We awoke early in Talisay to start our boat ride and hike to the summit of Volcano Island before the heat of the day and the crowds. It was an excellent decision since once the crowds arrived the atmosphere became thick with dust kicked up by the horses hired to carry almost all visitors to the top. There were eventually hundreds of tourists arriving and an equal number of small horses accompanied by one keeper per horse. The path to the summit was a meandering rut at places half a foot deep in fine dust. Most tourists were supplied with surgical masks to make the thick dust clouds more bearable. The keepers drove the horses at a brisk pace, with frequent switch blows to the rump or even face. Some riders actually were galloping their horses up the pathway! Probably half the keepers rode their horses, seated behind their passengers. Thankfully, most of the tourists (who appeared to be Koreans, Taiwanese, and Japanese), and all the local keepers were quite trim so the horses did not appear overburdened by their loads.

We, on the other hand, joined most Caucasion tourists walking up the hill, about an hour’s easily paced hike. Our trip up was free of horses. Downhill, on the other hand, we were in the midst of throngs of horses both ascending and descending, and we had to suffer the consequent dust clouds.

The hike up was so nice that we stopped many times along the way to soak in the fresh air and the beautiful view of the first crater (this is the one that is usually photograph for postcards). There were many, many birds swooping around us. One was large and a beautiful bright yellow with some black stripes. One of our stops was to eat pink wild guavas and “kamunsil”, a traditional Filipino treat, growing wild, possibly the seeds were dropped by birds. It was a delightful treat!

The view from the summit was of the Taal Lake surrounding Volcano Island as well as the island’s own breathtaking caldera with its own little island. Thus, we witnessed an island within a caldera within an island (Volcano) within a larger caldera (Taal Lake) within in island (Luzon Island, the Philippine’s largest). At the bottom of this caldera we could see steam emerging from vents and boiling pools on the lake shore. The shallow areas near the shore were an eerie yellow color and the atmosphere was thick with sulfur.

We had earlier abandoned our plans to share the cost of a boat to the island with other tourists. The locals have managed to make this very difficult, likely to maintain maximum income for the local boat operators. We later discovered there are public cargo boats that charge local prices to ferry cargo and passengers to the island where there is a substantial resident population. But we saw no tourists using this means of transport. We did invite a German couple to accompany us on our day trip to the island. They had been staying in Talisay for one week and had made the trip several times earlier and served as our guides.

After returning from our outing we decided to proceed to the town of Tagaytay, perched on the high north ridge overlooking Taal Lake. It is reportedly 20 kilometers long with one main road running along the ridge. We stopped at the highest point on the ridge, People’s Sky Park, for the breathtaking panoramic view of both Taal and nearby Laguna Lakes, as well as Mt Makiling. Save for the thick mist, and possibly smog, we could have seen Manila, only 60 km to the north.

Then, late afternoon, we returned to Manila through an area full of pineapple and coconut plantations and plant nurseries.

We arrived in Los Baños last Sunday afternoon. After an unsuccessful search for lodging in the downtown area, we proceeded to the University of the Philippines and found a very nice hotel at a very quiet part of the campus at the foot of Mt. Makiling. Next door was a little but quite popular student canteen and we had them cook for us chopsuey, bihon and French fries. They were also selling soymilk.

Early the following morning, Monday around 7, we packed our bag with bread, bananas, tangerines and water and we started our climb to the three peaks of the dormant volcano Mt. Makiling. It was a very easy, gradual ascent. On the way, we met two avid birdwatchers, who shared with us some of their shots of the birds they were able to spot that morning. At the trail head, we were advised not to go beyond the Mud Springs, about half way up the mountain. Reportedly, recent heavy monsoon rains had caused a lot of landslides and fallen trees which damaged the pathways. Indeed, there were many places were trees were uprooted and boulders had been swept down the mountain and portions of the pathway had been obliterated, but the rest of the pathway was easily spotted and we were able to continue well past Mud Springs. Other than the occasional struggle to walk over or around the landslides and trees the hike was very pleasant. We were refreshed by the profusion of birds singing and flying around, and the many, many beautiful butterflies, huge and tiny, black, white, yellow, orange, brown, and blue, fluttering, their wings like fairies. The trees were enormous and magnificent and flowers were radiant.

The descent was as slow as the ascent because of fear of overworking our knees. We reached the Mud Springs three hours later and were rewarded with an eerie scene. It was a big pool of hot and bubbling mud with steam rising into the air. We heard a sound very much like someone drumming. We walked towards it and found out a couple of big steaming fumaroles filled with thick, boiling mud. The drumming sound is produced when the mud bubble bursts. The air was heavy with sulfur.

On the way down, past 4 pm, we met the birders again. They were still at it!

Back at the hotel we showered and rested our aching feet for a while. Then we went out for dinner at the same canteen. Afterwards, we went back to our room and watched the Oscars.

Today, we got up before 7 am hoping to have a massage, but the masseuse was late. When she showed up, we were packed and all ready to leave. Needless to say, we were disappointed.

We headed back up the mountain to the Makiling Botanical Gardens, located in a dramatic site where two creaks converge, and spent a couple hours meandering through the enormous trees, a picnic area by the streams, through palm trees and, finally, the Philippines Raptor Sanctuary. This is where they have a collection of the different hawks and eagles found in the islands. It was sad to see these magnificent birds just perched on a branch inside their cages looking forlorn.

We checked out of Searca Hotel and headed out of town. First stop was in Calamba, Laguna, the hometown of the country’s most famous national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. It was most meaningful for Maitri as she had been reading about him all her school years. We toured his house (now a local shrine) where he grew up along with his 9 siblings. Maitri found it to be a pretty cool feeling to be walking on the same grounds where this famous person used to run around when he was a boy.

We also stopped at a nearby church and were granted permission to climb the stone belfry tower accessed by a spriral stairway. It had a very good view of the city and Mt. Makiling.

After a couple of jeepney rides, we arrived in this little town called Talisay at the very edge of Lake Taal, the caldera of a temporarily dormant volcano, whose most recent eruption was in 1965. We checked into a modest resort on the beach of the lake near the center of the town and walked a few blocks to the public market where we were able to get dinner. We are planning to take a bangka ride to Volcano Island, the largest island in the lake. From the shore the steam can be seen rising from an opening on the side of the mountain.

Today we arrived in Los Baños, a city an hour or so from Manila. It is situated on the shore of Lake Laguna, and is famous for its many resorts with volcanic hot springs, hence the name ("the baths"). It is also the location of one of the University of the Philippines campuses, which is where we are staying. It was here that the so-called "green revolution" reportedly started, centering on developing new rice varieties and stimulating cereal production with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Our plan is to climb nearby Mt Makiling, a dormant volcano. We will also tour the local botanical gardens, and, if we have enough time, take a swim in the swimming pool.

We have spent the last few days in Manila, just relaxing after the return from El Nido. We finished our souvenir shopping and visited many of the busiest markets in the city, including the Mall of Asia, supposedly Asia's largest. We also took advantage of the low local prices for spectacles and ordered new pairs for both of us. (Our last prescriptions were four years ago.) I ordered a new pair with red frames and partially rose colored lenses. Maitri ordered a pair with blue-purple frames and also got a pair just for computer work.

In these last few days, we were able to eat at several other vegetarian restaurants, including in Chinatown and Makati.

We also finally visited the world's only bamboo organ, located in Las Piñas, another Manila suburb. Because it was the opening day of the annual Bamboo Festival with its evening gala performance, we were not able to have the usual full tour during the mass, where one can listen to the organ playing.

Maitri wanted to visit the local Ananda Marga yoga house. When we last visited it years ago it was located downtown in the Paco Market area. Now it has moved to the suburbs of Quezon City. There we met Dada Ratmananda, a Filipino yoga teacher who is temporarily posted in Manila while he awaits renewal of his US visa.

Maitri writes: We're taking a big break from traveling outside Manila as I am not feeling that well--too exhausted. The 30-hours ferry boat from Palawan to Manila, the all day walk around Chinatown and Divisoria through thick traffic of people and vehicles, the noise of the city was more than this poor, old body can take.

However, we have done a few local trips, including to the Ananda Marga yoga office in Quezon City, a suburb of Manila. No one was there except for one Filipino yoga teacher and four volunteer workers. The rest were in Cebu (the center of the islands) because of a meeting.

We also went to Las Piñas to see the world famous bamboo organ, but we were granted only a peek as they were preparing for the international organ festival opening that evening. We're still hoping to visit Los Banos and maybe climb Mt. Makiling which is supposed to have a thick forest of trees and hot springs. We're staying here in Manila with my brother in-law who lives on the 26th floor of a condominium. We have a sweeping view of part of the city which has 20 times more skyscrapers than Portland. Isn't that something?

This city of this very small country is peppered with giant “megamalls” which occupy several city blocks. They even have the Mall of Asia, reportedly the biggest mall in Asia. In this mall, there is not just a supermarket, but a “hypermarket”, as they named it. You think America is the land of consumerism? As far as I have experienced, Manila must be a close second!

We are on our way back to Manila, on board the ferry Asuncion, after just over a week in Palawan. The two main ferries that serve Manila-Palawan have been pulled off for repairs making the local airlines packed and fares soring high and schedules uncertain. We therefore took San Nicolas, the only one shipping line still operating regularly, the same one we took coming to Palawan. It's a small ferry and cargo boat of about 50 passengers. It's about a 30-hour journey from El Nido to Manila.

We're all squeezed together on a covered but open air upper deck with the sleeping cots actually touching one another, so our faces are only a foot away from one another. We are literally packed in like sardines! Luckily the cot to Maitri's left is vacant, so we placed all our bags on it. There's a TV on each end playing American, Chinese, and Filipino action films (lots of kung fu, gunfights, and car chases that end in fiery wrecks). They keep the volume turned up high to drown out the boat's engine which is right in the middle of the boat. Fortunately, Ole brought a set of ear plugs. Otherwise, Maitri would have gone crazy with the noise. There are several people smoking and there's no designated smoking area or, if there is, no one's using it. We don't see "no smoking" signs anywhere in the sleeping area. Good thing that the boat is open air and Maitri has a fan to clear the air around her.

The main cargo of this boat is giant sacks of dried fish and coconut on the lower decks. So you can imagine there are some rather strong smells, some pleasant, some less so. The amazing thing is that, even though people are packed so closely together, they still manage to be really patient and keep their friendliness. Even the children are for the most part quite patient. The rest rooms are very basic too. There is one men's and one woman's toilet for the entire boat. They contain one porcelain toilet that is flushed with scoops of seawater that is kept just outside in a barrel. There are two public sinks, one that is continuously running sea water. The second has a tiny faucet for fresh water. Meals are included in the $20 fare, and consist of rice, a boiled egg, or dried fish. We expected this so have brought our own food. One interesting technique is that the food is served on wicker plates wrapped in a very thin plastic bag for each passenger. This avoids the need for dish washing and can also serve as a doggie bag.

After several days in Busuanga, the northern-most island of the Palawan group, we took a 7 hour boat south to our next destination, El Nido, on the main island of Palawan. It's is a tiny crescent shaped beach town, quite picturesque with the clear blue ocean on one side and tall limestone mountains called karst on the other. People here are extremely friendly. They do not hesitate to engage you in lengthy stories about their lives and families. The area really is mainly a fishing village which has become a tourist destination because of the incredible scenic beauty of the limestone formations. It remains very undeveloped. For example, electricity is available only 12 hours per day.

We hired a boat for a day-long island hopping in the nearby Bacuit Bay which is famous for its multitude of steep karst islands jutting above the clear waters. Seven other tourists, mostly Austrians, accompanied us. Unlike us, they couldn't seem to get enough sun on their skin. We went to 5 islands that featured a Catholic shrine, a tiny white beach and coral garden accessible only by swimming through a little opening, a couple of lagoons, an island called Snake Island because its beach is like a snake that runs NOT along the shore but goes out perpendicularly into the sea in a long snaky way, and an island that has a white beach and a short but quite tall cave that you have to crawl into. You can see from the panorama photos Ole made how scenic the area is. The crystal waters are quite warm and make for very pleasant swimming and snorkeling.

We had planned to continue south to Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan, and leave on one of the larger "super-ferries" which carry several hundred passengers that ply that more heavily traveled route. Instead, we are returning to the Manila area where we basically have 10 more days in the islands.

We are considering several options for our remaining time here: hiking Mt Makiling, a densely forested small volcano; visiting Los Baños, a university town which has one of the largest rice seed banks in Asia and a botanical garden; seeing and listening to the world's largest bamboo organ in Las Piñas (an international organ festival is happening during the last week of this month); and visiting the Taal Volcano, a volcano within a lake within a volcano.

We are looking forward to being back in Portland and being there for the spring flowers. For all the fun we are having on this trip, we still miss simple pleasures like gardening and our local circle of friends.

We're here in the little town of Coron, our first stop on our trip to Palawan Island, southwest part of the Philippines. It was 20 hour ferry boat ride out of Manila--a wooden boat with about 150 passengers. On route we saw dolphins leaping repeatedly right near the boat.

Coron, the capital of the district which contains Busuanga Island, is a welcoming quiet, show-paced change from very noisy, hurried Manila. We checked into a waterfront hotel called the Sea Dive Resort which has lovely second and third floor balconies overlooking the bay. Coron is famous for the multitude of undergound ship wrecks from World War II. Unfortunately, we do not have the time or skills (diving certification) to dive these sites.

Yesterday, we hired a motorboat (locally termed pump boat, 8-person capacity) to take us across a narrow straight to Coron Island, a jagged, mountainous place made of limestone. (see photos) We shared the cost of the excursion with 3 other tourists, 2 Germans and 1 Danish. The first stop was a small, extremely picturesque bay. But the main attraction was one of Coron's several lakes which we reached by climbing over a steep ridge. Our companions didn't waste time jumping into the crystal clear brackish water with its profusion of odd shaped fishes. We, on the other hand, were offered a paddle boat ride around the lake, which turned out to be the maiden voyage of the boat and the first time it was allowed by the local elders for tourists to go around the lake. The owner of the boat paddled us slowly along the perimeter of the lake while singing locally-composed church songs. We saw butterflies, a wild duck, beautiful blue-orange kingfishers and other fishes leaping repeatedly along the surface like skipping stones. We saw the cliffs where Chinese tradesmen harvest the swallow nests for the famous "bird's nest soup". It was very quiet around the lake and the water was just the perfect blue. So healing! Maitri got to help paddle, too. The boat ride was her biggest wish for this trip come true beyond expectation.

After the lake, we went to Twin Lagoon for swimming and snorkeling. This is two small inlets that are separated by a high rocky ridge with a gap just small enough to swim through at its base. Ole and the Europeans swam through into the other lagoon and took turns snorkeling. Maitri, who is a less confident swimmer, enjoyed floating in the area of the boat with a life vest. The waters were very warm and again crystal clear.

Our third stop was a picture perfect, if tiny, little white beach. The mid-day tropical sun was blinding. We relaxed in a shaded picnic area while our friends swam and snorkeled in the shallow waters. Ole's swim in the lagoon had washed off his sunscreen and he wished to avoid further sun exposure. (For an unaccustomed Caucasian visitor from the northern latitudes, even and hour of unscreened sun can result in a nasty burn. Generally, it requires a week or more of gradually increasing sun exposure to acclimatize oneself to the intense radiation. The solar energy potential of this area is enormous, and relatively unexploited.)

The last stop of the day was another tiny beach, this time with a little courser, yellow, sand. It was inhabited by a Filipino family with seven children whose abode was a small bamboo hut with a sheet of plastic for a roof. The kids, the youngest of whom was just a toddler, were constantly playing in the water and paddling the family boat just off shore. We were among three boats of tourists who moored on the shore. Most of the visitors took advantage of the excellent snorkeling opportunity afforded by two large rock outcroppings a ways from the beach. We were told there were fishes more than a foot in length swimming around these rocks. The family had dried one of the fishes they caught for their evening meal.

All in all, we had a wonderful outing, although we got a little too much sun. So today we are staying in the shade, catching up on email (our hotel has free WiFi), and making plans for the next couple weeks. Later this afternoon, when the sun is less intense, we will hike to a nearby hot springs and climb a nearby peak that overlooks the town. It apparently has steps all the way to the top, which seems to be a not uncommon Asian tradition.

8 pm

Well, we didn't make it to the top of the hill, but we made it to the hot springs, about half an hour's walk from the pier. The water was very warm and salty (!) by the seaside! We were told it's very unusual to have a salty hot springs. Anyhow, it was wonderful!

We leave for El Nido tomorrow morning. The owner of the resort we're staying got it all arranged for 15 tourists as there was no ferry boat scheduled at all for the next 2 weeks.

We're still here in Manila. Ole has not been feeling well. He picked up some bug and his throat has been sore and his nose runny. He's feeling a bit better this morning and has been sleeping and resting a lot. We do go out everyday to get food and just stroll in the mega malls. The whole city is crawling with "mega" malls, larger than Lloyd Center. We actually have not been to Manila's largest one yet--supposedly the largest in Asia. We have been taking the train to go around which is faster and easier on the senses. But yesterday we took a jeepney to go to the Adventist cafeteria. Boy, that was noisy, slow at times and harrowing at other times and very polluted. Luckily, Maitri has a handkerchief to cover her nose. The weather has been quite subdued, but we heard up in the mountains, it has been below freezing, which is very extreme and unusual. We really have not finalized our plans. It's still up in the air.

Ole had a haircut done by Dyanggo’s (Mitz’ housemate) niece, Dondon. He tipped her with P60 ($1 is about P48).

We wanted to share some of the everyday pleasures we experience in consuming foods, exotic to us but everyday to locals.

Today we enjoyed some of the foods pictured in the first photo (clockwise from bottom):

mangosteen: contains a cluster of pink-white, sweet segments inside a deep red rind;
lanzones: contains clusters of translucent sweet, tart flesh inside a thin leathery yellow rind;
dish of kangkong leaves and stems which we stir-fried with a little oil and soy sauce, eaten with rice;
mangoes;
guayabano: medium size green very juicy white sweet-tart fruit, tastes kind of like a cross between a guava and a peach, it has a thin green leathery skin;
finger bananas with very distinct, fragrant flavor;
orange papaya;
star apple: green, golf ball size fruit: jelly-like very sweet interior;
coco bun and 2 pan de sal: light, airy, sweet buns;
light sticky buns;
plate containing a boiled plantain banana and 2 servings of glutenous rice, each wrapped in a leaf (young coconut leaf and banana leaf) in which it is cooked.

We also found a local branch of the franchise "Soy Yummy" yesterday in the local mall and picked up a liter of chocolate soy milk. They're a great place for soy smoothies, too. Amazing that the malls are one of the most convenient places to get vegan food in Manila. There appear to
be branches of Bodhis, the vegan health food chain run by Chinese Taoists, in almost all the larger malls!

We are planning to leave for Palawan this afternoon. It is going to be about 24 hours in a ferry boat. We will arrive in Coron Island, northern part of Palawan. This region is made up of the main island of Palawan and hundreds of small islands. This means lots of beaches!

Here is our first missive from Manila on this trip to the tropics during February, 2007. We will be posting all our photos on our Google Picasa photo album.

Mainly we have been just relaxing while we recover from jet lag. The trip from San Francisco to Manila was 14 hours, non stop on Philippine Air Lines. When we got bumped last year on our return to the US, the airlines gave us free round trip tickets and $100 per person. We arrived in Manila Saturday, Feb 3 and took a bus to where Mitz lives.

We are staying with Mitz, the husband of Maitri's sister Beck. He lives with a coworker in a 2 bedroom condominium on the 26th floor of a high rise fairly close to the center of the city. We have access to the rooftop recreation area with a small swimming pool and observation deck.

Today we went shopping in two nearby markets. In the morning we shopped for breakfast items: mangos, pineapple, guayabano (soursop), pan de sal (literally, "salt bread", but actually it tends to be a little sweet), cinnamon rolls, rice cakes, and bananas.

Then this afternoon we went to the nearby SM MegaMall to look into getting an inexpensive cell phone, belts for Krishna, earrings for Shanti and Kamala, and lunch. We ate at Bodhi's, a vegetarian health food restaurant. We got a 3 course meal for $1 each. Later we got several more for dinner and got an extra one for Mitz and his roommate. While we were wandering around we came across this hat stand that embroiders hats so we each had one made for us. We also got a cute day back pack to replace the one stolen in Lima, Peru last summer.

Later we went to another mall and checked into cell phones. One can purchase full featured, second hand phones, for almost nothing. (These are so-called GSM phones that use radio bands shared all over the world, so they can be used in other countries as well as here. Actually they can also be used in the USA by the ATT and T-Mobile networks.) Then you spend a few dollars more to enable calling and messaging with your own personal number. To send text messages costs $.02 each. That is how most people communicate with cell phones here since it is much less expensive than the usual $.10 per minute charge for voice. We also checked into getting a cell modem for our laptop but it requires signing up for a two year contract or buying a rather expensive modem. We will pass on that one since we can usually find internet much less expensively at internet cafes and it works very well for doing all we need, like email, sending photos, and getting the news. We are also able to get free internet in many places, as we have in Mitz's condo.

We have been doing intensive research in our guide book and on the internet to figure out where we will travel this trip. We are still undecided but making good progress.