Kamusta Philippines
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2007
1
8
19
Trip End
Ongoing
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Cavite,
Luzon,
Philippines
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
For those of you who don't know, my step mom, Luz, is from the Philippines. My dad met her there on a trip that we went on about 9 years ago. She and my little brothers have been living over there again this year while they go to school and practice their tagolog, the language they speak in the Philippines, and my dad has been traveling back and forth. Josh is 12 years old now and was graduating from 6th grade which is a pretty big deal over there.
I flew in to Manila but didn't let anyone know when I was going to be there so that I could surprise them. I took a couple of jeepneys and walked up to my lola's (grandmother's) house. It was really good seeing all of the cousins, aunts, and uncles again and how our lives have changed since the last time I was there 4 years ago. I pretty much hung out around the house for the first week until all of the graduations were over. Jacob and Jeremiah graduated on the same day. Jeremiah got a medal for "Most Improved Student".
North Luzon rice terraces at sunrise
The funny thing is, so did 9 other kids in his class. Hahaha. How are 10 kids the "Most Improved". Josh's graduation was a couple of days later. After Josh had graduated I was planning on going to the north part of Luzon to see the famous Banaue rice terraces. I invited Josh and a couple of the cousins (Junior, Irene, Michele, and Rina) to go along. We all met up at the bus station in Manila and began our adventure. There is a bus that goes directly to Banaue but it was already sold out by the time that we got there. We opted instead for a bus that got us to some place near where we wanted to go. The air conditioner was working great except for the fact that every time they applied the brakes, all of the condensation that had built up would come pouring down on a couple of people at the front of the bus. In order to keep the water from dripping on them, they decided to turn off the air con. This wouldn't have been so bad except that none of the windows on the bus were sliding windows and you couldn't open them at all. After an hour or so, it would be too miserable for anyone to bear and they would turn on the a/c again. The water would build up, dump on the people a couple of times, and they would turn it off again. This cycle kept continued over and over. Finally, at one stop, I asked the driver if we couldn't open the vents at the top of the bus to get some air flowing in. He just looked at me like I was crazy for asking and told me no. I asked, "Why?" but to no avail. About 10 minutes later, one of the drivers walked back and opened up the vent.
Pork. It's what's for dinner.
It was a nice ride after that. We got dropped off early in the morning, and two jeepney rides later, we arrived in Banaue. Once we all checked into a room, I found out there was no ATM there and had to back track another 2 hours to the next town to get some more money.The next day we got a ride to the top of a mountain where we had to hike down to the rice terraces. They are truly amazing to see. They are believed to be made between 2,000 and 6,000 years ago by the indigenous people living in the area and have been farming the land there ever since. We came to one spot where an old lady was working in her small rice fields. I started to talk to her and found out she spoke great English. She has been living there her whole life but speaks English so well because of all of the tourists that come. I asked if I could take a picture of her and she said, "Sure, if you give me 50 pesos (about 1 dollar) to buy some sugar and coffee with." I just got hustled by a 70 year old woman. We wandered around the rest of the day trying to find Tappia Falls. It can get very confusing to find your way around there and the locals won't help you unless you give them some money. Our wandering was finally rewarded when we found our way to the falls. That night we took a night bus to Baguio, the former summer capital in the Philippines under American rule.
In Baguio, we explored the local market and strolled along the big park in the town. No one wanted to do too much walking because we were all so sore from the mountains the day before. We got back to Manila and I hung around there for a couple more days. My dad finally made it in on midnight one night and I had to leave the next morning at 8 am.
I highly recommend the Philippines for people to travel in. There are thousands of islands to explore and the people are very friendly once you get out of Manila. Another great advantage of traveling in the Philippines is that everyone speaks English. More than likely, the next time that you call up a help center for your cell phone in the U.S. you might be speaking to one of my cousin's in Manila on the other line.
