Waking up for breakfast this morning, I think I was still feeling a bit of jet lag from all the travelling yesterday - not sure why when arriving at my hotel I agreed to get up for breakfast at 8am, but I managed to drag myself out of bed and make it to the restaurant located at the building, in the currently empty Tutuban Center.
There was a fair bit of choice to have for breakfast, but I decided to with French Toast which was served to me in generous helpings with a delicious helping of sugary maple syrup, which would provide me with the energy I was clearly going to need to get through another long and arduous day of transiting from one place to another.
Today's activities would involve heading north to a city called Baguio which is best reached from Manila by bus. Before coming out here, I'd looked online to see there is a company called Victory Liner who specialise in these trips, and upon asking at the hotel reception they kindly offered to order me a taxi which would allow me to get to the bus terminal. Staying so far out from town once again became an issue as I had to take a 40-minute journey to the Cubao terminal which was the easiest way for me to travel to Baguio.
Taking as many short cuts and back roads to avoid the traffic as possible, my taxi driver wouldn't have looked out of place in a 1970's car chase as he weaved his way through small alleys, and squeezed through tight spaces to drop me off much quicker than I expected. I'm still in awe at the mayhem that is Manila traffic, there seems to be no rules whatsoever when it comes to merging, yielding or going through crossroads - I really am amazed I haven't seen some kind of accident as yet. I know that there is a stereotype about 'Asian drivers' but I think it's perhaps because many of them haven't been used to adhering to traditional traffic rules in their native countries! I actually thought about this later when I was waiting for a taxi to my hotel that I'm still unsure about which side of the road people in the Philippines drive on!
Another thing I noticed today, by listening to the radio, is the like in Malaysia and Singapore, English is frequently mixed in with their native tongue - in this case Filipino. I can't pretend to speak a word of their language, but it does amaze me how they flit between the two languages almost at will. In the taxi I was listening to some kind of talk radio, and the guy venting his views on politics in the Philippines would swap between speaking English and Filipino with almost no rhyme or reason. Hearing conversations between people on the street, and in the hotel I constantly have to check what language they are speaking, and often the answer is both!
Also along the way we encountered plenty of people out on the streets playing basketball, almost oblivious to the fact that their 'court' was actually a road. I know the NBA is big in the Philippines, and the league often comes here to play exhibition games, but it was almost heart-warming to see so many people out on the streets using makeshift hoops to play the game that I am a huge fan of. I think about how often you see children in England playing football out in the streets these days or even at the local park, it's very rare compared with when I was growing up and pretending to be Ian Wright with my friend who enjoyed playing in goal between two perfectly positioned trees.
After arriving at the bus terminal at about 10:45am, the next available bus to Baguio was at 12pm so I sat and waited in some seats in front of a large TV playing guess what??? NBA basketball of course.
For the first time since leaving the airport I saw some 'foreigners' who appeared to be making the same trip as me. Not that I needed any re-assurance that I wasn't the only westerner in the whole of the Philippines, but it shows that the travelling community is alive and well not just in places like Thailand and Malaysia, but also here in this intriguing country.
When my bus arrived at just after 11:30, I loaded my rucksack underneath and headed on board carrying my other bag. I found my seat and prepared for what I expected to be around a 6-7 hour journey up into the hills. There is an airport in Baguio, but apparently it isn't open to too many commercial flights after losing lots of money when it opened, therefore, the bus is the easiest and most efficient way to get around. After hours of travelling the day before, I can't exactly say I was looking forward to get another day of sitting down in transit, but I started taking to the guy next to me, and we struck up a conversation about where I was going and my plans for Baguio. Efrell, who I was so busy talking to that I didn't ask his name until about an hour into the conversation, gave me some advice about getting from the bus station to my hotel and also about the kinds of things I might want to do whilst in Baguio.
The bus stopped twice along the way for comfort breaks, and I used the first of these to pick up some lunch and a drink. Turns out Filipinos love to eat a ridiculous amount of snacks, and the random vendors selling a variety of things boarded the bus made some good money off the passengers on my coach. ( I realise at this point, you might be like "Wait, what? Random people just got on the bus and started selling things?" Clearly I have been to Asia too many times to bat an eye-lid at this sort of thing, but every now and then someone would hop on board, give their pitch about what they were selling, and then in some cases offer free samples of their products before selling to interested parties. Along the way we also managed to pick up a few random passengers to fill the bus up to capacity.)
We eventually arrived in Baguio at about 6.30, we were met by a horrendous amount of traffic going into the city centre, but along the way were treated to some spectacular views from our hillside coach ride, views which I hope I will be able to capture through the magic of photography during my three day stay here.
I caught a taxi from outside the bus stop to my hotel, Efrell said I could probably walk it if I felt so inclined, but it was pretty dark by this point.
I checked into my room, and immediately decided to head out into the night to get some food. The area where I am staying seems to be fairly lively with loud music coming from a nearby disco, and also a number of bars and restaurants in close proximity to my hotel. I went around the corner and found an outdoor restaurant where I ordered what was described as a 'Budget Meal' which was made up of rice and two kinds of meat I selected from pots on top of the counter. I've experienced this kind of thing before in Singapore, and it's usually pot luck as to what you're getting - at 50 Pesos though (around 75p) it's hard to complain.
Coming back to my hotel, I looked through my list of places to visit, and set out a few which I hope to venture out to tomorrow. After a long day of travelling from one place to another, I headed to bed with the hope of having my first real adventure after a good night's sleep.
The Long and Winding Road
The Beatles (1970)
There was a fair bit of choice to have for breakfast, but I decided to with French Toast which was served to me in generous helpings with a delicious helping of sugary maple syrup, which would provide me with the energy I was clearly going to need to get through another long and arduous day of transiting from one place to another.
Today's activities would involve heading north to a city called Baguio which is best reached from Manila by bus. Before coming out here, I'd looked online to see there is a company called Victory Liner who specialise in these trips, and upon asking at the hotel reception they kindly offered to order me a taxi which would allow me to get to the bus terminal. Staying so far out from town once again became an issue as I had to take a 40-minute journey to the Cubao terminal which was the easiest way for me to travel to Baguio.
Taking as many short cuts and back roads to avoid the traffic as possible, my taxi driver wouldn't have looked out of place in a 1970's car chase as he weaved his way through small alleys, and squeezed through tight spaces to drop me off much quicker than I expected. I'm still in awe at the mayhem that is Manila traffic, there seems to be no rules whatsoever when it comes to merging, yielding or going through crossroads - I really am amazed I haven't seen some kind of accident as yet. I know that there is a stereotype about 'Asian drivers' but I think it's perhaps because many of them haven't been used to adhering to traditional traffic rules in their native countries! I actually thought about this later when I was waiting for a taxi to my hotel that I'm still unsure about which side of the road people in the Philippines drive on!
Another thing I noticed today, by listening to the radio, is the like in Malaysia and Singapore, English is frequently mixed in with their native tongue - in this case Filipino. I can't pretend to speak a word of their language, but it does amaze me how they flit between the two languages almost at will. In the taxi I was listening to some kind of talk radio, and the guy venting his views on politics in the Philippines would swap between speaking English and Filipino with almost no rhyme or reason. Hearing conversations between people on the street, and in the hotel I constantly have to check what language they are speaking, and often the answer is both!
Also along the way we encountered plenty of people out on the streets playing basketball, almost oblivious to the fact that their 'court' was actually a road. I know the NBA is big in the Philippines, and the league often comes here to play exhibition games, but it was almost heart-warming to see so many people out on the streets using makeshift hoops to play the game that I am a huge fan of. I think about how often you see children in England playing football out in the streets these days or even at the local park, it's very rare compared with when I was growing up and pretending to be Ian Wright with my friend who enjoyed playing in goal between two perfectly positioned trees.
For the first time since leaving the airport I saw some 'foreigners' who appeared to be making the same trip as me. Not that I needed any re-assurance that I wasn't the only westerner in the whole of the Philippines, but it shows that the travelling community is alive and well not just in places like Thailand and Malaysia, but also here in this intriguing country.
When my bus arrived at just after 11:30, I loaded my rucksack underneath and headed on board carrying my other bag. I found my seat and prepared for what I expected to be around a 6-7 hour journey up into the hills. There is an airport in Baguio, but apparently it isn't open to too many commercial flights after losing lots of money when it opened, therefore, the bus is the easiest and most efficient way to get around. After hours of travelling the day before, I can't exactly say I was looking forward to get another day of sitting down in transit, but I started taking to the guy next to me, and we struck up a conversation about where I was going and my plans for Baguio. Efrell, who I was so busy talking to that I didn't ask his name until about an hour into the conversation, gave me some advice about getting from the bus station to my hotel and also about the kinds of things I might want to do whilst in Baguio.
The bus stopped twice along the way for comfort breaks, and I used the first of these to pick up some lunch and a drink. Turns out Filipinos love to eat a ridiculous amount of snacks, and the random vendors selling a variety of things boarded the bus made some good money off the passengers on my coach. ( I realise at this point, you might be like "Wait, what? Random people just got on the bus and started selling things?" Clearly I have been to Asia too many times to bat an eye-lid at this sort of thing, but every now and then someone would hop on board, give their pitch about what they were selling, and then in some cases offer free samples of their products before selling to interested parties. Along the way we also managed to pick up a few random passengers to fill the bus up to capacity.)
I caught a taxi from outside the bus stop to my hotel, Efrell said I could probably walk it if I felt so inclined, but it was pretty dark by this point.
I checked into my room, and immediately decided to head out into the night to get some food. The area where I am staying seems to be fairly lively with loud music coming from a nearby disco, and also a number of bars and restaurants in close proximity to my hotel. I went around the corner and found an outdoor restaurant where I ordered what was described as a 'Budget Meal' which was made up of rice and two kinds of meat I selected from pots on top of the counter. I've experienced this kind of thing before in Singapore, and it's usually pot luck as to what you're getting - at 50 Pesos though (around 75p) it's hard to complain.Coming back to my hotel, I looked through my list of places to visit, and set out a few which I hope to venture out to tomorrow. After a long day of travelling from one place to another, I headed to bed with the hope of having my first real adventure after a good night's sleep.
The Long and Winding Road
The Beatles (1970)
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