. By the time we got to hotel I was soaked in sweat once again. Tappia Waterfall is a 40 minute hike from Batad according to Lonely Planet. It looked like it was ...

... the mountains face in coffins and they are still there. You can see these old wooden coffins tucked into crevasses and the odd skull poking out..weird. We both loved Sagada. It had a great atmosphere, incredible scenery, sunshine and the people were very friendly. We stayed 3 nights then made our way back to Manila only as a stopover to make our way south to swim with the giant whale sharks... next

... 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 ...

... Nous sommes alle voir une cave que nous avons decide de ne pas explore. On en a vue pas mal en malaisie. Nous sommes dirige vers une autre cave qui celle fois etait tres interessante. Des tombeaux en bois sculte par le mort lui-meme(avant son deces bien sur!). Ils etaient tres petits parce-que les gens sont en position fetal dans le cerceuil. Ils etaient tous accroche au fissurres de la cave, empile parfois les un sur les autres. Un endroit tres ...

... at the steepness of the terraces. Would we like to go see the waterfall he said? About 45 minutes away. Sure we said. Maybe it was his poor english, maybe it was the fact that he knew if he told this heavily sweating, laboured breathing duo that we had over a 1000 steps down (and thus a 1000 back up) of unbelievable steepness, we might not have been so keen. Another long hot struggle (45 minutes my ****!). Was it worth it? Absolutely, a truly beautiful ...