Days 78-83 The Philippines; thank you APEC :)

I just returned a few days ago from the Philippines.  I took all modes of transportation in the last week....private driver to a plane, taxi, plane, scooter, water taxi, canoe, water taxi, jeep, bamboo raft, zip line, jeep, scooter, tuk-tuk, another scooter (after our flat tire, lol), taxi, plane, taxi, rental car, boat, horse, boat, rental car, taxi, jeepney, taxi, plane, and then being too pooped to deal with the subway system, it was back in another taxi to bring us home from the Peking Int'l Airport in Beijing- Whew! Oh, and of course, my own two feet carried me around.  Alot.  I don't let the grass grow under my feet for long when I travel :)

While in Thailand a month ago, my friend Jeanette texted me with the news that
we were getting another unexpected vacation from November 7-13th.  The
occasion?  Beijing was hosting the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders Conference,
and the city was essentially shutting down.  If you look closely, the fifth person
from the right, standing tall above the rest, is our own President Obama.
I'm sorry I missed all the pomp and circumstance, I had a plane to catch
to the Philippines!  Not sorry at all.

Factories began shutting down a full week before the conference, in an effort
to clear the air.  Beijing needed to put on her best face, after all. Their plan
worked- we had mountain fresh air for nearly two weeks.  The AQI was daily
in the teens, and one day it actually went to ZERO.  It just goes to show that
something could be done about the perpetual smog problem throughout China.
As our driver took us to the airport after school on November 6th, I was able
to plainly see the Olympic Bird's Nest like never before.  It is strange looking.
You know me; I had my backpack packed and with me at school, so the very
minute the final bell of the day rang, we were on our way catch a plane!

Two of my teacher friends, Chris and Jeanette, along with
three other BNDS students were all on the same flight to
Manila.  The following morning, we caught our flight
to Puerto Princesa, on the island of Palawah,  It was gorgeous
flying over and seeing all of the islands scattered throughout
the ocean.  Over 7000 islands make up the Philippines.

After a bit of negotiating, we rented a scooter for the next several days.
Our plan was to stay up at Sabang Beach, about 70 km away. The scenery
along the trip up and through the mountains was beautiful.  What aren't
densely jungle covered mountains...

....are brilliant green rice paddies...with locals working the paddies by hand.

All along the road we would see tarps full of rice, drying in
the sun, which often left just one lane for traffic...

...not that there's much traffic in the sleepy little villages we passed through. 

It was pretty sparse living conditions...shacks put together with bamboo, walls
made of braided palm fronds, typically with no electricity, and you saw villagers
carrying buckets of water from the one well in 'town'.  We have it so good.

We continued making our way up through the mountains...

...stopping occasionally to snap a picture, like the one cemetery we passed...

...or the yak, hauling the bags of rice for the villager...

The scenery was beautiful, it's own way.

Including the random cross placed on the hillside...

...even the rooster crossing the road looked more pretty-
and y'all know how much I HATE roosters.

We just really enjoyed the scooter ride up to Sabang.

  

So much so, we barely made it to our beach cottage before the sun started setting.

  

This is the view we woke up to the following morning.  Before you go getting
excited about the idea of staying at a beach cottage, while the grounds were
beautiful, the cottages were primitive! The shower was only cold (that was fine
as it was nearly 90 every day), the toilet didn't flush, (we used a bucket of water),
the sink didn't work (brushed my teeth in the shower!), there was no wifi, and
like Thailand, we only had electricity from 6pm - 6am, to power the fan.
Even at that, we didn't always have electricity through the night, lol. 

It really didn't matter, though. How much time is spent inside when this is what
is waiting for you outside?  We nearly had the beach all to ourselves every day.
The sand was like I have never felt before, like finely sifted flour.  

The beach was incredible; the water temperature was perfect,
and it was a sandy bottom, (no sea shells or rocks),

It was glorious playing in the waves...like for hours :)

Until we wore ourselves out body surfing and getting sun burnt.  

Just us and the Filipino babies on the beach :)

The little town of Sabang was colorful and interesting, too.  

We waited at the dock for our number to be called.  We were taking their
version of a water taxi to a National Park.  I loved the colorful boats :)

And the beautiful little girls I became friends with while we waited.

Any day this sailor girl can get on the water is a good day.  I smiled the entire
thirty minute trip as we made our way to the park entrance.

Though it was a bit of a cattle call and a touristy kind of thing,
the scenery was gorgeous as we beached the boat in this cove.

We traveled in groups of eight to navigate our way about two km or so into the
underground river.  In all, the cave structure is over 8 km long, with all
kids of rock formations, tall caverns, waterfalls. and bats.  Lots of bats. :/

We walked along a jungle path to where we met the next boat
 to take us in the cave.  There were monkeys everywhere!  They
 were not the least bit afraid of people; they'd walk right by your feet:)

This big guy got grouchy with me when I startled him down in a trash can.
I did not realize monkeys have big fangs!  He was not pleased with me at all. 

All suited up for some cave exploring :)

While it was fun, it would have been more enjoyable to
be on our own kayak checking out all the nooks and crannies.

Being limestone, the cave is filled with stalagmites and
stalactites.  This one is called beautiful woman. It looked
much like a sculpture of the side and back of a naked woman.

My Iphone did not take good pics given the darkness, so here you get the idea of what it
was like.  If you want to know more about this Seventh Natural World Wonder, go to
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Princesa_Subterranean_River_National_Park

We went in about two km, turned around, and our guide
paddled us back out. We saw lots of cool rock formations along the way.
After an hour or so, I could see light at the end of the tunnel :)  

After we had our 'satisfactory lunch included with the tour',
we moseyed back to the beach and found our own private bathtub :)

After we had all the sun we could stand for one day, we went over to the
Sheraton, (not a five minute walk down the beach from us) to use their Wifi
and have a cold drink.  This place was very beautiful...

...in comparison to our humble abode :)  Seriously, though, I've
 gone extravagant, and I've gone cheap.  I will choose living out
of my backpack and staying in a cottage in a woods, by a lake,
or near the ocean and a beach any day of the week.
Hands down.  No doubt about it.

Besides, I had my very own starving guard dog outside my cottage.
I fed him my pancakes.
I could not handle seeing all of the starving animals. Everywhere.
It hurt my heart.  A lot.
The Philippines are full of starving animals :(

After a disturbing morning jeep ride, (our driver ran over a starving puppy in the road.
And then laughed about it.  I felt sick to my stomach.) we pulled ourselves along a rope
on a bamboo raft to cross a river to meet up with our zip line guide.  Thankfully,
 we saw the puppy later, and he seemed to be walking fine.
He was still bony and starving, though. :(

We hiked through the jungle and up the mountain, to a spectacular view.
The 800' zip line went across the bay to a sandy beach on the far side :)

It paid to be bigger- he got a much quicker ride and came screaming in hot!
(I had to be rescued about 50' from the end, lol).

But, I love zip lines! Emily and I had a ball on the
zip lines in Puerta Vallarta on her senior trip. Those were short,
fast rides through the jungle canopy.  Because we had to
stop ourselves with hand brakes, she and I always came in
screaming hot. We had a few crash landings, too!
So. Much. Fun.

What a view!  I was hoping to see something big in the
crystal clear water- but only coral heads were to be found.

Selfie time :)  Don't drop the phone in the ocean!!!

Coming in for a landing....

but I couldn't quite make it from here to there.  Here came my rescuer :)

It was time to hop back on the scooter for Puerto
Princesa.  We had to have the bike back in the mid-afternoon.

I opted to not ride on the back while going across the rickety bridge!

The ride was just as beautiful on the way back....
Until things didn't feel quite right...
I thought it was a head wind...
then a few minutes later, the back tire blew.  Crap.
Dead at the side of the road, still about 10km from town.
Thankfully it didn't happen up in the mountains, and
Len got us safely to the side of the road.

A ride in a tuk-tuk, a frustrating phone call with the scooter
shop, and then  it was back in the tuk-tuk, to go back to the scooter,
to push it to a tire shop, to get a new inner tube.  Whew!

Another phone call to the bike shop to tell them we found
a tire shop and that we hoped to get it all fixed.  Apparently
 the owner was already on his way to get us.
(Look at the baby doll peeking though the window :)

What a cutie patootie! I snapped a dozen pics of her posing for me...

....while the mechanic went to work, pulling out the blown inner tube.

When her momma or I would tell her to pose, this is what she did.  Every. single. time :)

For days I had been seeing men carrying roosters around,
like pets.  This guy hopped in the back of a taxi with a
rooster in his lap.  I later found out that cock fighting
is a popular sport in the Philippines.
I thought they just liked carrying their roosters, lol.

The owner soon showed up, and the guys discussed a game plan for getting back to town.

Since the tire was damaged, and the bike had a shimmy to it,
I rode on the back of the owner's scooter, and we followed
Len on the wobbly scooter back to town.

We made it back AND got our security deposit back in full; so all's well, ends well.

We then hopped in a cab to take us to our next motel, as we
had an early flight back to Manila the next morning.
We stayed at the Deep Forest Garden Hotel, which
seemed like we were in the ghetto...We get there, and
there's a Christmas tree hanging upside down in the lobby.
What is this place?

Around the pool and jacuzzi was a giraffe and a
cleverly painted mule...

and a chess board in a wading pool.  Again, what is this place?!

Nice is what it is!  What a pleasant surprise :)

We were having a drink and a snack at the swim
up bar, and all of a sudden I hear a familiar voice...
What the what?!  I turn around and it's Chris, my
colleague from BNDS.  No freakin' way!  

We had a delicious dinner at the hotel, again, a pleasant surprise.  I had Korean bbq, and Len had stuffed crabs. It was the best meal of the trip, for sure.  We turned in for an early flight to Manila the next morning.  It sucks getting up early when you're on vacation!

We arrived back in Manila mid morning, but it took several hours to work
out getting a rental car (from another terminal) so that we could drive a
mere 37 km out of town to Taygaytay, our next destination.  It
was beyond terrible- stuck in traffic, in a brand new rental car, where
there's no rhyme or reason to how people drive...everyone jockeying for
a spot in four lanes of traffic occupied by six lanes of cars, trucks,
scooters, tuk-tuks, jeepneys, and us.  IT SUCKED.  It took us over two
hours to go just 37 km.  By the time we got to Tagaytay and found our hotel,
we missed any opportunity of getting out to see the Taal Volcano that
day- which was the very reason we came to Tagaytay in the first place.

We decided to try and salvage the wasted day by driving down a curvy,
twisty, and winding mountain road, down to the lake, before the sun set.
Maybe we could set up a plan of attack to see the volcano in the morning.

It was a little nerve-wracking, too, as we started our descent-
in the brand new rental car.  We survived Manila traffic without
getting a scratch on the car, now we had to worry about falling rocks...

...and having to go around blind hair pin curves with only one clear lane. Geesh.

After we made it safely down and back up the mountain, we had a reasonable plan of attack for the following morning.  All we needed was pizza and beer, and pastries for dessert, and we called it a night. It had been too much stress for one day- on vacation, no less!

After breakfast the next morning, we headed in to town
to search for a boat ride to take us to the volcano.
That's were we met Aras, who offered us a good deal
if we followed him down the mountain to a 'resort'
that had boats.  It was a pleasant surprise to not be led astray!

By golly, there's boats! And this was the same place we had looked at
last night on our trip down the mountain.  I love it when a plan comes together :)

As we motored across the lake, we passed tilapia farms :)

I loved watching the waves wash over the bamboo outriggers...

Any time I'm on the water, I'm a happy girl :)

About thirty minutes across the lake, and we were pulling up to an island...

Where we got on horseback to go up another mountain

To see a lake, in the middle of a volcano, on an island, in a lake, on an
island, in the middle of the ocean :)

Truthfully, though it is listed as one of the "1000 Places To See Before You
Die", it was a little underwhelming.  Reminded me of the time we saw
Meteor Crater in Arizona...'Yep, that's a big hole in the ground alright.'

I also could not stomach the thought of getting back on a starving, bony
 horse, to carry us back down the mountain, so we opted to walk back down....

...and take in the scenery along the way....

Like this naked little boy who was watching his
sister play on the front porch...

She was cracking him up, which was cracking me up,
just watching the two of them- making a game out
of nothing in a poor, dusty, little farming village.

But really, what child doesn't LOVE to be a naked berserker?!
Soooooo cute :)

I took a quick walk about the village by the lake before we headed back to Manila.

There was a tiny chapel in town, called Caloocan Chapel. They posted
everyone's name and their tithe amount for the week on the front door. Interesting.

This old gal wasn't getting much business at her road side stand.

The drive back to Manila went much better, since we took the expressway.  Minus a few hiccups and wrong turns, we safely got the rental car back, on time, without a scratch or dent, and a full security deposit returned.  Thank God. Then it was back in a taxi to our last motel of the trip.  We had a super early flight out of Manila to Beijing in the morning.

We stumbled into a mall not far from where we were staying.
What the what?!  There's Krispy Kreme in Manila?!
I was the happiest :)

Besides the gay flame swallower in the band...

...the view of the sunset down at the harbor...

...and an impromptu ride in a jeepney...

...this is pretty much what we thought of Manila :)  There was too much chaos,
jeepney pollution, starving animals, begging children, and hookers, for our liking.
If we had it to do over, we would have stayed at Sabang Beach on Palaway
Island for the whole vacation, and skipped Manila all together.

Meanwhile, my friend Jeanette, had an awesome trip at a little island off of Cebu...

She got to dive with thresher sharks!  How cool is that?!
Next time, I'll be joining her...we have a trip planned to Sanya Beach
in South China over the Christmas holiday.

G'nite, y'all!