A Little Birthday Party

The other day, our fearless leader here in Manila (Mike Smith) had his 50th birthday party... In the Philippines, birthdays are huge deals so a surprise party was organized by some of the staff and as with all parties here, games were involved...

The first game involved the ever-present long and skinny eggplant... These always seem to show up at Filipino parties... This game was similar to musical chairs, except the goal was to grab a hold of the eggplant instead of sit down... Kind of like "Yank my Noodle, It's a Dandy"..!!! You can tell by the smiles that much fun was had by all... hehe...

A 5 centavo coin has a hole in the middle... the object is to pass the coin using only a toothpick in your mouth... It was supposed to be boy-girl-boy-girl, but lucky us, the ladies opted out... So here we are, boy-boy-boy, playing pass the 5 cents... Hmmmmmm..??? Not too sure about this, but I was a good sport and I did lead our team to victory...!!!

Tess is congratulating me on my winning...

Now here is Mike and Atheena really cheek-to-cheek with another "no hands allowed" team race.... Aren't these games fun..??

Then of course, they all though it would be a hoot if they could get the big white guys out to dance... So here we are, obliging..... The things I am forced to do in the name of good fun..!!!

Now Tess is trying to teach the guys how to move... I don't think she had much luck, but we all enjoyed watching....

Dessert time.... Mike blowing out all his candles..!!!

And here is the party group... Actually a lot of fun if you don't mind personal embarrassment and public humiliation....

My Birthday Trip to Banaue..!!

I have always wanted to visit northern Luzon and I decided to give myself a birthday present and head up that way... Originally, I was going to visit both Banaue and Sagada, but it turned out that the road to Sagada had been closed due to a landslide (very common here in the land of earthquakes and typhoons)... This was actually a good thing in the end as I was able to spend an extra day in Banaue and visit the Batad terraces as well as the Hapao terraces... More on that in a bit....

Banaue is quite a ways from Ortigas... Depending on traffic, it could be as much as 10hrs, tho we made it in 8hrs... I had hired a car (van) and driver so I got to enjoy the scenery while Angel drove...

Until you reach the Cordilleras the landscape is rather flat... Central Luzon is primarily used for farming...

The mountains are just ahead...

Getting ready to start heading up into the Cordilleras...

Lots of very wide, dry riverbeds... During rainy season, these will fill up...

Mountains in the clouds....

Typical Mountain countryside...

Here is a provincial high school...

This is a typical home in the provinces... Note that the Masonry walls are not painted... This is because the paint will allow mold and mildew to grow more easily than not painting it at all...
Also note the size of the house... Very small by US standards....

High-schoolers headed to class... All high schools require uniforms...

Here is a common scene in the towns of the various provinces... A sari-sari store (convenient store) which provides many of the day goods required by the residents... Most things in the Philippines are bought daily... Especially those items that are fresh or require refrigeration...

Finally made it to Banaue... This is the view from my room... Note the hanging bridge across the river gorge... You can see some of the Banaue terraces in the background....

Another view from my room.... Note how tall the foundations are because of the steep slopes... The house near the bottom left-hand corner... It has 4 stories of foundation before the actual house...!!! Many homes in the mountains are built this way....

Looking south from my room.... Again more terraces in the background...

My first trip on Friday afternoon was to Hapao rice terraces... I had hired a guide and jeepney to take me there as the roads were mere goat trails in the rainforest and our van would never have made it...

This area is peopled by the Ifugao (ee-foo-gow)... They are the ones that built the rice terraces over 2,000 years ago... Traditionally, they lived in small villages in the mountains and each village had their own rice terraces... Up until the 1980's, many of the disputes between villages were settled with violence (headhunting)... A collection of skulls was a symbol of a strong warrior... This was phased out due to the intermarriages between villages... No one wanted to kill their brother-in-law... These honor killings were planned by the various villages and the choosing of the warrior to do the killing was determined by a ritual... The men would gather in a circle and a live chicken was killed (the Ifugao sacrifice chickens for many/most of their rituals - sometimes it has to be a pig)... The chicken would flop around before it died and the warrior to which it was closest when it finally quit moving was the warrior chosen to perform the killing...

My guide, Jun, was full of stories and was also a naturalist, so his commentary during my excursions was spot on (his English was awesome)..!!

Here are some more of the Banaue rice terraces as we leave town for a 1hour jeepney ride through the rain forest to the Hapao rice terraces...

Here are some of the terraces along the way...

You can see the stream which provides irrigation for all of the terraces... Remember that all of these were built over 2,000 years ago and the planning of the canal (irrigation) systems was just incredible... No wonder that some refer to these terraces as the 8th wonder of the world...

Another shot of the terraces in the mountains as we make our way to Hapao village....

This shot is of the Hapao terraces... You can see that the houses are spread throughout the terraces and not really clustered together as a village...

Here is a nice shot of the hillside terraces....

My guide, Jun, walking in the terraces... You will notice that the rice terraces are flooded... In order to provide protein, these terraces are populated with Talapia, snails, clams and frogs... When they want to harvest the fish, etc. they drain the terrace and simply collect the flopping fish... And there is your protein...

The tops of each terrace wall provides a pathway through the terraces...

A view across the terraces to the church... Catholicism is everywhere in the Philippines... Even though the traditional Ifugao religion uses ritualistic sacrifices and also prays to some of the "dark gods", much of it is very similar to Catholicism... So the first missionaries found it easy to introduce the Ifugao to Catholicism....

Except for the corrugated roof, this is a good example of a traditional Ifugao home... It is all pinned together so that it can be disassembled and moved easily... Notice that the four posts are on skids...

If you look closely, you can see the original steps up the side of the terrace walls... Even tho they are 2,000 years old, they still held me up..!! They say, that if you take all the terrace walls and line them up end-for end, they will stretch halfway around the world... Pretty impressive..!!

A hanging bridge to cross the river...

Many of the old Ifugao cannot straighten up... They have spent their lifetime planting rice bent over like this and then went home at night and crouched bent over in front of a fire to warm up... Their bodies kind of took on the bent over shape permanently....

Heading back to Banaue on Friday night...

I was staying at the Sanafe Inn, a wonderful little inn that had the best food in Banaue... The dining area was on a deck that overlooked all of Banaue...

Gross alert...!!! For my "chewing buddies"...

As I walked around Banaue, I noticed that everywhere I looked, there were red stains on the ground... I mean everywhere....

Everyone chews Betel Nut here! I thought it was just the nut but they chew the nut, a vine leaf, tobacco and crushed up snails in a powder to get the full effect! This combination produces a large amount of very red saliva and they spit it all over... From the picture below, you can see that it actually has texture to it..!!! Eeeeewwwwww....

While I was walking through town, I noticed that everyone over the age of about 16 chewed this combination... I even saw a white dog that had it's back covered in red stains... Remember "Outlaw Josey Wales"..?? Hehe....


So just remember, if you chew this:



Like this:



You will end up looking like this:
Ain't that attractive...??
Really makes you want to go out and try some, eh..???

On Saturday, I had decided to visit the Batad terraces... These are the most photographed terraces here, but they are so far from civilization that it takes almost 4hrs to get there... First of all is a 2hr jeepney ride on the side of the mountains... Lots of the edges were washed out, straight drop-offs hundreds of feet down... An exciting ride..!!

Then it was hiking through the forests going down 1100 feet to Batad village... Here is Jun leading the way...

A giant fern along the way...

Here I am, not showing the strain yet as it is all downhill at that point... all I could think was OMG, I gotta walk back up..!!!

The first view of the Batad terraces....

This pictures begins to show the extent of the terraces here....

Differing from the Hapao terraces, you can see that the houses are clustered in groups...
It was rainy so many of these pictures are not as clear as they could be....

Here is a close-up of the village....

Stairway in the clouds....
The terraces look like steps (tho the walls are anywhere from 4feet to 12feet tall)....

The rain has stopped for a minute and the lush greenery is evident... It is always green up here in the rainforest... Incidentally, this is about 3,000 feet above sea level....

Another view of the Batad terraces....

Here I am walking through the terraces on top of the walls....

They are constantly rebuilding the walls, though they are very careful to follow the original footings to maintain the efficiency of the original design.....

Another view of the terraces...

More views of the terraces....

Still more....

Yet another.....

A close-up of the terrace....

Now the long walk up begins.... This trip took twice as long as coming down...

The cluster of buildings in the lower center of the picture is Batad village... So what you are looking at is approximately 1100 feet vertical..... It was a long hike back up..!!

On our way back to Banaue....

The view of the hanging bridge from the deck at Sanafe Inn....

On the left is my driver, Angel, and on the right is my guide, Jun....

Note the small white out building in the back yard.. The Ifugao bury their dead in a crypt in their back yard... According to Jun, the dead will be brought out of the crypt 3 times and passed amongst the family members for celebrations before they are finally deemed to have finished life here on earth...

Here I am with Jun enjoying a San Miguel and a cigar...!!

We have left Banaue and are headed back to Ortigas by way of Baguio... We crossed the Cordilleras on a rather new highway through some very pretty scenery....

Another of the very wide river beds....

Although there were many signs stating that it was illegal to dry rice and corn on the highway, no one paid attention to that...

The rice was turned all day long as it dried.....

A beautiful river valley...

The road is in pretty good shape here....

Beautiful mountain scenery...

And landslide partially cleared... It appeared to be a full time job keeping the road open...

Looking up into the Cordilleras....

Part of the highway...

A large reservoir in the middle of the Cordilleras....

These are tilapia farms....

Here is Angel enjoying the view...

A view of the spillway of the reservoir....

I sure am enjoying it..!!!

Beautiful mountain rivers....

Cafe by the Ruins in Baguio.... If you look closely, you can see the damage caused by the Japanese bombing in WW2.....

Another view of the "Ruins"....

My favorite place in Baguio, Easter Weaving.... These looms are identical to the loom that my sister-in-law has in Colorado (I learned to weave on that loom when it was at my grandmothers house)...

More weaving....

There must have been a dozen looms in action and another dozen waiting for weavers....

Leaving Baguio heading home to Ortigas....

A lion's head carved out of a single block of stone...
Sponsored by who else but the Lion's Club of Baguio...!!!

If you look closely at the viaduct, you can see that the center pier was undermined during the last typhoon... We were diverted across a riverbed...

Taking up entire streets drying rice...!!!

Just for all the mid-westerners reading this, even though I have left Illinois, I cannot escape the corn.... haha.....


Driving through Central Luzon...

Mount Arayat... Almost home...!!!!

Well, for the first time since I have started blogging, I am caught up... Now if I can just keep up the pace... Coming up for the month of April, Butanding....