Philippines Vacation

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary in one of Eric's favorite places on Earth, the Philippines! It was so much fun to be back where he served his mission from 2002-2004 and see old friends as well as make new ones. We had this trip planned since October and waited so long that by the time our departure date arrived it seemed sorta surreal. Finally, March 10, 2008 we took off for a two week vacation in paradise.

SIDE NOTE: Sorry the layout's the same, we tried to make it nice with pictures on the right, center, and left but it messed everything up so we went simple, all out pictures are down the middle (it takes up a lot of room too). I'll try to get better at posting pictures with future posts!

PI - Day 1

It took a total of 18 hours in the air to finally arrive in Manila. We first flew to LA where we then caught our flight to Manila by way of Hong Kong (now I can say I've been to Hong Kong, the airport counts, right???). The 14 hour flight to Hong Kong was exhausting, but we couldn't have asked for much better seats in economy class.... we sat in the very back of the plane where the rows become 2-deep instead of 3, so it was nice to have a row to ourselves.

We're in Hong Kong! I see it!

We're keeping ourselves entertained during our 2 hr layover in Hong Kong!

Eric is streching out before we get on another flight to Manila.

When we arrived in Manila we were met by Joseph's older brother, Noel. Joseph was one of Eric’s favorite Filipino companions who now lives here in Utah. He was so accommodating to us and made our trip run so smoothly.

Manila is a HUGE city, and the streets are littered with billboards and huge buildings. We snapped a few photos on the way in and around town. It was good that Noel was driving us around, if we had gone with a rental or chosen to brave the public transportation scene, it would've been absolute mayhem.

Noel took us to the Patron House across the street from the Manila Temple where we met April Abao, Eric's 2nd to last companion. He set us up with a room for a few hours so we could shower and change into some temple-appropriate clothes.

Attending the Temple was a great experience. The Maharry's (a missionary couple from Eric's mission) are currently serving as Temple Workers, and they treated us to lunch right as we got there.

One of Eric's good buddies from home, Marc Price, is the AP in the Quezon City Mission, and he was able to sneak away and stop by the Temple while we were there also. Needless to say, we had quite a few familiar faces within our first few hours! As an anniversary gift, Joseph had arranged with Noel to treat us to a full massage at his favorite spa in downtown Manila. It lasted over an hour and was the greatest massage ever, and so relaxing, especially after all our time spent traveling.

After our massage it was time to gear up for a long night. We took an overnight bus (about 10 hours) to the town of Banaue. Banaue is home to the famous Rice Terraces, which many people claim to be the 8th Wonder of the World. From what we had read it was supposed to be worth the long trip there, and it definitely was!

We tried our best to get some sleep on the bus, the seats weren't in the best of shape, and the mountainous road to Nueva Viscaya isn't exactly "smooth", but arriving in Banaue at 6:00 am and having a full 2 days to recuperate made up for the rather uncomfortable night.

PI - Day 2

When we finally arrived in Banaue and got off the bus, we made our way thru the mob of "tour guides" ready and waiting at the bus stop for the opportunity to become any foreigner's new best friend.

We chatted with one so-called tour guide named Gideon, and he accompanied us to People's Restaurant for some breakfast and a chance to stretch out. Gideon was rad and arranged for a trike to take us to our hotel, which was another 30 minutes away, at a decent price.

The cool mountain air and the view off the balcony at People's were refreshing. We finished our banana pancakes and Milo (hot chocolate) and got back on the road to Uhaj.

We arrived at the Uhaj Native Village Inn and we were the only guests there. The road there is only partially paved and pretty gnarly, especially after some rain. But the secluded atmosphere was just what we needed to relax and take in the beauty of the terraces. The local kids along the way didn't hesitate to greet us as we passed by ;) they were so cute!

Since the Inn is quite a ways from the city, there aren't too many jeepney's or trikes that make the trip up during the afternoon, so we vouched to stay at the Inn all day and just sleep, play cards, relax, enjoy the views, and EAT!

This Inn is incredible as each "suite" is its own native Ifugao hut, built and maintained by the local Ifugao people. The huts at the hotel are outfitted with a few modern upgrades, like lighting and power outlets, but still give you a unique cultural experience.






We hung out at the viewpoint most of the day. The young ladies at the Inn had asked us what we'd like for dinner and what time we'd like to eat. At 6:00 right on the money, there was a candle-lit dinner for two ready for us in the restaurant.




We ordered Chicken Adobo for two and it was super grub. We took a short walk down the street after dinner, but it was really too dark to see much of anything other than fireflies. We crashed kinda early that night so we could get up and catch an early jeepney back to the town of Banaue. We ended the night with a toast...to an AWESOME VACATION!

PI - Day 3

This was our first full day in Banaue and we really took advantage of the day to see the town and explore the nearby Barangay’s (small neighborhoods) and their sites.

We got up early and left the beautiful village to explore the city of Banaue. We enjoyed the sunrise at Uhaj, then caught a jeep headed back into town around 7:00 am. Taking a jeep back to town was a bit nicer ride than the trike out to Uhaj the day before, and a lot less expensive! We checked into the Banaue View Hotel in the heart of Banaue with spectacular views of the city from our second floor room.

Before we did any hiking, we grabbed breakfast at People's.

We tried to get out a bit early as the day was heating up quick, and took a hike across the hanging bridge and thru the barangay’s and terraces in the valley. We saw how rice grows and what it looks like when it's dry. To dry, they just leave it on the side of the road (that's why you always need to wash your rice before you cook it) until its ready to go into the grinder to take off the brown shells.

The local kids are always so cute and friendly!

Along the way, we also saw the ugliest dog in the world (well, we saw many on our trip)! It was so sad! We didn't want to get too close to it.


Later that afternoon we were able to hire a trike to take us up to the viewpoints that look across the entire province, and we also snapped a few photos with a native Ifugao woman at the top of viewpoint 2.

After the sites, we walked around town, took pictures, ate mangoes (the best in the world) and relaxed.

For dinner we went to the nicest place in town, the Banaue Hotel, Eric had Bistek (steak with veggies and rice) it was really good.

PI - Day 4

Eric playing Sodoku on the bus ride, I got him hooked on it!


We spent most of our 4th day traveling back to civilization. We caught an early bus so that we could make it to San Jose, Nueva Ecija by lunch time. When we arrived in San Jose we met up with Kuya Romel, a good friend that cooked for the missionaries during the time Eric was assigned in San Jose. It didn’t take too much time of wandering the streets for Eric to get oriented with where we were and remember where Romel’s house was.



Romel prepared a delicious curry complete with mangoes and all. He was cool enough to let us leave our stuff at his house while we hopped a trike and went out to see some of the members Eric was close with.

Sonia was the member that Eric wanted to see the most, but unfortunately she has moved and none of her neighbors know where she’s gone. It was a bit disappointing for him, but on our way back into town we noticed the gates of the chapel were open, and decided to stop by and see who was there. As we walked into the foyer, Eric was immediately recognized and called by name by the Fernandez family! They had had a party there celebrating the anniversary of the Relief Society and were cleaning up when we got there. It was really cool to sit and chat with members that remembered Eric and to catch up on how their lives had changed since he last saw them 5 years ago.

We later made our way back to Romel’s to pick up our stuff and head to Cabanatuan, about an hour and a half away by Jeepney (a very packed one at that).

They have spaghetti on thier McDonalds menu, so weird!

After the long, hot, sweaty, crowded ride, we needed some re-fueling. We stopped at the McDonalds in Cab and ordered some ice cream that was so small it looked like it belonged in a Happy Meal. Then we were off to the Greenland Leisure Suites Hotel where we crashed and enjoyed the air-conditioned room, hot shower, and cable TV. This was definitely the nicest hotel yet…..