James takes on the world!

I arrived in Manila and had a massive culture shock. The area I was staying in reminded me of a slightly watered down version of India. Every person was trying to scrape together a living using what ever method they could. I don’t have any photos mainly because I was a bit affraid to take my camera out with me.

Manila is incredibly cheap to travel around. You can use Jeepneys which are old converted American Jeeps that carry around 16-20 squashed Filipinos. These guys don’t make room for anybody, they squeeze through the tiniest gaps in the traffic and you can hear them coming well before you see them. I also used a many Tricycles, these are great fun, basically 100cc motorbikes with hand made sidecars attached to them. A 20minute journey costs around 50 pence.

I stayed for one night in Manila and then happily got a very very cold 9 hour overnight bus to Banaue in the north.

Banaue is considered as the eighth wonder of the world. It is full of man made rice terraces which line the mountainside. I met another Brit at my hostel on the morning I arrived. We took a 4 hour trip up the mountain to a viewpoint. Although it is cooler here because of the altitude,it is sill in the low 30’s around midday.

Banaue town itself is great. All of the house are thrown together with wood, brick and tin roofs. Tonight we had a 2 hour power cut but this was a good excuse to drink some San Miguel which costs around 50p (this is almost cheaper than the water) and play some cards.

Tomorrow we are going to be doing another 6 hour trek to see some more rice terraces which have just been planted up along with a waterfall and and old mountain village.

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