Cordillera Region

The overnight bus from Manila to Banaue takes 9 hours and is billed as air-conditioned. As soon as the bus started, an Arctic wind was pumped from vents above every seat – it soon became apparent who had done the journey before, as thick blankets and warm coats were produced. The rest of us shivered in our seats, barely sleeping a wink due to the impending frost bite. Apparently the driver refused to turn the system off. I assume that since they billed it as air-con they were going to bloody well have it.














We ate breakfast at the hotel, looking out over the rain socked rice terraces and contemplated what to do. The best rice terraces are at Batad, a mere 10 miles by 'road' followed by a short hike. We, together with another guy who'd come off our bus, hired a Jeepney (long wheel-base jeep) and a guide, and headed off. A spine crippling hour later on the worst road on Earth, we arrived at the 'saddle' above Batad. A further half hour walk down hill got us to a pizza restaurant overlooking Batad village and the rice terraces that it sites in. We sat and ate pizza as the heavens opened up.



A further hour or so, following paths along the terraces, got us down though the village and up to the ridge the other side, which gave the best view of the semi-circular terraces. We then walked along the top of the terraces, and to prove their amphitheatre like quality, someone in the village kicked off the Eagles greatest hits, which was audible right the way across.

















We had arranged transport to Sagada with a guy who was acting as a guide for a trio of Filipino girls (basically he was making some extra money by throwing us in the back of the minibus). The pickup time was meant to be 9am, but since nothing quite runs to time in this part of the world, they turned up at 11:30. After stopping for photos and lunch, we arrived in Sagada at 4 – not bad for a two hour journey.
Sagada is a fairly relaxed traveller hangout (although western backpackers were thin on the ground when we were there), so we booking in for two nights – by 7:30 we were asleep.














The next day we hired a guide to explore the caves. First on the list were some hanging coffins – literally coffins hung on the side of a cliff - we saw hanging coffins in China too, and they weren't that interesting there either. The first cave is the Lumiang Burial Cave; there, 100 or so coffins are piled up near the entrance, with more inside (the village now has a cemetery, so they've largely stopped piling coffins in caves and dangling them off cliffs).















Next was Sumaging Cave. Armed with a gas lantern, we descended into the large, bat filled first cavern. This was somewhat treacherous going, as the rocks where wet and muddy, and the place was full of bat excrement. After 10 minutes the scene completely changed – here an underground river had carved out a meandering path through the sandstone seam. We took off our shoes and found you actually get very good grip with bare feet on sandstone, even with the water flowing over your feet. The rock formations look like river eroded mud – except they've taken eons to form. As we descended further, the formations become more elaborate and we were pointed out structures like “pregnant woman” and “the king”. Occasionally the route required some climbing, and at one point a rope decent. All the water leads to a deep pool – I jumped in first, and not surprisingly was hit with pretty blood cold water. It's impossible to get out where I jumped in as the sandstone walls are too steep, but it's easy to climb out next to the waterfall. Kirsten went in next, fully clothed (I'd brought bathers), then I had another go just for luck.















To avoid a horrific overnighter back to Manila, we took a bus to Baguio along the Halsema highway. This is a winding mountainous road, offering some spectacular views, but despite the drivers insistence on permanently being on the wrong side of the road, and only overtaking on blind bends, it wasn't nearly as nerve racking as it is made out to be.















The principle reason for stopping in Baguio was to avoid 13 hours on a bus, so we got no further than the travel agent (to book the flight to Puerto Princesa) and Dunkin Donuts, although I believe there's some nice countryside around. We are now we're back in Manila, and in a much better area (Makati).

Manila

Manila is a pretty unlovable place – a sprawling, noisy, smelly Asian metropolis, marred by extreme poverty and vice. Our hotel, in the Malate district, was conveniently placed across the road from a slum, and had about 100 people sleeping rough on the pavement outside. Despite this, it didn't feel unsafe, and was only a short walk from some okay bars and restaurants.















The plan for day one was to sort out the bus to Banaue, then do some light sightseeing. We made it as far as the air-conditioned mall. My efforts to find new cultural experiences after four mouths of travel came to nought, as I bought a tee-shirt from Topman, and a pair of trousers from Gap.

Having failed to find any of the LP recommended clubs (mainly because LP can never be arsed to update their books), we stumbled into Bar Rocks, and were greeted with a Filipino 4-piece blasting out cover versions – probably the best entertainment in town, if you're not trying to find an 18 year old 'girlfriend'.















Manila does lack any real tourist sights. The nearest it has is the old Spanish walled city, Intramuros, although this was largely destroyed by US bombing during the retaking of the Philippines. What's there, other than the walls, is the slightly dull Fort Santiago, a post-war reconstruction of Manila Cathedral, San Agustin Church (the oldest in the Philippines and survivor of the bombing) and a museum depicting a Spanish colonial mansion (commissioned by Imelda Marcos). Being a tourist area, showing any sign of wanting a cab results in kids running headlong into the road to pull one over. They are then impossible to shake without actually leaping into a taxi.

By the time our overnight bus to Banaue left at 10pm, I was glad to be getting out. Although we do have to come through twice more.

Yap

An hour's flight after leaving “where the rainbow ends” we arrived in “the land of stone money”, otherwise known as Yap – they love catch phrases around here. Despite the rather completed customs form we passed through immigration and baggage claim quickly thanks to the tiny size of the airport and there only being five of us disembarking in Yap, the rest continuing on to Guam. Although I'd read about it in the guidebook, the first sight of the Yapese customs officials teeth and gums stained red with Betel nut juice, looking distinctly like a mouth full of blood, comes as a shock. This is a sight that is common place in Yap, together with the blood red stains on the roads, as most men seem to chew these nuts, together with crushed coral lime and pepper leaves, almost constantly. The chewing produces a mild intoxication, a mouth full of red saliva and eventual causes the teeth to go black in some cases causing ulcers and even cancer. Lovely.


It being the uncivilised hour of 3am when we arrived we were pleased to see that there was some to great us from our hotel, Pathways, at the airport. Our host and driver waited for a few moments before leaving to make sure the other arrivals were being picked up as after we left there would be no other form of transport left – welcome to island life. During the fifteen minute ride into the main town (this is a very small island so it doesn't take long to get anywhere), Colonia, it didn't take long to get onto the topic of Continental Airlines and their change of flight schedule. This is something that came up in nearly every conversation we had with an islander as it has caused some very real problems for them which make our inconvenience (see the rant under the Tokyo blog entry) seem very trivial. As the flight now goes via Guam it makes it difficult for tourists from countries that need a visa to enter the US (such as Russians) to get to Yap and some hotels are rumoured to have bookings down around 60%.















Our hotel, Pathways, was a definite improvement on Palau, with atmospheric Yapese style cottages built of native materials, set into the hill with a veranda and a view of the bay. Inside was very comfortable with dark woods, white linen and thankfully a ceiling fan and aircon. We settled in for some rest before starting what is the main reason tourists come to Yap – diving.



The main draw for divers to Yap are the Giant Manta Rays. Unfortunately despite there apparently being a “high probability” of seeing them, in nine dives we didn't get a glimpse – I think they must also have been on holiday. The best place to see mantas is in the channels were there are feeding and cleaning stations, which meant a lot of siting around, or clinging to rocks if there was a current, with not a huge amount else to see. We did however, get two excellent dives in – one was Mill Channel when the tides were just right to have incredible visibility and we were treated to a group of more than 20 small sharks circling above us. The second at the aptly named vertigo where we hung on at the edge of the drop off watching a group of 13 pretty large grey reef shark parading in front of us. Highlights of the other dives were a brief sight of an eagle ray, some bumphead parrot fish, plenty of silver tipped shark, and some very feisty Travelli fish, one of wish poised in front of me whilst having the inside of its mouth cleaned by a smaller fish – not a job I would like.



Other than diving, the other thing that Yap is famous for is stone money – discs of up to 12 feet in diameter making them the largest coins in the world. Although the US is now the common currency in Yap, the stone money is apparently still used today for major transactions like the purchase of land and the payment of dowry. Given the size of the coins that are not moved around but are general kept at stone money banks in the villages. We made a very hot and sticky walk to one of these not far from Colonia. What gives the stones value is that they are not quarried in Yap, but instead are transported around 300 miles from Palau, traditionally a perilous journey made by outrigger canoe. Unfortunately, it would have put us way over our weight limit to have brought some over by plane.















A rather entertaining story relates to an enterprising Irish-American adventurer, David O'Keefe, who in the mid 19th century successfully started a business using his ship to carry stone money from Palau to Yap in exchanges for goods. Whilst the money was valued lower than the stones brought by canoe the did offer the possibility for the less well-off to own money and increase their status. As a result O'Keefe was apparently well loved by the Yapese people who refused to trade with anyone else allowing him to maintain a monopoly for over 30 years. There is now a lovely little hotel and a friendly bar named in his honour (he drowned at sea).

Unfortunately our time in Yap was gone too soon and it was time to leave island time and head to Manila. Thanks to Continental's change of flight schedule we had a 12 hour layover in Guam. Instead of sitting at the airport (which could probably only occupy about 10 mins), we headed for the beach which is a convenient 10 minute taxi ride away. As well as being a surprisingly pleasant and relaxing day, this also had the bonus of extending our travel plans to cover and additional continent.

Palau

...where the rainbow ends.
Well it certainly does rains here, and after a change of plane in Guam, and a brief stop in Yap, we finally arrived, late at night, in poring rain, to our Pacific paradise. Due to budgetary constraints, our hotel room overlooked the Shell oil depot rather than the crystal blue waters. Never mind.

Keen to start the diving, we pitched up at the closest (non-dodgy looking) dive centre (Sam's on maliki), signed up for a 2-day advanced open water course and opened what would prove to be a very large tab.















Our diving companions included some of the crew of the USS O'Kane (including the captain it transpired), in town on route from Pearl Harbour to Hong Kong. Normally you'd expect a destroyer with 260 crew to upset the peace of a group of islands with a population of only 20,000, but apart from the 'free' beer at the Sam's party going in under 5 minutes, there was no trouble. The first dive site was German Channel – a little dull until we'd be down for 40 minutes, waiting round the cleaning station, when a large Manta Ray turned up to make the whole thing worth it. On the second dive, there were a couple of Grey Reef Sharks – ten-a-penny here as it turns out. On the way back we called in at Jellyfish Lake. Here in this small saltwater lake, the Jellyfish, having no predictors, have evolved away their stings, leaving you safe, if somewhat nervous, to swim with the 100 million of them. Get out to the middle of the lake and their density becomes incredible.















Day two's diving started with the wreck of the Iro – a Japanese Oiler, sank in WWII. The bow sits at 18m, while the stern is at 28m. Like all 60 year old wrecks sitting in tropical waters, it's hard at first to distinguish it from a reef – only when the skeleton of the bridge loomed above us, did it become clear what it was. The second dive was Ulong Channel – this produced half a dozen reef sharks that circled us, before we drifted through a channel with spectacular lettuce corral to the right, and three of Palau's famous giant clams. After completing our final dive of the advanced course (navigation), we were taken into Chandelier Cave. This has four chambers with breathable air, and the sensation of surfacing inside a large cavern was surreal. We explored all four chambers, before turning off the torches and swimming out using the faint blue light of the entrance. As we reached the first chamber, six divers with torches entered – silhouetted against the entrance, and with the blue torch beams, it was all very “Close Encounters”. We swam out beneath them, unnoticed.















Day three we took the long boat ride south to Peleliu. The weather was not promising, with heavy sea and hard rain – I got the wetsuit on as the spray socked us. However, as soon as we got under the water it all changed, with vivid blue water and excellent visibility. Both were wall dives, with a couple of turtles and sharks for entertainment. Peleliu is also famous as the site of one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific campaign, with 2000 US and 11,000 Japanese casualties in nearly three months of fighting to take a 5 square-mile island. We took a tour of the island to see the rusting remains of US and Japanese tanks, landing crafts and planes. As it turns out the island and its airfield was of little strategic value to the Americans.















We'd planned a break from diving, but it gets addictive. Day four started with the Virgin Blue Hole – possibly so called because it's tighter than the more famous Blue Hole. Swimming out over the shallow reef, the hole is about 8m across and plunges down to 30m. At the bottom it opens up into a long cavern, which emerges on the reef wall. The second dive was similar, starting with another blue hole, and throwing up plenty of turtles. As a treat for being good, we did a third dive on Jake's Sea Plane – a Japanese sea plane bombed by the Americans and now lying in fairly shallow water at c. 15m.















Finally breaking the diving addiction (although not actually saving any money), we took a kayak tour around the beautiful Rock Islands. After our boat drop off, we paddled round with our guide for several hours, absorbing the tranquility of the many lagoons, while getting slowly sunburnt. We'd arranged an overnight stay on a beach, so around late afternoon they dumped us on a beach with two kayaks and a mountain of camping equipment (which they ensured me would fit in the kayaks' cavities, if we were inventive). While pitching the tent under the trees I couldn't help noticing that the whole place was littered with crab holes (it was already crawling with hermit crabs, but they're cute). After a poor reenactment of The Blue Lagoon, we cooked super and settled down on a rug near the water. This being a full moon, there was plenty of ambient light, and one couldn't help noticing that things were moving. In fact the entire crab population was on its way the the sea. They gave our rug a wide berth (although one did scurry over Kirsten's hand), and froze whenever you shone a torch at them, so we just carried on drinking the Bud.

Things were not to turn out so well for the crabs however: At about 7:30 a boat turned up with six men. They said hi, then proceeded to fill two large sacks with crabs in about ten minutes, and disappear. Although many crabs survived the cul, it was just not the same.















The next day, having stuff the tent, bed rolls, gas stove and god knows what else inside the kayak, we slowly paddled back, wondering which would run out first: the water or the sun screen.

So yet more diving – this time the incredible Blue Corner, and it lived up to its reputation. We hocked on at the edge of the drop off, and stayed there for 20 minutes as 15 massive Bumphead Parrot Fish swim around us, together with Napoleon Fish and Grey Reef Sharks.















For our last day in Palau, rather than the sensible option of going diving, we chose to do a dolphin encounter and free dive. For the short ride out to Dolphin Pacific they insist you wear a life-jacket - after spending days getting soaked on the back of a dive boat, this seemed a little pointless. The centre is more popular with Japanese tourists (the founder is Japanese), which worked out well for us, as there were only three in the English language group. We began with a tour of the centre, followed by a meet-and-greet with the facility's seven Bottlenose Dolphins (two males and five females). After stroking a dolphin and getting a kiss, we were treated to a rare sight – a dolphin having a crap two yards from our faces.

The main point of coming here was to free dive with dolphins, so we kitted up and got into a pool with two of them (plus half a dozen Japanese tourists). The dolphins have been trained to dive down with you. So, if you dive down deep, you get your own pair of pet dolphins swimming round you. The only thing to remember in this situation is that dolphins can hold their breath a lot longer than humans. The other didn't seem keen on going much below the surface, so we rather hogged the dolphin action.

The only thing left to do on Palau was pay the bill at Sam's (it still hurts), then get thoroughly drunk before the 1 am flight to Yap.

Tokyo

Fresh from two days of hiking, onsen hoping, and not quite seeing mount Fuji, we returned to Tokyo on Friday night. Our kind host's (Jamie) flat is in the embassy district, and the directions to turn left at the policeman with the big white stick, proved very useful. The close by nightlife area of Roppongi is firmly an expat district, and it's difficult to walk down the street without someone trying to drag you into a strip club.

For dinner we settled on a Tokyo rarity – a vegetarian restaurant. This was a true one man outfit (across the hall from a strip club). We sat at the bar, as the chef weaved magic with a big knife, turning mere vegetables into tasty dishes.

The next day, needing to book some Palau accommodation, we found not so much an internet cafe, as an internet hotel. The place had some 100 cubicles with a range of seating options including fully reclining – judging by the feet sticking out under the doors, many people we having a nap. There's also free soft drinks and ice-cream, plus as much Manga as you can shake a stick at. So for about £2.50 an hour (and much cheaper if you stay a long time), it's little wonder some people seem to live in there.

We didn't have the energy or the inclination to do any real sightseeing, so instead spent the afternoon with Jamie in the electronics district. I was aware of manga porn, but was a little surprised by the shear amount of it, and more disturbingly the fact that much of it would be illegal in the UK, as it seemed to depict prepubescent girls. On a more positive note, there is so much lovely electronics to play with.















Evening dinner was sushi – a bit like the vegetarian place, except blokes with big knifes chopped up fish in plain sight. Behind where they worked was an enormous tank, filled with some pretty big fish. Every so often, someone would reach in with a net and extract a fish, which was swiftly executed. The chef would hold the fish aloft, as a bell was rung. People then shouted out their orders for really fresh sushi. There was also whale on the menu, although this didn't come from the tank.

For the first time in months we treated Sunday like a Sunday. We stayed in bed till noon, did very little in the afternoon, then Kirsten cooked dinner and we watched a DVD (Election with Reese Witherspoon). Great.

Monday got off to a bad start after we found out that Continental had cancelled our Yap to Manila flight, and hadn't bother to tell us about it (or indeed refund the money). This was a problem, what with they being the only airline that fly to Yap, and us not wanting to spend the rest of our lives playing castaway. Anyway, after 40 minutes (or about 70 quid) on the phone to a thicky, Kirsten managed to get us a flight out, although it is unfortunately routed back via Guam, turning a 2 hour flight into a 17 hour slog. Bastards.

We spent the rest of the day in department stores, before dining in Hard Rock cafe (I hadn't had a veggie burger since Moscow).

Hakone

We arrived in Tokyo around 7ish Wednesday evening, and found our way easily to Jamie's flat opposite the Russian embassy, for 6 nights of free loading (see Tokyo entry). The plan was to head out early the next day for an overnight stay in the Hakone area unencumbered by our bags.



Hakone is a large, geothermically active area, with mountains, a lake, and plenty of onsens (Japanese natural hot spas). Mount Fuji looms over the area, although you need a particularly clear day to see it; we saw its silhouette from the train, but that was the last of it for that day.


















After arranging accommodation through the tourist office in Yumoto, we boarded the switchback train to take us up the mountain to Gora. From here a fairly long funicular takes you to the first cable car station. My plan was to start hiking from here, but Kirsten overruled, and we took the cable car to Owakudani first. As the car comes over the ridge, you are presented with a view of a scared mountainside, devoid of life due to the toxic gases spewing from the earth. From here we hiked up the hill, through some very sickly looking trees. Every few minutes we past signs warning of the toxic gases, and to get off the mountain ASAP if the siren started – the eye stinging and stench of rotten eggs was bad enough already. We hiked for 90 minutes (and saw no one after the first 20) to a peak that I hoped would give us great view of mount Fuji – we couldn't even work out what direction it was meant to be in.














The plan was to hike the remaining hour or so to the Komagatake ropeway, then get this down to Lake Ashi. However, after a well marked and obvious path up, the route down quickly became tough going, and at times we found ourselves in muddy ravines with six foot banks. Only the sight of the occasional footprint convinced us we were going in the right direction. Safely down, and after some bus catching incompetence we made it to our hotel, where I dined on two cartons of mirco-chips from a vending machine (they were really bad).



Japan is famed for its onsens, so we decided to spend the next morning in a large complex across the road. This place (in Kowaki-en if you fancy it), is onsen meets Butlins - tacky, but fun. There's a coffee onsen, plus a green tea, and a red wine one. Each had a sign warning you not to drink the water, but in the interests of scientific discovery I had a go – while the coffee smelt of coffee the taste was altogether different. Other notable areas were the Dead sea Bath and Rodeo mountain, with slides for 32 year old kids. But the oddest thing there, was a small pool full off little fish. You sit on the side, dangle you feet in, then cringe uncontrollably as fifty fish descend on you and start picking dead skin off your feet. It's not a nice feeling, but the Japanese seemed completely unphased by it. We chicken out of a second go.




After lunch we got a bus back down to the lake, where mount Fuji had decided to make a brief, if somewhat hazy, appearance. The transport up the lake is by way of mock pirate ship (I was pleased to see Coity on the map of Britain). By the time we'd boarded the cable car back to Owakudani, Fuji had all but disappeared, leaving us only with postcards of “here's what it looks like on a (rare) clear day”.

Monkey Magic

Yudanaka
After another bus and two train journeys, in the evening we arrived in Yudanaka, a hot spring village famed for being home to a troop of Japanese Macaques, or “snow monkeys”, who like to hang out in the hot spring baths alongside the river in their mountain home. We were initially apprehensive that the monkeys may be difficult to find so got very excited when we saw one scurry down the banking on approach to the park where they live. However, we needn't of worried as there were around 50 hanging out around their main spa pool. As the park has been operating for over 40 years now, and the monkeys are enticed to the pool by food, they are really only semi-wild. There are, however, no barriers between you and the monkeys and they are free to come and go as they please. It is a great experience being at such close quarters to them watching them going about their business, which mostly consists of grooming, followed by a spot of bathing the spa and some occasional fighting. Sounds like a pretty good life to me. It was a shame not to see them in the snow, but still the 300 plus photos that Richard and I managed to take in little over an hour attest to how much we enjoyed the experience. Luckily for you we've only selected a handful to post on the blog. They have their own live cam here. And here's a video we made. Sooo Cute.

Tsumago

After several large cities we decided it was time to see a more rural slide of Japan and so headed into Central Honshu. To get to the small village that we selected from the guidebook somewhat randomly required us to take three different trains and a bus. This all went with clockwork efficiency – it really helps that the trains are so punctual here.

We arrived in Tsumago, an Edo era post town in the alpine Kiso Valley region, unfortunately in the pouring rain. Surrounded by thick forest, and next to an attractive alpine river, the village has been carefully reconstructed to recreate the picturesque charm of this important rest stop for feudal lords travelling back and forth to Edo, complete with black and white wooden houses, small channels of water and water wheels. Of course this means that there were plenty of Japanese tourists there as well, but perhaps because of the poor weather or that we have missed the peak summer season, it wasn't completely overrun and managed to retain considerable charm.

We spent the night in a traditional Ryoken (Japanese inn). It was, however, one that was used to having Western guests so we duly received instruction on how to wear our (fastening right over left and not vice versa which is a simple of death), use the cedar wood communal bath and eat the various dishes served for dinner. Although the ryoken was a little faded around the edges, it did have a lovely garden complete with enormous Koi. The highlight was the dinner which consisted of a vast array of intricate beautifully presented and scrumptious morsels including baked river fish, river trout sashimi, beef marinated in fresh miso and cooked at the table, and the pièce de résistance – bee larvae. They even managed to produce some pretty decent vegetarian fare for Richard, although they took some convincing that bee larvae was not considered a vegetarian food.

The next day we took a bus to the nearby, and equally pretty, post town of Magome, and did the well sign posted hike back to Tsumago. This was a lovely walk through along the route of the ancient highway through the forest and past a couple of waterfalls.