Two helpings of The Philippines, with a side of Sichuan...

We’re in the Philippines, working in Manila for two weeks during the week (this means Allison is lawyering and I’m writing), and playing on the weekends -- this means getting away from Manila, which is not a thrilla; it combines the charm and ambience of Gary Indiana with the climate and excitement of Bakersfield. To be fair, the hotel is nice… however, the rest of the Philippines is simply spectacular – you’ll see what I mean. We had two more terrific weekends, one in the North (rice terraces and caves) and one in the South (diving and giraffes -- huh???).

Chengdu -- Panda-manium!

First, though, I have to backtrack for a quick paragraph to tell you about Chengdu, in Western China. We had a brief stopover there, just 24 little hours on the way back from Tibet last month, and we weren’t expecting much, so we were very pleasantly surprised (a frequent Ratner travel strategy, I admit). Our main goal here was to see Chengdu’s Panda Breeding Research Center, and to help my wonderful wife fulfill her dream of holding a panda (everyone’s got to have a dream, right?). The Center is housed in a beautifully laid-out and landscaped park; we headed to the nursery first. The price tag is steep (over $100 U.S.), but the money goes to the facility to continue their research, helping protect these endangered animals. And Allison was just thrilled to actually get to hold a laid-back, snuggly, one-year-old baby panda, while I shot video of the adorable cutie (the panda looks OK, too). We also got to see full-grown pandas eating their way through 50 kilos of bamboo a day, and watch the much smaller, friskier red pandas roll around in their habitat – they look like raccoons that maybe had a Giant Panda for a great-uncle or something.

Our hotel concierge sent us off to a fun snack joint where we had no clue how to order, but a friendly young guy from Xiamen took pity on us and helped us order spicy dumplings and noodles (Chengdu is the capitol of Sichuan Province, where spicy-good Sichuan, aka Szechwan, food comes from. Yummm…). We topped the evening off at the surprisingly good Sichuan Opera, which had a sampling of many different acts: Chinese Opera, Acrobatics, Comedy (interesting through translation); shadow puppets, and dance. We would highly recommend time in Chengdu!

But wasn’t I supposed to be talking about the Philippines?

Banaue Rice Terraces, and Caves

Oh, yeah, right. Our first weekend, we finally got to the ancient 4,000 year old rice terraces in Northern Luzon, sometimes called the 8th wonder of the world, and a place we’ve been wanting to see since our first visit. It was quite a journey, but really worth it. We started from the airport at around 7:30 pm and had a driver take us through the night, through heavy Manila traffic, over two-lane (and sometimes one-lane) local roads, dodging jeepneys and trikes, up through winding mountain roads in the fog, to arrive at our destination at 4:30AM. Luckily we were in a van with reclining seats and were both tired enough to sleep for most of the trip. After a few hours in a real bed we woke up to a torrential downpour, but decided we would hike out to Batad to see the rice terraces despite the weather.

The unpaved mud/rock roads were even bumpier than usual due to erosion from the rain, but we rattled along for an hour by jeepney until we arrived, and miraculously the rain had stopped -- further evidence that I’m the luckiest man in the world. Another 45-minute hike down a slippery mountain path and we were there – the Banaue Rice Terraces. They begin at the base of the mountain range and extend several thousand feet upwards; Unesco has named them a World Heritage Site. The rice terraces are brilliantly green, and the engineering is amazing – done by Ifugao people (from the term "i-pugo" which means “people of the earth”). They’re irrigated by mountain streams and springs that have been tapped and channeled into canals that run downhill through the rice terraces. They require the cooperation of the community to build, maintain and grow. We went to the Batad amphitheater terraces, but there are three other major sites and we saw many others on the journey to Sagada the next day. We hiked through the terraces to see the Tappia Waterfall, another amazing sight.

We had also planned an excursion to Sagada, which Allison thought was going to be a side trip on the way back to Manila. It was not. She has many, many great skills, but map-reading is perhaps not the strongest. It was a three-hour, very bumpy jeepney ride, one-way – delayed because we were following a convoy of large supply trucks. At one point we had to get out and help fill in the mud road with rocks so the supply trucks could make it over; probably a dozen people, the truck drivers and motorists, pitched in. I hope The Philippines Department of Transportation appreciates my work. Despite the long, bouncy ride, the scenery along the road was incredible. Once in Sagada, we first saw the burial caves. Families place the coffins in caves, and then slowly pass the dead bodies from person to person until they are laid to rest, folded into these small coffins. This group of people (about 10% of the local population), are Episcopalians whose practice is infused with indigenous beliefs; they keep the coffins in open-air caves because they believe the dead bodies need air.

But the real highlight was exploring the underground limestone caves; think Indiana Jones meets Austin Powers meets Disney. We entered a dark, dripping cave, slipping our way under screeching bats, hurriedly following our guide, who held a gas lamp -- flickering light blocked by her body and by the rocks, so we couldn’t always see the next slippery step. Then we got to a point where we took off our shoes and she expected us to follow her straight down a rock through rushing water. Amazingly our footing held and we got more and more used to clinging to the limestone, in both still and rushing water. Then we had to carry everything over our heads in chest-deep water, go through openings feet first without seeing where our feet would land, and jump into freezing pools to swim. The guide kept asking us things like, “do you want to go back along the Happy Fun Path, or would you like to try the Secret River of Blood?” Then Allison would smile gleefully and shout “River of Blood!” That’s how we ended up jumping into the freezing, underground swimming pool, before realizing that we didn’t know how to get out. Fortunately our guide was there to pull us through a pounding waterfall exit. It was all extremely cool, exhilarating, and amazing. We stayed on our high throughout the 3-hour bumpy jeepney ride back to Sagada, followed by an 8-hour+ ride back to Manila.

Diving, and an African Safari in Asia

After a week in Manila, we had another getaway weekend, this time to Palawan, a state, and a group of islands, in the Southwest of The Philippines. We went to Coron Town on Busuanga, mainly to try wreck diving. There are several sunken ships here from WWII, and the wrecks quickly become marine habitats, often covered with coral. The islands off Busuanga were a great place to boat around, and at night we saw some absolutely astonishing sunsets. But to be frank, Allison and I both decided we like coral reef diving much, much more than diving wrecks. They’re eerie, cramped, and the visibility is limited. Sediment can be problematic, and with the many nearby pearl farms, Allison said she felt like she was swimming in oyster poop – yikes. By far our favorite dive here was at a thermal lake – no wrecks, but the temperature changes from 20 to 40 degrees Celsius, in layers – it was strange and interesting. We had to hike over a crazy rock staircase in full scuba gear to get there and back, but we were glad we did.

On Monday, we were due to fly out in the afternoon, and you can’t dive just before you fly. So, we managed to arrange a day trip to a bizarre little island called Calauit. Calauit is an animal preserve for African refugee animals. It’s a long story, but basically back in the 1980’s, The Philippines under the Marcos regime agreed to take in a bunch of African animals that were being poached, and even killed for food, by hungry people in Idi Amin’s Uganda, and give them their own island. Marcos envisioned a sanctuary/tourist attraction/P.R. bonanza, complete with elephants, rhinos, etc., and started shipping animals. See the kind of fun that can happen when a couple of lovable, mixed-up dictators get together? But unfortunately for Marcos, he was deposed (and later died in exile) before many of the animals got to Calauit. The giraffes, zebras, and antelopes that had already made the trip then had an even bigger problem – funding for Marcos’s “pet project” (sorry) dried up under the Aquino government, which was trying to feed people (which maybe Marcos and Idi Amin should have thought of…). Anyway, the Calauit Reserve of today is the legacy of that project. It’s now a partly funded, partly complete hybrid, that houses both African animals and Philippines native species like Calamian deer, bearcats, porcupines, and little mice deer. It’s wonderful, in a very weird way, to see giraffes and zebras roaming around in Southeast Asia, and we got to get very close to them, even feeding the giraffes. And I petted a porcupine, too. There’s a metaphor in there for you, but I’ll let you pull it out…

As we flew back to Manila on a little twin-propeller plane, Allison was able to get some great pictures from the air that give you a sense of how lush and lovely this dollop of islands called Palawan is. Now we’re back among the high-rises and malls of sprawling Manila, a short flight and a whole world away.