The Philippines: the first and last country of this adventure

Phillip and I are in the Philippines, the country in which we began this trip. Although we refer to our current location as Subic Bay, we are actually about 15 km from the former US Navy base and its surrounding city. People have heard of Subic Bay, but no one has heard of Barretto or Baloy Beach. This is our fourth stop in the Philippines. We spent a few days in Manila in April to start this adventure before heading on to seven countries. We flew from Hanoi to Cebu last week. We visited Cebu before, but only for one night in 2014. This time, we stayed for three nights and had some Filipino classic food for our meals and snacks. We've eaten the traditional Filipino dessert, Halo-Halo several times. The purple color is from ube, a sweet root vegetable that is processed into ice cream and desserts. Those are corn flakes on top for a bit of crunch.

Phillip ordered sinigang, a sour pork and vegetable soup. I enjoyed it more than he did, although he did like it. Lots of veggies in broth.

We both liked the pork sisig and have eaten it several times. It reminded me of a pork hash without potatoes. A fried egg is served on top, but the waiter had already stirred the egg in when I took this picture. 

We ate pork sisig at our Clark hotel also, and I snapped a picture before the egg was stirred in. This restaurant added sliced peppers, spicy but not nearly as hot as Thai peppers. 

In Cebu, our hotel was in an area called "IT Park." IT Park is home to huge office buildings filled with call centers. If you call a major corporation, there's a good chance that your call may be routed to a worker in one of these buildings. Lots and lots of 20-somethings, male and female, all who speak English well, coming and going from these buildings. 

Other than walking around IT Park and noticing the hundreds of coffee shops (to fuel the workers), we went to only one tourist location, a spot called TOPS. It is an overlook about 30 minutes outside the city. Our hotel was just around the corner from the bus station that had a dedicated shuttle to TOPS. For 200 pesos each ($3.29), we got a round-trip shuttle ride and entrance into TOPS. 

entrance to TOPS on the top of the mountain

We could never have walked to TOPS, not that it was far, but the very steep road took us up the side of a mountain. At the top, we did have really nice views. 

The main viewing level was wide with clear views of Cebu. The facility had an even higher level that we went up, although the city view from there was basically the same as from the main level.

From the upper level, we did have a nice view of the mountains on the side and rear of TOPs.

For our final Cebu photo, I give you this guy. He was painted on the underside of a set of metal stairs. We walked under the stairs to find shade to finish our Halo-Halo (the first photo in this blog post) and noticed him.

We flew from Cebu to Clark on Thursday, spending two nights at Clark. Clark is a city, like Subic, that owes its existence to the US military, in Clark's case, the Air Force. Clark Air Base was closed in 1991-2 following disputes with local leaders and the eruption of nearby Mount Pinatubo. Phillip and I know the history of Clark Air Base and Mount Pinatubo because we visited the Clark Museum during our stay.

The two floors of the Clark Museum, about 1/2 mile from our hotel, held an eclectic array of exhibits. They jumped from indigenous people, to birds, to geology, to Clark Air Base history, to Mount Pinatubo to local artists with no transition from one topic to another. One local artist showcased in the exhibits used twisted copper wire in their artwork. It was fascinatingly beautiful and had it been for sale, I might have tried to fit a piece in my suitcase.

Since this was near a military base, the museum had a canon exhibit between it and the former Clark AFB parade grounds.

Visiting the museum wasn't the only thing we did at Clark. Our hotel was part of a 3-hotel complex, anchored by a casino! The casino had the same slots machines that we see on cruise ships. We visited the hotel casino both evenings we were there. I broke even with my slot betting. We won't talk about how lucky (or not lucky) Phillip was in the casino. 

I arranged for a car and driver for the 3-hour drive to take us to the next hotel, the Wild Orchid Beach Resort, just a few hundred yards from my brother's house in the town of Barretto. Although we have seen some ants, we are happy with our room which is about 30 feet from the beach. 

We spend parts of each day at Burt and Connie's house, an easy walk on the same street as our hotel. We do have to walk about 2 km to the market. One day, after Connie and I walked to the market, we rode back with our purchases in the regular local transportation, a motorcycle tricycle taxi. 

my view from the motorcycle taxi

Yesterday, we went with Burt and Connie when they went to play pool. Burt has been told by his doctors to get some walking in each day. Connie can get him out to play pool, so it is a routine for them. It was about a 5-minute walk to the hotel/bar/pool hall, but the outing did ensure that Burt got his movement in by walking and playing. 

Phillip and I don't play, so we watched Connie and Burt. Burt won, but he has such a reach advantage over Connie that I don't think she could ever win against him! Phillip was happy to get a halo-halo while we were at the pool hall. 

We walked back along the beach just as the sun was setting, so here's a final picture, Baloy Beach at sunset. The sand is not white, but it is lighter in color than Galveston sand. 

 

Four Days in Hanoi

Phillip and I moved on to the Philippines yesterday, but we spent a most excellent four days in Hanoi after our mountain time in Sapa. We stayed at the same hotel we booked for the past two trips to Hanoi, the Tirant Hotel. The staff is so friendly and accommodating, with two of them remembering us after three years! Each time we’ve been there, they have upgraded our room. This time was no exception as they put us in a suite. 

Every day during our Hanoi stay, we walked around Hoan Kiem Lake, which is less than two blocks from our hotel. Because we visited in June instead of May, the kids weren’t out in the park like before when they had school assignments to practice their English with tourists. The skies were overcast the first two days in Hanoi, so the temperatures were almost pleasant. However, the pictures during the cloudy days don't show how pretty the lake was.

The city still closes the ring street around the lake to traffic on the weekends so families can enjoy the lake. Phillip stood in the middle of the empty streets in the exact spot where he’s seen dance videos made on YouTube by young people. When he didn't start dancing, I just took a picture, not a video of him!  

An hour’s drive into the countryside outside of Hanoi, a cultural show, the Quintessence of Tonkin, is performed by local and professional dancers. We tried to see it when we were in Hanoi in 2023, but a storm made it too dangerous for the performers. We did get to see it on this trip. We arrived early enough to have dinner from food vendors and to watch kids play traditional games. Phillip is watching as the adults have bouncing long sticks that the kids are trying to jump thru.

The show was performed on a lake, with platforms just under the water that the performers used and various set pieces that moved up or in from the side.

Colored lights and lasers were used throughout the show.

Water puppets made an appearance!

One of my favorite parts was when the dancers twirled lighted dragonfly poles.  

Our seats were high, so we had a full view of the lake. During the finale, some of the performers were on the walkway between the seats and the lake. 

We arrived back near our hotel at about 10 pm and decided to join the evening family crowd walking around Hoan Kiem Lake on the closed streets. 

On Sunday, Phillip and I had another cooking class. We made papaya salad, fried spring rolls, and bun cha. Yes, we’ve made all of those in cooking classes before, but each instructor does things a bit differently. Our instructor for this class, Mango, did an excellent job explaining fruits and vegetables at the market. And I’m always amazed to see the tiny baby bananas inside a banana flower:

Two women from Malaysia also took the class. We made our salads first, shredding the green papaya and slicing and dicing the remaining ingredients. The Malaysian women made banana flower salad and we all made the bun cha. 

We sampled our salads as soon as they were made.

Bun cha is traditionally grilled and Mango had Phillip tend to the grilled meat while the other three of us fried the spring rolls. In the upper left of the photo, one of Mango's jackfruit trees is visible. 

And of course, we made more food than the four of us could eat, all of it delicious.

That evening, as it got dark, Phillip and I walked to the next street to the east of the hotel as we knew vendors set up in the street. We walked the six blocks of closed street as they were setting up, but the only thing we bought was a container of fresh jackfruit to snack on. By the time we were halfway back down that street, everyone had set up and was selling their wares: food, clothing, sunglasses, and all kinds of souvenirs.  

On Monday, we bid farewell to the staff at the Tirant Hotel, including the delightful Ms Na. 

Yesterday’s travel day was a long one as we flew from Hanoi to Hong Kong, changed planes, and flew to Cebu. About six hours of actual flight time, but an entire day devoted to travel. We had no problems during the flights and transiting in Hong Kong, although having to go back thru security screening at the Hong Kong airport even though we never left a secure area was a bit of a pain. We are in our last country before we fly home in 15 days.

Sapa: two nights in a mountainside cabin and one night of luxury

On Monday (June 8), we took a Grab car to our second stop in Sapa, a homestay in the mountains. Traveling about 7 km out of town, the trip to the homestay took just over 30 minutes. That calculated out to a travel speed of around 9 mph. The two-lane city street narrowed as we left town to a sometime paved or graveled or mud one-lane road that snaked along the sides of the mountains. 

We had a roundhouse bungalow at the Rock Garden Homestay, a one room, round cabin with a full bathroom built on the side of the mountain. 

Half of the wall was floor to ceiling glass, giving us a view down into the valley. It did take me a few minutes to get used to the panoramic vista and to cross at the foot of the bed to the left side of the room.

 

There were no restaurants around, but the Homestay prepared food to order for their guests and delivered it to our room.

The view was clear when we arrived, but the clouds would form and creep up and down the mountainside.

When we awoke Tuesday morning, the clouds were thick and the view was obscured. 

I planned to walk along the road and see the countryside, but soon after breakfast, it began raining, so we stayed in the roundhouse until the rain cleared in the afternoon. The rain turned the river at the bottom of the mountain brown as streams coming off the mountain and across the lowland fed muddy water into the river.

The road went uphill and downhill from our homestay spot, so we began our walk uphill so that the return would be downhill. We had already walked uphill from our cabin to the road.

We found a vantage point on the road to get a picture of our cabin jutting out the side of the mountain. The Homestay had two round cabins. Ours is the lower, closer one. 

We were amazed at the crops growing on the almost vertical hillside.

Corn was planted on the mountainside. I would not want to be the person to plant it or harvest it!

We saw chickens and chicks checking for bugs in the vegetation.

The following day, we returned to downtown Sapa for one night’s stay in the fanciest hotel in town, the Hotel de la Coupole. A pair of Filipina travel vloggers that Phillip watches stayed there so I booked us one night to check it out. The décor was of the French Indochina era, so it had bold colors and art deco elements.

The swimming pool was the highlight for us. Huge, with designs in the pool tile and statues of swimmers. We did go for a swim, as it was a heated pool. 

The exterior had French elements as well.

Sapa lived up to its nickname as City in the Fog, as this was the view to the mountains from where Phillip was standing on the hotel bridge.

Yesterday, we took a luxury van (only eight passengers, each in a captain’s chair with a massage function) for a 7-hour drive back to Hanoi. The trip was longer than we like for a single travel event, but the driver made two rest stops and the van was comfortable. We had 30 km of mountain passes to go thru when we left Sapa before we got to a main road. Terraced fields the entire way.

We are currently in Hanoi, staying at our favorite hotel here, the Tirant Hotel. As has been the case occasionally, I had booked a room, but upon check-in, we were upgraded to a suite!