)-Miranda
Joe and Sandra before going out scuba diving.
;)
The bus to Bantoc. Yes, those are geese on the roof. (Click to enlarge.)
;)
Rice terraces. (Click to enlarge.)
;)
More rice terraces. (Click to enlarge.)
;)
And yet more rice terraces. (Click to enlarge.)
Joe and me in front of the Banaue rice terraces.
An adorable puppy on the side of the road during our walk back to the hotel.
;)
A panorama of the area. (Click to enlarge.)
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We left the dive resort on Saturday and started our trek north towards the rice terraces. We caught a bus to Manilla, met Melissa (she has done a lot of work for Horse Isle) and spent some time with her at the Mall of Asia. From there we got on a cushy, overnight bus to Baguio. We arrived at 4:30am. From there we had to find the bus that went to Bantoc. Once we arrived at the bus station, we hopped on that bus, which was our first non-air-conditioned, uncomfy bus. There were even geese on the roof! This ride ended up being 5 hours long. We arrived in Bantoc, found lunch and then Joe wandered around looking for a place to stay while Sandra and I used internet at an internet cafe.
The day was mostly spent catching up on sleep and doing some wandering around town. The next morning, we packed up and caught the bus to Banaue. This ride was under 2 hours long, so not too bad. The views are stunning. There are rice terraces everywhere and we're high up in the mountains. Since we had the whole day, we found a hotel for the night and then went back up the hill to the look out for the terraces right next to the town. They are very neat. We've set up a 'tour' for tomorrow with a group of 4 people to help split the cost. We're going to see some other terraces, which includes an hour hike to a view, then another half hour to a waterfall. Hopefully it should be fun.
I don't have any of the photos uploaded to the computer yet. I'll get those posted once I can.
-Miranda
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Sandra wanted to go scuba diving, but would have to rent a boat and guide herself, so I decided to give scuba diving one more try (I had many problems clearing my ears, and losing vision while surfacing.. so was scared).
After about 5 minutes I managed to get my ears to properly clear, not by forcing it, but by just waiting for it to "happen". It was great. We went on 3 separate dives, one down to 55ft and saw some great coral, lionfish!! and some crazy fast swimming sea star. So now we will have to get Miranda certified in Malaysia in a week or so, so we can dive together in future. woo hoo! Thanks Sandra!!
-Joe
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After the whale shark adventure we decided to make our way to Legaspi (also spelled Legazpi) in a jeepney (a common way to get around here, though our butts hurt a lot after the hour plus ride) and stay there the night before heading farther north. The place we stayed was relatively cheap, but for a reason... Joe killed a cockroach running across the floor and there were ants everywhere... Oh well.
The next day we figured out how to get to Batanges, a place Sandra researched and found out there was some good diving there. We caught a 6:45pm bus. We had to get off in one town at around 4am, then catch a different bus. By this time, I was feeling terrible. My stomach was cramping and I had a headache. We caught the next bus and were only on it for about 45 minutes before people mentioned in was Batanges City, so we got off. Unfortunately, there was really nothing around. There was really nothing around, so we hopped into a jeepney and got down the road a bit farther. We jumped out again then tried to find our way to Anilao, which is more technically where the places we wanted to stay were. We found another jeepney that took us to another small town where we hopped out. By this time it was raining (which it had been on and off for the last couple days) but we found an open internet cafe (it was 8am by this point). Eventually we decided to splurge and stay at a dive resort. A bit pricier than normal for us, but after the cockroaches and mice of the last few places, plus the overnight buses, we decided we deserved it.
So, we took a tricycle (motorcycle with a sidecar) to the resort where we had to walk down an incredibly steep and relatively long driveway. Our room is very nice. The food is buffet style, so we do have a few options, fortunately. Before dinner Joe and Sandra had gone out snorkeling and said it was awesome. I didn't go though because by this time I was feeling pretty awful. I couldn't eat much, my stomach felt awful and my head hurt. I napped most of the day. It poured all evening and all night. The wind started to kick up in the evening also. For dinner they had sheets up to block the rain from coming in and right after we left, one of the sections blew off. The people there mentioned that a typhoon was coming in. We ended up just going back to the room and sleeping.
This morning I felt much better. So, it appears the lack of sleep and the super bumpy bus were the culprits and not some bug. Yay! Joe's got a bit of a sniffly nose now though. :p Hopefully that passes soon. He was hoping to try diving again with Sandra. She was willing to help him with clearing his ears, etc. They could do a dive right off the shore. While snorkeling he's been working on trying to clear his ears and was having some success. Unfortunately, now that he's stuffy, he's really having problems with it.
The snorkeling today was fun. We went out twice and saw lots of neat fish and the coral here is very different. All the photos posted below were taken by Sandra. We also compiled video clips that both of us took. We're planning on staying here another two nights.
-Miranda
Snorkeling in the Philippines (click for video)
The jeepney from Donsol to almost Legaspi.
Our room at the resort.
Neat coral or something.
Christmas trees. They disappear when you swish water over them (see video).
More fun feathery stuff.
Possibly a Crown of Thorns. I believe it's a type of sea star.
Star fish!
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The fireflies ended up being a lot of fun. We took a small boat up the river and right around when it was getting pretty dark, fireflies started appearing in the trees. They apparently live in the mangroves and synchronize their blinking with each other. It was very neat.
The next morning we got to the whale shark encounter place and headed right at 7:30. We were the first group out. Within 5 minutes, he told us to get ready! We were like, wha?? We all got our flippers and masks on then hopped in when our guide told us to. We swam along for a very short bit, then he told us to look down. All of a sudden the Whale Shark was came out of the murky water. So neat!! We ended up with about 5 encounters. It was either all with the same shark, or a couple different ones. The videos weren't great since it is huge and you can't see what your taping, but we still got some on video. This is from getting ready to go, jumping in, then seeing the shark.
Whale Shark (click to view)
-Miranda
Photos by Sandra (I'm getting lazy and not using my broken camera anymore. haha)
Rice patties.
Water Buffalo!
Moon over the river.
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