2020.01.11 – Ottawa – Beijing (CHN) – Saying that we were eager to leave on our trip would be an understatement. Our two backpacks were loaded and ready-to-go well over a month before our departure. We had spent a fair amount of time developing and refining our travel route and itinerary. Even Jenny had gotten very active in researching our various foreign destinations. She focused on bookmarking relevant YouTube videos while I did the same for travel blogs. We shared and organized our bookmarks with a convenient bookmark manager. It seemed like we spent more time planning this trip than most of our previous travels. Unfortunately we were negligent about reading up on the recommended travel vaccines and medications for the malaria zones that we would travel through. We managed during our last week in town to secure an appointment at a travel clinic. We also bid farewell to family and friends as part of our last preparations.

On the day of our departure, our good friend Gang picked us up at home and drove us to the bus terminal for our 9am bus to the Montreal Airport. It was nice to enjoy the bus ride as it rained. Our airport check-in with Air China was efficient. We had lunch before crossing the security screening. Our 2:05pm flight left almost on-time and we managed to survive another 13+ hour flight to Beijing for our connection to Manila.

2020.01.12 – Beijing – Beijing (CHN) – We were pleased when we arrived in Beijing a full-hour ahead of schedule. Our pleasure quickly faded when we noticed that our 8pm flight to Malina, Philippines was delayed to 00:30 the next day. As we waited with others passengers, many who had family ties to the Philippines, we learned that a volcano eruption was behind our flight delay as Manila’s International airport had been closed. All flights in or out of the airport had been canceled. By 9:30pm, Air China decided to cancel our flight and then began a long and complex process to allow us to leave the airport for a nearby hotel for the night – courtesy of Air China. The experience of leaving the airport was somewhat similar to that of an Escape Room challenge. Thankfully we had Chinese visas in our passports and Jenny was able to communicate with the local staff. We managed to slip in our hotel beds by the time we should have been on the airplane for Manila. The updated boarding passes we were given at the airport before we left suggested that our flight was re-scheduled for 11:30am the next day.

2020.01.13 – Beijing – Beijing (CHN) – Surprisingly most passengers showed up for breakfast at 6:30am. Later, we were told by hotel staff that they would notify us when a bus was ready to bring us to the airport. We had breakfast, lunch and supper – courtesy of Air China, before a bus showed up at 9pm for our 00:05am scheduled flight. Throughout the day, the passengers would exchange information about the status of the Manila airport. As foreigners in China, it was almost impossible to get any news from source such as BBC, CBC or CCN – unless having access to very select VPN services. No Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc – which almost made us want to swim to the Philippines!

2020.01.14 – Beijing – Manila (Php) – As we arrived at our airport gate, there appeared to us like there were two plane load of people waiting. Until we were seated on the plane we had been silently hoping that the plane seats had not been double booked. The four hour flight to Manila was manageable. Philippines Immigration and Custom were clearly more efficient than in Beijing. We took an airport taxi to our hotel. Along the way, we experienced the notorious traffic jams in Manila at 5:30am. After our hotel check-in we had our hotel complementary buffet breakfast at 6:30pm. As we were not tired, we opted to go on some errands. We walked a few kms to reach a HSBC ATM which was known to dispensed larger amount of cash than the local banks. Along the way, we visited a few tourist sites. Later we introduced ourselves to Manila’s light rail train (LRT). The standing room only train ride made us realize how friendly and courteous the Filipino people were. On both of our LRT trips (to and from a bus terminal), Jenny was offered a seat without any hesitation. This friendly behavior would be unheard of in most countries. Our visit to the bus terminal allowed us to purchase tickets on a 1st class bus to our next travel destination: Baguio. Our hotel’s designated driver had offered to drive us there for $200USD but we preferred the $40 CDN bus option. On our way back to the hotel, we discovered a large shopping mall in our neighborhood. We caught up on a few hours sleep in the afternoon. Later we returned to the shopping mall to visit a cell phone service provider to purchase local SIMs for our phones. We bought two prepaid data plan offering us a few Gbs over the next month. We had our evening meal at one of many restaurants in the shopping mall. We finished the long day satisfied by all the errands we had completed. We slipped into bed by 8pm with the hope of recovering from our extended jet lag.

2020.01.15 – Manila – Manila (Php) – This morning more hotel patrons showed at 6:30am for the excellent breakfast buffer. We learned from our travel guide book that Metro Manila was composed of 16 cities of which only four of them were relevant to tourists. The same guide recommended to visit each these four cities individually as to avoid wasting commuting time. As we completed all our travel errands yesterday, we spent our morning walking to some of the key tourist/historical sites in the City of Manila (downtown) including San Agustin Museum and Church, Fort Santiago, Rizal Shrine. Later Jenny recommended that we took a stroll along the waterfront as our airport taxi driver had highlighted it the previous morning. After taking a taxi to the waterfront, we realized that the waterfront boardwalk was all fenced in and the view was by far not very appealing. Back at the hotel, we rested for a few hours before returned to the large shopping mall for our evening meal. The four-level shopping mall offered so many restaurants that it took us longer to select one than to have our supper.

2020.01.16 – Manila – Baguio (Php) – After another early breakfast at 6:30am, we boarded a taxi in front of our hotel at 9am for the bus station in Pasay – one of Metro Manila’s city. Unfortunately, our taxi driver gave up on us about one km away from our hotel as he considered scamming us by asking 800 pesos (~$20 cdn) for ride to the bus station. We stepped out of his taxi and jumped into another one a few minutes later. This second driver was more honest and avoided much of the traffic – total cost of the ride: 150 pesos. At the bus station, we waited in the air-con first class lounge for our 11:15 first class bus. It took 1.5 hours to leave Metro Manila as traffic was bumper to bumper for most of the time. We arrived in Baguio after a 5 hour bus ride which took us from the lowland up to the start of the mountain area. At the bus station, we strapped our backpacks and walked to our hotel nearby. We quickly discovered that Baguio was an extremely hilly town. After our hotel check-in we walked the busy streets/sidewalks to one of many bus stations in town in order to buy our tickets for our next travel destination: Sagada. At the bus terminal, we learned that they only sold tickets for the same day of travel – no advanced seat tickets offered. On our return walk to the hotel, we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for our evening meal. It seemed like Jenny was the only Chinese in the place! We struggled a bit to find some reasonable accommodation in Sagada as the initial Booking.com offered on previous days was quite limited. Thanks to our last minute booking strategy it seemed like we were lucky to secure some great accommodation from a last minute cancellation.

2020.01.17 – Baguio – Baguio (Php) – We had some very noisy hotel room neighbors throughout the previous evening. After our early breakfast buffet, we asked the reception desk to change room for our next (and last) night in Baguio. The staff were very understanding. Although we arrived in Baguio without a clear touring itinerary, we managed to visit a long list of the city highlights including the Botanical Garden, the Pink Nuns Convent, Burnham Park, Baguio’s Shopping Mall, Lourdes Grotto, Tam-awan Village. Upon Jenny’s recommendation, we had our evening meal at the Farmer’s Daughter Restaurant beside the Tam-awan Village. Although I enjoyed the experience, Jenny said that she was no longer offering any travel recommendations including restaurants. We had planned to experience our first journey on a jeepney for returning to our hotel but we opted for a taxi as we were both tired.

2020.01.18 – Baguio – Sagada (Php) – We showed up again at 6am for our breakfast buffet. Later we took a taxi to the bus station and managed to secure seats on the 8:30am bus to Sagada. The journey on the bus took 7 hours to cover the ~160km distance between Baguio and Sagada. The views along the way were simply spectacular. Once in Sagada, the bus driver kindly dropped us off across the street from our accommodation. After our check-in and some rest, we met a guide, recommended by our hotel, to discuss, schedule and cost of our activities during our two day stay in Sagada. We agreed to meet up tomorrow at 8am to start our first of four planned activities. Later, we went out for our evening meal at a nearby cafe. The disruptive sleeping patterns from the jet lag finally brought the full force of a cold on me.

2020.01.19 – Sagada – Sagada (Php) – The previous evening we had checked the opening hours of a few cafes and were told between 6am and 6:30am. Unfortunately, as we walked along the main road, we noticed that all the cafes and restaurants were still closed well after 6:30am. On our way back to the hotel, we finally found a cafe that had just opened. As we were having our breakfast, we met a British couple that had just arrived on a bus from Manila after a 9 hour ride. It was nice to exchange a bit of travel experiences. Our guide picked us up at our hotel at 8am and called a shuttle driver to bring us all to the entrance of the Sumaging Cave. The two hour exploration was highly exhilarating. We appreciated starting our tour early as the cave was getting busy as we exited. Back at the hotel, we showered and went out for a sandwich lunch. At 4:00pm we met our guide again for our second activity involving a hike to catch the sunset. Although the hike’s denivelation was only 300m, the 15% grade made us work very hard. At the top, the view of the sun was mostly hidden by a cloud cover – said to be linked with the recent Taal volcano eruption. After a few pictures, we walked down the trail and headed back to our hotel. To Jenny’s unfortunate experience, we had our evening meal at a nearby cafe that housed a few dogs on-site.

2020.01.20 – Sagada – Sagada (Php) – According to Jenny and somewhat to her chagrin, I had an excellent night sleep which help me recover from my cold. After breakfast, in company of British traveling friends, we met our guide at the hotel for the start of our third activity in Sagada. We visited the unusual Hanging Coffins site followed by an adventure tour through an underground river while finishing our trek at a small fall. After a lunch at the Yoghurt House, we caught a shuttle bus to the start of a challenging walk to the Bomok-Ok fall. We could not believe that the local village folks had to walk down and up the never ending staircase to get in or out of their village as there were no road access. The denivelation from the registration area to the fall was 329m and a distance of 2.2 km – again a steep climb with ~15% slope. On the way up from the fall, we took a shortcut and rode our first jeepney back to the registration area. In the evening, we met up again with our British traveling couple at a cozy restaurant. We had a great time sharing travel thoughts and experiences.