2009-06 South East Asia (Part 3)

OUR KOREAN BUDDIES

After a lazy morning, I realized that I'd miscalculated the time we had in Sagada. I thought we had 3 nights but we really only have 2. So, we had to go caving that day. Matthew went to the Tourism Office to put our names down for a guide. I collected our clothes from the balcony in case it rains while we're gone. When Matthew came back, he was with a guide and 2 Koreans. They had apparently chased him down the street, shouting in Korean until he turned around and said, "I don't speak Korean!" Judy is a tour guide based in Manila. Jeff (maybe - I don't remember) is an archaeologist at the National Museum in Seoul. He's visiting and she is showing him around on a super tight schedule. They had hiked out of Batad that morning, jeepneyed to Sagada, plan to go caving and then somehow find their way back to Manila in time for her to resume work the next day. Manila is at least 13 hours away by bus so I don't know how they were going to swing that.

SUMAGING CAVE (aka BIG CAVE)

2 minutes into our walk to the cave, the sky started pouring. We hired a jeepney to take us to the cave entrace. While waiting, Judy asked how old I was. She was surprised, but even more shocked by Matthew. Then Jeff said, "guess how old I am" and I said "40!" and he said, "35."

At the cave, I was wary of slipping on the steps and landing in guano (bat dung). We paused and our guide lit a kerosene lamp. Soon I was using my hands to climb down. There was just no way around the guano. The interior of the cave was an orange, bulbous and jaggy world. We took off our shoes and hopped, spelunked, waded in chest-high water, and squeezed through holes. Matthew was impressed by how nice it was. I hit my head a couple of times. Judy lost her glasses in a pool of water. Jeff left his backpack in a nook thinking that we would go back the same way and the guide detoured to retrieve it. We were completely soaked. Matthew and I were prepared, wearing swim suits and quick-dry clothing. Judy was wearing capri jeans. When we said goodbye, I wondered if she was going to be able to shower before heading back to Manila. Unlikely.

SAGADA WEAVING AND BAKERY

After a much needed shower, I went to several weaving stores to look at souvenirs. We pass by a bakery sign next to a big warehouse and walked on. Then we smelled fresh baked bread and turned back. I bought a bag of cheese bread which were actually quite sweet and they were hot off the oven. It started to rain again so we sought shelter at the local hospital which was very run down.

FRENCH COUPLE REDUX

We bump into Natalia and Benjamin at the bus station. They'd met Philip, an Italian solo backpacker, on the way. We all ate dinner at Yoghurt House (our 4th consecutive meal). Philip ordered a big plate of fried rice, baked chicken with pasta, and a plate of tempura. We laughed as each plate arrived and he stared at them thinking they were going to be tiny portions. He got very passionate talking about El Nido, a town in Palawan. He said it was the most beautiful place he has ever seen. He showed us pictures and videos that looked just okay, but I was sufficiently moved by his endorsement that we decided to spend extra money to fit El Nido in.

Ria and her family were also at Yoghurt House and we took a group picture. Everyone was delightful. We would later meet some very different characters in El Nido.

BIG SPIDER

After dinner, Matthew and Philip head to an internet cafe. Earlier, before dinner, they had spotted a huge spider the size of my palm on the door. I head back to the hostel and fall asleep. I was roused by my phone ring and went down to open the door for them. Sagada has a town-wide curfew and our hostel apparently enforced it.