Philippines Adventure

back home...

haiz...so fast the last day of our tour already...so we left philippines from clark airport back to singapore...philippines tour was really fun and exciting...and the highlights definitely gonna be the caving in Sagada and trekking up Mt. Pinatubo...so wat gonna be my next backpacking destination??? hahaha...i planning to go laos, cambodia and tibet soon hehe...and also to tour europe for my graduation trip...let u guys know again!!!

mount pinatubo...here we come!!!

me and dawn took a day tour to climb mount pinatubo...study before how mt pinatubo had a huge eruption in 1991 that causes ashes to reach even singapore...so was really excited to climb this volcano...and i mean a volcano!!!...lazy myyher dun want to climb...so decided to stayed in the hotel and slack haha...we were joined by a few foreigners...3 swedish and 1 aussie...it was a great experience traveling in the 4 x 4 all-terrain vehicle...crossing even river with it hahaha...then we have to drop off to start our ascent...definitely worth all the effort when we reach the crater...wat a magnificient view!!! we were actually lucky to reach there 10 mins early as it started to pour heavily later haha...else it will have been a great disappointment to not be able to see this wonderful view...then descent was a torture as the rain continued to pour and winds blowing heavily...basically i was shivering all the way down...haha...and the river now seems to overflow and we have to carefully manuevour them to prevent falling into them haha...

the barren lands look like we are on mars!!! hahaha

dawn and the 4x4 vehicle

it feels good to be free...

walking through those huge rocks

thoese ashes are still noticable...i took some home too haha

magnificient!!!!

wanna jump down!!!

damn the rain...

dawn slowly manuevouring haha

corregidor island...

took another 1 day tour by myself to corregidor island since dawn and myyher got more shopping to be done hahaha...and probably this tour was more of a walfare thingy haha...corregidor island is one of the most fought over island during world war II...and was a pride for the americans...so u expect alot of americans to visit it haha...and the one of the most known general who has commanded the island was Gen. MacArthur...so got to know more history of world war II after this tour...and also get to know some other foreigners that i met along the way...

barrack that was destroyed during air raid

one of the smaller cannons guarding the island

and the bigger ones...

a couple of war memorials

weapons used during WW2

hmmm....not really far from singapore right? haha

one of the light houses that we climb

General MacArthur statue

funerals of the japanese soldiers who died here

the huge malinta tunnel where many soldiers hid during air-raids, including doctor rizal

my wonderful tour guide who makes the tour ever so interesting with his jokes haha

intramuros...the old spanish capital of manila

so i went around manila myself today to around rizal park and intramuros...doctor rizal is a national hero for the philippines and they really respect him alot as he died for the country...then intramuros was built during the spanish occupation as a fortress to protect manila...armed with little cannons around the border of intramuros...and u can really feel the spanish atmosphere while walking around those spanish building as compared to other parts of manila...also managed to visit san augustin church...one of the oldest church in philippines...

rizal execution site where they now put statues to emulate the real execution

rizal shrine

intramuros street...note the contrast between the left modern building and right old spanish fortess wall

those horse carriage that carry people around intramuros for touring

the old san augustin church sitting beside a modern building

garden of san augustin church

inside san augustin church...room where they display costumes worn by pope of different times

corridor of san augustin church...lit by the colorful stain-glass window

the centre of the church where a wedding was held...i secretly sneek in haha...

info on the church

memorial for world war II

manila cathedral from afar

back to manila again

yet another traveling day....haiz...stuck on the bus almost whole day...so never take any pictures haha...traffic back to manila was really packed and slow...so was planning for wat we should do for the next few days on the bus...dawn and myyher plan to go shopping haha...so i probably go explore other part of manila by myself lol...

now to Baguio...

another traveling day...now to Baguio city...scenery along the way was really nice...flowers and rice terraces decorating the roads...and highest point we reach was around 2200m above sea-level!!!...but Baguio itself was really too city-like, just like manila, just that it is much cooler since it is located around 1400m above sea-level...so we did nothing much...just went for a stroll at their local market to take a look...more like a stopover for the night before we return to manila the next day...

cute little gal that was taking the same bus as us

scenery along the way

my lunchie...a big pao that the local likes to eat

jeepney station where we alighted at Baguio

they sell so many variety of rices haha...

even higher to Sagada!!!

early morning we leave for another mountain province, Sagada...stopover at one viewpoint to see the amazing rice terraces again...these were much much nicer than yesterday's, should have just save yesterday's long trekking haha...Sagada is around 1500m above sea level...so was even colder than Banaue...known for its hanging coffins and limestone caves...of cos, we went caving inside one of them...was a toally new and wonderful experience!!!...inside the cave was really pitch dark, but most of the pictures taken seems too bright to justify the darkness haha...probably flashlight too powerful already...climbing bare-footed in the cave was really fun...we decended around few hundreds metre...but too bad we couldn't finish the whole cave tour...cos the last part of it need u to swim underground!!!...and we weren't prepare with all our camera and stuff haha...but caving is definitely a new adventure and i shall add this into my agenda for future backpacking travel haha...

much nicer rice terraces!!! like steps to heaven...haha...