After a year and a half of working Nathan and I have left the claws of the resturant world once again to travel the world! With a one way ticket to the Philippines, some peso's in our back pocket and rather heavy bags on our backs we're ready for the adventure!!!

"On a plane in the air, in a train on the track, on the road with our bags on our backs."

Banaue Rice Terraces!
Journal Date: 30 October 2008
Location: Banaue
Well we made the very long journey to northern Philippines and it was definately worth the effort. Like anything in the Philippines nothing is straight forward. After packing up and leaving our Pension House we spent quite a bit of time locating the auto bus stop only to get there and be told that the bus (that we weren't allowed to book in advance) was full. So another night in Manila it was. We did manage to get the next nights bus at 10pm. So 9 very bumpy hours in a freezing cold bus later we arrived at Banaue. Stepping off the bus its amazing the difference in the air compared to Manila, its cool and refreshing which makes a nice change! We were immediately taken under the wing of two locals who clearly wanted to be our guides for the next few days which suited us fine. We had a beautiful little room with an awesome view of the rice terraces and all for a tiny price! We spent the next few days exploring the rice terraces with our guide 'salvador' who gave us a great history of the area although he only spoke Tagalog so Nathan had to translate! The terraces were built 2000 years ago buy a head hunting tribe! We came across three old ladies who were in traditional dress sat at the best views of the terraces waiting to have their photos taken. We had to pay them all seperate (about 50p in total) so that they didn't argue over the money! After a few days chilling it was time to leave, the last day we were there it was raining and there is not alot to do at rice terraces in the rain! We killed time waiting fo the bus playing with little Claire, a local filipina! She was shy at first but ended up drawing with us and laughing at photos we'd taken! The journay back to Manila wasn't so much fun with the driver thinking he was a F1 pro on the winding mountain roads and having set the air con at freezing! We arrived back in manila at about 3am and treated ourselves to a Jolly Bee! The Philippines answer to Maccy D's! So we're back in Manila now but not for long as we're flying to Singapore tomorrow!!
Ali
Rice terraces!!	With the old ladies
Their traditional dresses
	Found some puppies!
With little Claire