We arrived in Manila at around 7:oopm. Getting through customs was amazingly fast but that was the only thing that was fast. We quickly learned that in the Philippines it is best to practice patients. At customs, we were told we would need to extend our visas (which were only good for 21 days.) We didn't need to do it right away, but we would need a copy of our exit tickets when we did - so they sent us to the Philippines Airlines office to get our copy, where we sat and waited until 10:00pm that night.
We also realized that while Philippinos are extremely nice and helpful, they will tell you anything to make you happy, even if it is not true. Example: We needed to find luggage storage at the airport for our dive gear, because we didn't want to take it with us on the first leg of our journey. We were sent all over the airport from floor to floor - terminal to terminal because the people we were asking didn't know where it was but wouldn't say that. Thank goodness we did eventually find someone who knew what he was talking about and he was nice enough to walk us to the office and explain how it all worked. It was a bit more complicated than the lockers we had used in other airports - so it needed explaining.
Finally at around midnight, our time at the airport came to an end and we caught a taxi to our first Philippine hostel - the Townhouse.
The next day we headed off to Baguio, a smaller city up in the mountains, where our friend, Mira, grew up and where we would stay with Mira's brother, Dharmu. Because of Manila's traffic - all of the tricycles and jeepneys on the road - it took over an hour to get out of manila. The bus ride took 6 1/2 hours to go 280 kilometers (about 160 miles.) But we were eager to get out of Manila and to breath some clean air, and the bus showed the latest Herbey the Lovebug movie, so off we went.
Apon arrival in Bagiuo we realized it was smaller than Manila but still full of traffic exhaust, covered in concrete and streets full of thousands of people. You are in Asia, what did you expect a french man told us when we commented on our headaches from all of the pollution in the air and garbage in the streets.
Darmu picked us up at the bus station in Bagiuo and took us to his beautiful home outside of town - ahhhh fresh air and green trees, we slept great that night. Darmu and his family hosted us for three days and we explored Bagiuo and got used to the busyness of the city - a bit. One night Darmu took us out to Baguio Country Sounds Club where we got to listen to some great live country music and do a little dancing. The locals thought it was hoot to have a couple of white folks cutting a rug and even applauded us!
These are the colorful buses that take you around town - called Jeepneys they are left over from World War two and the owners paint them beautiful colors.
To get out of the heat and away from the traffic, we explored Camp John Hay, a lovely pine tree-filled park on the edge of Baguio. Bagiuo grew on us - although it is not the small town that Mira grew up in it was close to the mountains and the air was cooler and cleaner than in Manila.
We had heard about the local hot springs so on day three in Bagiuo we headed out to find them. Darmu told us to stay at Palm Grove Resort and hot springs - a friend of his owned it. Once we were settled into our room we went exploring and learned that the resort didn't actually have hot springs - they were across the street. Palm Grove, it turns out, is more of a family water park and conference center. Check out Woody on that Octopus water slide ;-)
Our room was really fancy and we got dinner served to us in the room and the view was spectacular, now we were in the country.
Later...we went across the street to soak in the hot springs. It is hot in the Philippine,s but in the mountains it gets cooler at night, and lucky for us, a thunder storm blew in and chilled the air even more this made soaking a pleasure.
That night we made plans to head to Sagada,another 6 1/2 hour bus ride into the mountains. Boasting of fabulous rice terraces, hiking, caving and small town charm, we hoped the hours in the bus would be worth it.
To see our photos of Baguio, please check out our web album.
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