After saying our goodbyes to India we hopped on a flight to Bangkok, Thailand (Indigo Air 74$ per person) and headed to the over-touristic Khaosan area to stay our two transit nights until our flight to the Philippines. We settled in K.C guesthouse (450 Baht per night with attach bathroom) on a quiet street near Khao San Road.
We arrived straight into the Songkran festival celebrating the Thai New Year and were excited to join in the fun. after a tasty Thai brunch of pad-thai and green curry with tofu, we stepped into the streets unaware of the madness that will soon follow. We found ourselves in the midst of crowds of locals and tourists engaging in rather merciless water-wars (traditionally the act of pouring water is considered a symbol of washing away sins and bad luck). It was fun at first but we got completely soaked as we were basically "sitting ducks" and easy targets, not having any water guns or buckets of our own. We stuck it out for a bit, had a few Chang beers and retired to recuperate in our room. This craziness lasted into the night and it was virtually impossible to go out and not get hosed down or smeared with traditional fragrant white paste some people carried. I didn't want all of our clothes to be wet as our flight to Manila was the following morning so we stayed in for dinner at KC's restaurant, which was good though a bit overpriced.
We arrived in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, with a Cebu Pacific flight (150$ per person round trip) in the afternoon and took a taxi to the home of our couchsurfing host Bianca, a teacher from Austria who kindly agreed to host us for two nights in her house in Paranaque district of the city. During our stay in her cosy little home that houses many travellers at all times we met some great interesting people and enjoyed cooking dinners together.
After some confusion regarding the transportation (there is no real public transport to get out of Manila, instead there are many private companies each with their own terminals and apparently booking ahead is advised even for day travel) we booked a night bus to Banaue in North Luzon (Ohayami Trans, 560 php, 10 hours) through the friendly Filipino Travel Center in Malate (though its probably better to book directly with Ohayami in their office in Sampaloc to avoid extra charges), giving us some time to explore the city bit, do some sight-seeing in the historic Intramuros quarter, squeeze in a visit to the Robinson's mall and find the fastest internet in the Philippines (perhaps in all of Asia) in the inviting Coreon Gate internet cafe. After a long exhausting day we finally boarded the bus to Banaue hoping to cool off in the Cordillera mountains of North Luzon.
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| dinner with couchsurfers |
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| Tricycles- the Filipino version of Tuk-Tuks |
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