Ultimate Philippines Data Sheet: Manila, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, GenSan, Butuan
03-25-2013, 06:01 PM
I'm sitting at the airport in Manila after being on a bus for ten hours from the town of Banaue. I can't believe I'm actually saying this but I can't wait to get to Cebu and hit up that skank fest known as Mango Square and finally get some tail, I just had a ten day dry spell in the Philippines, I should probably be kicked off this forum or at least have my rep points taken away, but I digress.
So, after our tour of Palawan, Innuendo had the bright idea of visiting the world famous ancient Filipino rice terraces in the town of Banaue. A friend of mine who I trust also recommended seeing them so I thought what the heck, lets do it!
We left Coron on a Friday morning and arrived in Manila, I wanted to stay the weekend to party or at least Friday to end my, at that time, week long dry spell. Innuendo wasn't keen on staying in Manila because he didn't like it his first time there and I can't say I blame him too much as it is a fucking shit hole.
So we hung out around Manila all day, mostly at the Starbucks near the University of Santo Tomas, I don't even know where in the city this is but I know that it is a day game gold mine and the campus is actually quite nice, a real diamond in the rough. Then we got on the 10PM bus a headed out on a very shitty 10 hour ride north to Banaue, thank God Innuendo had some Valium so we popped those and I was out for pretty much the entire trip.
We woke up in Banaue and got off the bus and I could already tell that this place was a shit hole and I hated it! Hustlers and touts surrounded us yapping their heads off trying to get us to go tho their hotel. We found a little cafe with internet and sat there for awhile until we found a hotel, the People's Lodge, which is right on the main street. At 700P/night it was a decent place, they had WIFI, no need for AC in this mountain town. The town is situated in a valley and surrounded by rice terraces, there's actually some decent views from the hotels.
Moma: No I'm not referring to our RVF member by the same name, I'm referring to a drug that these mountain hillbillies chew. I saw a sign that said "No spitting moma juice here", so I asked a guy what moma is and he offered me some. Basically its betel nut, they rip of the bark, split the shell in half and wrap it in a mint leaf, add tobacco leaf and a powder made of ground up snail shell. They chew on this shit and spit out this red juice, the streets are literally covered in this shit and about 80% of the male population chews it and their teeth are all fucked up, rotted and stained. Of course, I tried it and it was disgusting, I didn't chew long enough to see if there were any euphoric effects.
[img]![[Image: 2n6sta8.jpg]](http://i50.tinypic.com/2n6sta8.jpg)
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Rice Terraces: Yes they are about as exciting as they sound, on our first day we took a tricycle about a hour away on a really shitty road then hiked for an hour through some stone wall rice terraces to a hot spring, it was okay but nothing special. Maybe I'm being a bit pessimistic here, but I wasn't that impressed, yes they are a UNESCO world heritage site and I appreciate the fact that they are an impressive feat of engineering considering that were built 3000 years ago, but all the same, I wasn't feeling it. The tour took about four hours of driving and hiking, a pleasant afternoon.
Those were the Banaue rice terraces, we arrived back at our hotel and Innuendo tells me that the next day we're going to the Batad rice terraces, which are much more impressive and require a lot more hiking, about six hours in total. I'll spare you guys the details, but it was brutal, the roads were shit, it was raining, mud everywhere, roads blocked off due to big trucks going into the ditches, etc. The rice terraces were the same as the other ones we saw the previous day, seen one rice terrace, ya seen em all!
Really what we should have done is what the two hot Swedish girls we met on the hike did: take the overnight bus from Manila, arrive in Banaue, take a tricycle to batad, hike three hours to the terraces, three hours back then catch the evening bus back to Manila.
Instead we wasted three days in that shit hole, ON A WEEKEND! Oh well, we didn't get drunk and to be honest I've been drinking so heavily since I've been in the Philippines that my liver deserved a break.
So guys, if you're dead set on seeing the rice terraces, do what the Swedish girls did and not what I did, get there, see them and then get the fuck out!
So, after our tour of Palawan, Innuendo had the bright idea of visiting the world famous ancient Filipino rice terraces in the town of Banaue. A friend of mine who I trust also recommended seeing them so I thought what the heck, lets do it!
We left Coron on a Friday morning and arrived in Manila, I wanted to stay the weekend to party or at least Friday to end my, at that time, week long dry spell. Innuendo wasn't keen on staying in Manila because he didn't like it his first time there and I can't say I blame him too much as it is a fucking shit hole.
So we hung out around Manila all day, mostly at the Starbucks near the University of Santo Tomas, I don't even know where in the city this is but I know that it is a day game gold mine and the campus is actually quite nice, a real diamond in the rough. Then we got on the 10PM bus a headed out on a very shitty 10 hour ride north to Banaue, thank God Innuendo had some Valium so we popped those and I was out for pretty much the entire trip.
We woke up in Banaue and got off the bus and I could already tell that this place was a shit hole and I hated it! Hustlers and touts surrounded us yapping their heads off trying to get us to go tho their hotel. We found a little cafe with internet and sat there for awhile until we found a hotel, the People's Lodge, which is right on the main street. At 700P/night it was a decent place, they had WIFI, no need for AC in this mountain town. The town is situated in a valley and surrounded by rice terraces, there's actually some decent views from the hotels.
Moma: No I'm not referring to our RVF member by the same name, I'm referring to a drug that these mountain hillbillies chew. I saw a sign that said "No spitting moma juice here", so I asked a guy what moma is and he offered me some. Basically its betel nut, they rip of the bark, split the shell in half and wrap it in a mint leaf, add tobacco leaf and a powder made of ground up snail shell. They chew on this shit and spit out this red juice, the streets are literally covered in this shit and about 80% of the male population chews it and their teeth are all fucked up, rotted and stained. Of course, I tried it and it was disgusting, I didn't chew long enough to see if there were any euphoric effects.
[img]
[/img] Rice Terraces: Yes they are about as exciting as they sound, on our first day we took a tricycle about a hour away on a really shitty road then hiked for an hour through some stone wall rice terraces to a hot spring, it was okay but nothing special. Maybe I'm being a bit pessimistic here, but I wasn't that impressed, yes they are a UNESCO world heritage site and I appreciate the fact that they are an impressive feat of engineering considering that were built 3000 years ago, but all the same, I wasn't feeling it. The tour took about four hours of driving and hiking, a pleasant afternoon.
Those were the Banaue rice terraces, we arrived back at our hotel and Innuendo tells me that the next day we're going to the Batad rice terraces, which are much more impressive and require a lot more hiking, about six hours in total. I'll spare you guys the details, but it was brutal, the roads were shit, it was raining, mud everywhere, roads blocked off due to big trucks going into the ditches, etc. The rice terraces were the same as the other ones we saw the previous day, seen one rice terrace, ya seen em all!
Really what we should have done is what the two hot Swedish girls we met on the hike did: take the overnight bus from Manila, arrive in Banaue, take a tricycle to batad, hike three hours to the terraces, three hours back then catch the evening bus back to Manila.
Instead we wasted three days in that shit hole, ON A WEEKEND! Oh well, we didn't get drunk and to be honest I've been drinking so heavily since I've been in the Philippines that my liver deserved a break.
So guys, if you're dead set on seeing the rice terraces, do what the Swedish girls did and not what I did, get there, see them and then get the fuck out!