2009-06 South East Asia (Part 2)

BATAD MORNING

The roosters woke me up and I quickly took a picture of the sunrise before I put on my eye mask and went back to sleep. An hour later it got too hot so we got up. I saw the bumps on my legs and felt half disgusted and half proud that I am enduring the test of mother nature.

BREAKFAST AT RITA'S

Food at Simon's (our hostel) was really bad so we ate at Rita's, another shacky hostel nearby. I guess Rita's dead because her daughter is running the place now. She has a young daughter of maybe 3 or 4 years old. I was alarmed to hear the girl call "pa" to a really old man (over 60?). Rita and her old husband both eat betel nut and have red teeth. The old man sharpened a spear while we ate. I had chapati bread with jam and a veggie omelet. Matthew had barely edible chocolate pancake. We said bye to the French couple who were leaving before us for the hike back to Batad Junction.

FRENCH COUPLE

Benjamin is French and Natalia is Columbian. They speak in mostly French and some Spanish to each other, and English to us. Natalia is working at a French NGO in Cebu and Benjamin is an IT consultant on 4 weeks vacation (out of the 7 weeks he gets each year). He'd worked in Korea for 6 months and thinks Koreans are overworked. I was just very impressed with their linguistic abilities.

"MINIVAN" TO SAGADA

We decided to leave Banaue rather than stay another night. People told us to wait for a minivan at the bus station. The ground on the station was stained red from people spitting betel nut juice. The "minivan" arrives and it is a very old bus with Korean lettering on the door. No AC of course. It was crowded so Matthew and I sat separately. I had learned my lesson from my "jungle fever" day before so I wore shorts today. I sat next to a middle aged, skinny Filipino guy with aviator shades. His leg kept leaning over to my side while he slept. I also didn't like my hamstring skin touching the seat but something's gotta give. We rode on a single lane so that when there's a vehicle coming the other way, one would have to back up until there's enough space to let them pass. We wound higher and higher up the mountains until we reached a mud slide that had created a mini-hill that was too steep for the bus to climb.

SHOULD I HELP?

The bus helpers deboarded, as did 10 other locals from the bus. The two helpers and some nearby construction workers started digging the hill with their hands. I thought about helping them, but ultimately just sat on the bus and took a picture instead.

SOUNDTRACK

I am a ballad junkie from my Filipino adolescence, and I love all the oldie ballads the bus driver played! They also played Christian songs. Matthew identified "Sailing on the Ship to Heaven." Which reminds me, I really liked Danny's rendition of Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel" on American Idol. Many of the songs I like would be scoffed at by the folks at pitchfork, which I read sporadically. I keep wishing someone would play Beyonce's Halo. So now I'm listening to it on Youtube.

BONTOC

After 3 hours, we arrive in Bontoc, a major town 1 hour away from Sagada. Matthew bought a donut from Mister Donut. I asked a girl where the jeepneys to Sagada are and she led us. I wasn't sure if she wanted to be paid. She seemed shy and very curious about us. Turns out that she's just a nice person.

JEEPNEY TO SAGADA

Jeepneys depart when full. The driver says no problem, we can fit. Matthew takes one look at the jeepney and says that we should go on the next one. It was pretty full. Promptly, 5 more people board the same jeepney and I look at Matthew. We wait 30 minutes for the next jeepney to fill. On our way to Sagada, the exhaust was bad and many locals breathed into handkerchiefs. A lady nursed her baby and I wondered if the exhaust bothered the baby.

SAGADA EVENING

When we got to Sagada, our butts were numb because the seat was metal. It had also rained but luckily the jeepney has plastic cloths that cover the windows. George's Guesthouse was 200 pesos per person or $4. It had 2 beds, a TV, and a private bath.

For dinner we headed to the famous Yoghurt House. It was awesome. Probably the best food we've had yet. They make their own yoghurt. Always a good sign! I ordered baked chicken over hashbrowns and Matthew got stir fried beef. I also got calamansi juice without ice. It was a one-guy operation that evening. He was young - probably early 20's. He took our orders and made our meals.

We bump into Ria, her husband, and her daughter Risa. They were on the night bus with us to Banaue. They're Filipino Americans living in Houston. They were attending a wedding in Manila and decided to escape the heat for a few days in Sagada. Ria really humbled me because when the night bus had broken down and turned into a sauna, she was in such good spirits and even helped pass water to the helpers fixing the fan belt. Meanwhile, I was a grumpy grandma about the heat, stench, and unworkability. Anyways, that had put Ria in my good book and we had a nice chat exchanging travel notes before retiring after a long day.