back to baguio
it's been a while since my last blog. sorry. in the last ten days i've been to banaue, hapao, batad, sagada, and baguio again. the first three towns are the rice terraces in north luzon. sagada is a small mountain town with hanging coffins on the cliffs, and baguio is, well, see the last post.
i have to say, however, i don't love baguio as much as i did last time. the longer i stay in a place, the easier it is to notice things. for example, today and yesterday i have been noticing people staring at me and telling their companions to look at the 'kano', which is short for 'amerikano', broadly meaning 'foreignor'. how rude, right? you'd think i'd be used to it by now, but from time to time it gets to me. i wish i could turn to someone and say, "hey, look at the filipinos!" it's not like there aren't other foreignors here, either. it's not like i'm the only white person who has ever been to baguio. there are really quite a few of them, much like taiwan. of course, taiwan was largely the same in terms of people staring at you. sigh. anonymity is underrated.
also annoying me are the flu-type symptoms i acquired last night. i spent most of today sleeping in my hotel room and drinking gatorade. at the moment i'm feeling much better, entirely to the credit of some 8hr tylenol. good stuff, let me tell you. i still feel very warm, but the head / back / entire body aching has largely subsided. i'm blaming my malaise on the restaurant i went to last night. terrible pesto pasta.
anywho, i'm not really sure what i'm going to do tomorrow. i could go back to manila and catch a flight somewhere else (probably to palawan), or i could stay here and resume my initial plans of learning some tagalog. at the moment, i hardly feel qualified to make a decision. the physical discomfort only makes me homesick and biased. i'm trying to figure out how this is all that different from moving to taiwan, but i'm having trouble coming up with things. when i got there, i barely knew anyone. i suppose i had to talk to people (little ones) all day, so maybe that got the urge to communicate out of me, but really, i don't think that's it. as stephy would say, it's week three (even if it isn't week three i guess). i'm probably just having a hard time remembering what it was like when i first got to taiwan.
enough with the grumbling. as to the terraces and the hanging coffins, i prefer the former, but they're both nice. the coffins were a little like, "yup, there're some bones, and some coffins, hanging around..." the terraces are more interesting, a mon avis, because it's a whole day's work to walk through them, and there is a lot to learn about them. should you have an informed, english-speaking guide, you can ask all kinds of questions about how and when they were built, what this plant is and what it does, and how that water buffalo got all the way up the mountain (apparently the same way i did, but wow, what a buffalo!). i also enjoy the main town for the terraces, banaue, a little more than the hanging coffin town, sagada. sagada is so small and quite that it closes down at 8-9pm - entirely. for instance, to get back into my hotel upon coming home from dinner at 9:00 PM, i had to hop over a garden fence and sneak in like a burgler. apparently they can't conceive of anything to do after 8. really, there isn't much to do, but come on - garden fence?
long story short, i may go back to the terraces at the end of march to see them green. most weren't planted when i went this time. i'd like to take another hike, perhaps two days (involving an overnight stay) as well. we'll see. at this point, i'm wavering between proceeding as planned and heading to the PAL office and getting to hong kong early. that's probably just the headache talking, though. on verra demain.
i have to say, however, i don't love baguio as much as i did last time. the longer i stay in a place, the easier it is to notice things. for example, today and yesterday i have been noticing people staring at me and telling their companions to look at the 'kano', which is short for 'amerikano', broadly meaning 'foreignor'. how rude, right? you'd think i'd be used to it by now, but from time to time it gets to me. i wish i could turn to someone and say, "hey, look at the filipinos!" it's not like there aren't other foreignors here, either. it's not like i'm the only white person who has ever been to baguio. there are really quite a few of them, much like taiwan. of course, taiwan was largely the same in terms of people staring at you. sigh. anonymity is underrated.
also annoying me are the flu-type symptoms i acquired last night. i spent most of today sleeping in my hotel room and drinking gatorade. at the moment i'm feeling much better, entirely to the credit of some 8hr tylenol. good stuff, let me tell you. i still feel very warm, but the head / back / entire body aching has largely subsided. i'm blaming my malaise on the restaurant i went to last night. terrible pesto pasta.
anywho, i'm not really sure what i'm going to do tomorrow. i could go back to manila and catch a flight somewhere else (probably to palawan), or i could stay here and resume my initial plans of learning some tagalog. at the moment, i hardly feel qualified to make a decision. the physical discomfort only makes me homesick and biased. i'm trying to figure out how this is all that different from moving to taiwan, but i'm having trouble coming up with things. when i got there, i barely knew anyone. i suppose i had to talk to people (little ones) all day, so maybe that got the urge to communicate out of me, but really, i don't think that's it. as stephy would say, it's week three (even if it isn't week three i guess). i'm probably just having a hard time remembering what it was like when i first got to taiwan.
enough with the grumbling. as to the terraces and the hanging coffins, i prefer the former, but they're both nice. the coffins were a little like, "yup, there're some bones, and some coffins, hanging around..." the terraces are more interesting, a mon avis, because it's a whole day's work to walk through them, and there is a lot to learn about them. should you have an informed, english-speaking guide, you can ask all kinds of questions about how and when they were built, what this plant is and what it does, and how that water buffalo got all the way up the mountain (apparently the same way i did, but wow, what a buffalo!). i also enjoy the main town for the terraces, banaue, a little more than the hanging coffin town, sagada. sagada is so small and quite that it closes down at 8-9pm - entirely. for instance, to get back into my hotel upon coming home from dinner at 9:00 PM, i had to hop over a garden fence and sneak in like a burgler. apparently they can't conceive of anything to do after 8. really, there isn't much to do, but come on - garden fence?
long story short, i may go back to the terraces at the end of march to see them green. most weren't planted when i went this time. i'd like to take another hike, perhaps two days (involving an overnight stay) as well. we'll see. at this point, i'm wavering between proceeding as planned and heading to the PAL office and getting to hong kong early. that's probably just the headache talking, though. on verra demain.
posted by bethany at 08:57
<< Home