So, here we find ourselves back in the Philippines with the main intention of heading north into the mountains to heck out some volcanos, iconic 2000 year old rice terraces carved into the side of the steepest mountains and maybe a spot of trekking.
They were our intentions until possibly one of the biggest typhoons in history wrecked havoc on several islands of the Philippines then our intentions changed slightly and we found ourselves wondering if their was anything we could do to help the Filipino people.
On our second day in Manila we made our way to the Red Cross' main headquarters to see if we could be of any assistance. They could only offer us a one eight hour shift at the end of November because they had more volunteers than they actually needed. Hard to believe, but a sight to behold with entire families forming human chains to pass the food supplies along the line and into bag that would then be flown to the worst effected areas.
We also enquired with other volunteer groups, but yet to hear back from them so in the mean time we decided to stick with our original plan of seeing the north and if anything comes up then we'll go from there.
We headed north to a cutesy little town called Sagada in the mountains. Town is maybe a little generous, one street of cafes, restaurants and souviner shops is far more accurate with the intention of doing some trekking.
We did a 20 minute walk to Echo Valley to check out the hanging coffins. These things are hung on the side of a cliff with the oldest coffin rumoured to be 300 odd years old.
The theory is that if the dead are buried then their souls can't make it through the earth up to heaven so they hang their coffins in the open air.
The cost of this process you ask, a lot. The family has to sacrifice 20 pigs and three times as many chooks!
The following day we did a morning trip through Sumaging cave where we has to squeeze through small holes, wade through crystal clear pools and climb limestone walls with the aid of the guides shoulder and a rope.
The stalactite and stalagmite formations were very cool.
From Sagada we bussed it to Banaue to inspect the 2000 year old stone rices terraces that are still used today. We "trekked" to the main town Batad where the rice terraces are located and then down to a nearby waterfall. On our way back up another group who were waterfall bound told us that had seen a snake and refused to go any further, instead turning around and heading back. The guide was super reassuring when he said "it's ok, it was only a cobra not a viper!"
With the weather grey, miserable and requiring the wearing of pants and a long sleeve top, I made the executive decision that I wanted to spend my last week somewhere hot, so we booked flights to the island of Palawan.
We took an overnight bus from Banaue arriving in Manila at 4am, then took a taxi to the airport and boarded a flight to Palawan. On arrival to it's capital, Puerto Princesa it was hammering with rain and I was beginning to doubt my decision.
From the airport we got a mini van to the very northern tip of the island to El Nido. Lonely planet says that it arguably rivals Halong bay and I must admit that I think it even betters Halong bay....!
With not much in the way of activities other than swimming and sun baking (not agreeable with Ned's delicate skin!) we set about doing done more diving and getting our night and deep diving tickets.
We did four deep dives to a maximum depth of 30 and two night dives.
The difference between night and day is crazy. The luminescent plankton was awesome. We sank to the bottom , turned off our torches and twinkled our fingers in front of our faces watching all this little fellas light up.
We saw the coolest coloured shrimps, lion fish, crabs even fish sleeping and heaps of other things that you don't see during the day dives.
After qualifying and toying with the idea of more diving, but sadly realising we probably couldn't afford it we headed back to Puerto Princesa where I got hit by a push bike, we both good food poisoning and our room shared a wall with a rooster that crowed at 3am til sunset. We paid an extra $2.50 a night to sleep on the opposite side of the building get away from the rooster. I'm not sure if the hotel uses that damn rooster as a money spinner or not!!
To top it all off we peed out our bums for an entire day thanks to a not so great shwarma. Didn't even taste that good when we bought it. We didn't leave the room that except to buy powerade at reception (risky been more than 2 metres from the toilet) and the bathroom.
Ned claims he probably clocked up about 10kms just walking from the bedroom to the toilet and back again!!
When we were well enough to leave the hostel (ned still had pockets full of toilet paper in case) we ventured to one of the 'New 7 wonders of the natural world.' An underground river that flows through a mountain, what still claims to be the longest navigable by boat underground river in the world.
Alas we know that the one we visited in Laos is twice as long, and thoroughly more impressive. The buffet lunch which was longer.
