Have you heard the one about the Greek Anthropologist, the documentary film crew, the 2000 year old UNESCO rice terraces, the remote mountain tribe and the 8 endangered baby pigs?

North Philippines Part 2 - Batad

To say our time in Batad was memorable would be a severe understatement. We loved every second of our 2 days there, it is a magical place which gave us a magical experience.

We took the 1 hour van from Banaue to the end of the road near Batad and then trekked around 1 hour through the mountains to the small, remote village of Batad.  Just the trek there helps build the anticipation and on arrival at our guesthouse, we weren’t disappointed. Batad is a small village of around 200 families, set in a stunning amphitheatre and dominated by the 2000 year old rice terraces.

We dumped our stuff in the room at the Batad View Inn and then took a guide for a 3 hour trek up and across the terraces.  It was breathtaking, jaw-droppingly beautiful.  Our guide, Elmur, explained everything for the first couple of hours, then as we trekked back through the village at the base of the valley, he popped in to see a friend for a couple of minutes.  He emerged, off his head on either the local rice wine or the local natural chewing drug.  Either way, the next hour of the tour was the most interesting as he mumbled and stumbled his way back up to our guesthouse.  Elmur, our rock-star guide, we won’t forget you.

On arriving back at the guesthouse, we got talking to the owner, Ramon.  Top man, he watched our kids play chess and then asked me if I wanted to play.  ‘Sure’ I said and then proceeded to get my backside handed to me on a plate by Batad’s very own Gary Kasparov.  I quit after 2 games.

We had only been in Batad for about 8 hours but already were in love with the place and the people. 

Then things began to get very strange indeed.

A westerner in local tribal clothes turned up with 3 Filipinos and we could tell something was going on.  We asked Ramon who told us that the guy was Ali from Greece who had been visiting Batad for the last 13 years or so.  We then got chatting to a couple of the Filipinos who told us that they were a documentary crew from Manila and that Ali was a Greek anthropologist who travelled the world, studying remote tribes.  He has fallen in love with the Batad tribe some years earlier and had built a house in the village.  They told us that the next morning was going to be interesting as Ali would be:

a)      sacrificing a chicken

b)     performing a local tribal dance with the Shamen and village elders

c)      welcoming 8 rare mountain pigs to the village to start a breeding program

We went to bed, not quite sure what to expect from the next day.

By 9am, we had ringside seats for the tribal dance (we missed the chicken sacrifice which was no bad thing!). Ali, the Shamen and the villagers put on a great spectacle, resplendent in tribal clothes.  Most importantly, this was not some ‘show’ for the handful of outsiders staying in the village.  This was a normal Sunday morning, this was remote, tribal living at its most authentic.

We then sat and ate some breakfast and were lucky to be joined by Ali and his crew.  Sometimes you meet someone whose life story and experience just makes you think ‘What the hell I am wasting my life doing?’.  Well, this was one of those times.  We sat and listened to stories of remote tribes in all 4 corners of the world and got a huge amount of information on the people of Batad.

Ali also told us that he had purchased 8 rare baby pigs that were being brought up that day to start a breeding program with the local pigs that were in danger of becoming extinct. He said they should arrive by 2pm, which was perfect for us as we planned to leave by 2.30pm to catch our van back to Banaue.  2pm came and went with no sign of the little porkers so we sadly had to leave – kids were very upset.

We got back to our guesthouse in Banaue, showered and then then went back down for some evening food.  As we came down the stairs, we were met by a room full of Ali, the docu team and around 10 of the Batad villagers including Ramon.  They had come to try and track down the pigs and as Batad has no internet or phone signal, they had come to Banaue.  Hugs and handshakes all round, they told us that the pigs were coming to the guesthouse, to then be transferred back up to Batad.  We all sat with much anticipation and after an hour, they arrived. 

So at around 6pm on the 25^th November, we found ourselves standing outside the Uyami Evergreen Guesthouse, rain lashing down, with Ali the Greek Anthropologist, his documentary team, Ramon and the tribal villagers and a crate of 8 rare baby mountain pigs.

Shoshi and I kept looking at each other and just shaking our heads, the whole thing was like a surreal episode of Seinfeld.  We headed back inside, the kids went upstairs to play and we got to sit for a couple of hours with Ali and his crew, riveting conversation with some really great guys.

Whatever happens over the next 9 months, I’m not sure we will have such a surreal 48 hours again, our time in Batad will live long in the memory.

יומולדת למילי

^{לכבוד היומולדת שלי שטנו בסירה לכל מיני איים קטנים ליד אל נידו.}

^{היינו בלגונה סודית שנכנסים דרך חריץ באבנים ומגלים לגונה עם מים כחולים ונקיים. אחר כך עצרו לנו בלב הים ועשינו שנורקלים מדהימים!!!}

^{את ארוחת הצהריים אכלנו על החוף היינו צריכים לשחות כדי להגיע לארוחה.}

 החוף היה עם מים שקופים אבל רחוק רואים פס שקוף עבה, פס טורקיז דק ופס כחול כהה עבה.

^{ממש התרגשתי לכבוד היום הולדת .}

^{היום בבוקר קמתי והיו בלונים על הרצפה היו כרטיסי ברכה מהמשפחה ואפילו חבילה מהארץ מסבא וסבתא מלאה בממתקים שאנחנו אוהבים, עוגה ונרות.}

^{הדלקנו זיקוקים....}

היה מאוד מאוד מאוד מרגשששש

North Philippines – Part 1 – Baguio and Sagada

On arrival in the Philippines, we had decided to spend 10 days in the north, with only the first 3 days actually planned. 

So we headed straight from Manila airport and took a 9 hour bus journey to the northern town of Baguio, the plan being to climb a couple of the highest mountains in the Philippines – Mt Ultap and Mt Ulag.  As it happens, Guy seemed to get some kind of virus and so that put paid to those plans, we ended up spending a day in the city park, one day at the Botanic Gardens and the rest of the time trying to avoid the most polluted streets any of us had ever come across.  We definitely didn't experience the best of Baguio but even so, it wasn’t a city that really excited us.

From there, we took a 7 hour bus north to Sagada, a small mountain town famous for caves and hanging coffins.  The virus had passed onto Eyal who suffered much more than Guy so we decided to book a 4 bedroom AirBnB so that everyone could have their own room and Eyal could try and get some decent rest. We ended up staying 3 nights in Sagada and loved every minute. 

On arrival, the owner of the house met us with some perfect Ivrit and proceeded to tell us that she had lived in Israel for 7 years, in Savyon of all places, working for the owners of ‘Tempo’, one of the largest drink’s companies in Israel.  She was a brilliant host and after a month of hotel rooms, it was sheer luxury to have a few days in a proper family home.  Shoshi spent most of her time in the house with Eyal but actually enjoyed the rest.

I went out with Mili and Guy, first day we climbed Mt Ampacao, a 2,000m mountain towering over the village.  It was a great 4 hour hike, stunning views and we had a great guide called ‘Israel’.

On the second day, our guide Casper took all 5 of us to see the Hanging Coffins, which were the traditional burial method in the village for many hundreds of years.  After that, Shoshi and Eyal went back to rest and me, Mili and Guy went to Sumilag Cave and explored for a couple of hours.  It was an amazing cave complex, over 80 meters deep with bats, waterfalls and water pools.  Not an easy hike inside, especially when mostly in pitch black apart from the gas lantern we carried with us, but a great experience.

We loved Sagada, relaxing, calm, interesting, surrounded by beautiful landscapes and very friendly local people.

We then decided to head east to Banaue and Batad.  We found a great guesthouse in Banaue for the first night, then the following morning headed of for 1 night/ 2 days in Batad, home of the remote UNESCO rice terraces. The next couple of days were to prove the most surreal, interesting and beautiful of our travels so far and will be covered in Part 2…

Thailand - these are a few of our favourite things

It's now been a few days since we left Thailand for the Philippines and we've had time to get our thoughts together on an amazing month.

In the past month, we've:

• taken 4 flights
• been on 4 long distance train journeys
• take too many buses and tuk-tuks to count
• walked 212 km
• eaten our combined weight in pineapple, mango and Pad Thai
• travelled the length of this amazing country but only scratched the surface

Each of us decided to pick 5 things, good or bad, that we will remember from our time in Thailand.

Guy

1.      אגרוף תילאנדי- עשינו אימון עם כפפות

2.      המפל הלבן- כיף לטפס במפלים מבלי ליפול

3.      קקי של הפילים- הם לימדו אותנו לעשות נייר מקקי של פילים ואז אנחנו עשינו.

4.      לא אוהב שהאחים שלי מרביצים לי

5.      שייקים- אני אוהב שייקים: אבטיח, אננס, תפוזים, מנגו.

Eyal

1.      Street Food – very tasty, too much oil, my favourites were Pad Thai, spring rolls and Mango shake.

2.      The Sticky Waterfall – my favourite waterfall because we could climb up from the bottom and I love to climb.

3.      Monkeys – seeing a whole family of monkeys in Khao Sok jungle

4.      Elephant – we got to feed the elephant bananas and the elephant was free and not chained up like others we saw.

5.      Thai Boxing – it was great to punch and fight, especially with the big boxing gloves.

Mili

1.      Elephant – we saw a free elephant who was not treated badly and she was very pregnant, we fed her bananas and she ate bamboo.

2.      Elephant PooPoo – I learnt that we don’t need to cut down trees to make paper, we can use elephant poopoo and although I thought it would be איכסה, it was nice.

3.      Amazing month – we did so many things in 1 month, it went so quickly and was so much fun.

4.      Wat Ben Dan Temple – it was a huge temple and the nicest temple I saw in Thailand, with a huge Buddha lying down.

5.      Food – I really didn’t like the food at the beginning but now I love Pad Thai, spring rolls and fried rice.

Shoshi

1.      חופש- כמה שאני אוהבת את הרגשת החופש.

2.      טבע- המקום בו אני מרגישה הכי רגועה.

3.      קו סאק- כתבנו עליו הרבה. פשוט מקום מקסים.

4.      פאי- מקום שהייתי יכולה לעבור לגור בו לתקופה ארוכה.

5.      אוכל רחוב- טעים, פשוט, אמיתי ומהיר.

Darren

1.      Khao Sok – just an amazing place that will live long in the memory, especially our day on the lake and seeing a group of monkeys in the wild.

2.     Kids – Getting kids up for school in the morning can be tough enough so traveling 24/7, week after week is a challenge for anyone, especially a Scotsman who lacks patience.

3.      Pai – a magical place that we would happily have spent much more than our 6 days there.

4.      Cities – confirmation that we really don’t like cities and how that will affect our planning for the next 9 months.

5.      Beers - sharing 2 beers with my wife in 4 weeks wasn't my expected alcohol intake but it's certainly good for my health.