Day 2-3 - overnight to Banaue

Good day, fair friends. I write this from the most stunning viewpoint in Banaue, sipping on a cold San Miguel Pilsen, and listening to the leftover raindrops falling around me. I arrived here after a long bus ride from Manila - 10hrs to be precise. This area of the Philippines is not accessible by plane. The closest airport is, I believe, Manila. To get here, you have to either drive or suck it up for the long coach ride, and let me tell you, after witnessing traffic around these parts, I wouldn't attempt to drive here if you paid me a million bucks. The city is fucking mental, and the twisty windy roads on the approach to Banaue are enough to give you motion sickness just looking at a map.

But, the long and mostly uncomfortable coach ride was well worth it, even just for this view. Come about 6am, the sun was just rising as we started driving through the hills and valleys, which were almost completely obscured by clouds, save their very peaks. As we wound further and further down the roads, the fog dissipated and the green palms and rice fields below became visible. The fog, since I arrived about 6 hours ago, has ebbed in and out like a tide at least 3 times. It's astonishing how quickly the valleys fill with mist, only to have it vanish as abruptly as it arrived. This place is magical and mysterious, calm and exhilarating all at once.

I'm taking the day today to relax. I caught barely 4 hours of sleep on the bus, so the idea of going out and exploring sounds positively exhausting. I'll save that for tomorrow, when hopefully this rain will clear up so I can go for a hike. Today, I am going to read, sip on a few beers, and take in the serenity of this amazing location.  Heck, I might even take a nap (ps I am definitely going to take a nap).

Since I'm here and writing already, shall I wrap up my day in Manila from yesterday? No? Well who the fuck is gonna stop me.

After a long lay in and a late check-out, I decided to try find food, because eating is pretty much the main reason I travel. As discussed in the previous blog, finding vegetarian fare in the Philippines is going to prove somewhat interesting, so I took to the food Bible (aka Yelp) to find somewhere veg friendly for lunch. One of the main recommended places was a noodle joint called Wabi Sabi, so I hopped in an Uber (ya because they have Uber here, unlike some places *coughvancouvercough*) and headed over to the Makati district. Traffic in Manila is so insane that it took over half an hour to traverse 3 miles. I literally could've run there faster, except I wouldn't because like... be serious now. Anyway, the driver dropped me where we thought this place was meant to be. Except it wasn't. I spent nearly an hour circling the block on foot, in the pouring rain, trying to find this fucking noodle joint. My map showed it being basically right under my feet and yet.... no noods in my mouth. I asked 5 people working in other establishments in the area, but none of them had ever heard of it. Now, I did finally find it, but when I say it was in a back alley, I mean it was in the backest of alleys that even a $5 hooker wouldn't let you venture into for $100. Oh, and it was closed. So, thanks for that, Yelp.

So I was starving, soaking wet, and also super starving (I'm saying it twice because I was seriously fucking starving). I decided to start trekking back towards the direction I hoped the hotel was in, when I spotted a fast food looking noodle restaurant. It looked like the Wimpy burger of noodle joints, but they had a few veg options, so I was sold. Guys, I am not sure the stupid Yelp noodle place could possibly have been any better than this place. It was so.fucking.good. I had steamed tofu in BBQ sauce, and a 3 mushroom noodle bowl, coming to, with drink, a grand total of $9CAD. Bless you, noodle gods, you did provide! Hallelujah! On a side note though, this place has a toilet that I am pretty sure was the inspiration for the bog in Trainspotting. It was that foul. If you could inhale an STD, I think I would've got about 6.

Full tummied, but still wet, I decided to walk back to the hotel rather than hail a cab, mostly because I'm cheap but also because I wanted to explore a bit. It was worth the sore, cold feet. The streets were bustling and insane. Christmas carols blasting across the markets, and people shouting at the white girl 'I love your tattoos!' (which anyone who travels with tattoos will know happens everyfuckingwhere, but bless anyway) and 'Merry Christmas!', and, best of all, no one tried to sell me a goddamn thing! Christmas miracle!

It took about 2 hours to slowly get back to the hotel, and after freshening up, I treated myself to a swanky drink and the swanky hotel lobby bar, because I'm just a swanky bitch. The hotel is located in this weird mall casino thing that is very very Vegas, complete with a restaurant strip on the second level. I dined at a Malaysian fusion restaurant on a fucking BOMB veggie curry, sucked back another beer, and then hopped in an Uber to the bus station.  What a thrilling fucking tale, am I right?!

OK well I'll do my best to have more thrilling tales tomorrow. Actually, I'm not sure I'll even be able to post this tonight, since there is little to no wifi in this weird hut thing I'm staying in for the next couple nights (thanks for the LIES, Air BnB). Anyway, whatevs. Peace & love, y'all.