Alone in Bangkok...

I don't mean it to, but my heart breaks a little each time I write that I'm here by myself. I'm trying to be strong and tell myself that I'll meet someone to laugh and experience the place with soon, but my God I think I'm more scared than I've been in a good long while... or at least since I left Liz in Manila. It builds character, right? I am excited to explore this city, don't get me wrong, but company is always nice, y'know? Maybe I'm feeling all sad because the radio in the hostel keeps playing really mellow "I'm lonely" music... seriously, the first song was something about falling into pieces, the next was something about strangers and missing people, and this one has a pretty sad vibe too... way to pep me up, Bangkok. I think it will be better when I'm out in the sunshine and on my way, but as of right now I feel kind of like I did before I took the jump off the cliff in Boracay. I know it's going to be okay, the water might sting a little bit, or give me a nuclear wedgie, but it's the plunge that is terrifying, so I just need to look out at the horizon and go for it knowing it'll be so great to have done it.

I want to be out of here by 10am, so here are some scribbled journal notes from yesterday's traveling:

Eyes smoothly surveying the landscape with the curiosity and awe of a newly born traveler. Alighted with delight.

In San Jose at the Baliwag Bus Terminal, on a frigid bus waiting for it to depart to Manila. I just spent the last five hours zipping and snaking through the mountains on a bus with open windows; I can only imagine how filthy I look, covered in bus exhaust and dirt, hair blown to a new level of tangled frizziness and eyes blood shot out of sleep deprivation. I nodded off a few times, but was startled away with worries that I might miss my stop.

We drove south through North Luzon, honking a warning as we sped around motorized tricycles and pimped out jeepneys over forested mountains and across rain-swelled rice paddies with the gray clouds reflecting silver in the scarce areas. Green, green, green as far as can be seen.

On the plane en route to BKK...  I've been sitting and traveling all day, taking turns from reading to trying to scribble notes, falling asleep without freezing, and just watching the world float by; I am exhausted, and also itchy because my dry, sunburnt skin is starting to peel. Ew.

Yesterday, the Banaue ("bah-nah-way") Rice Terraces - built by the Ifuage tribes over 2,000 years ago - captivated my imagination. I am always thrilled to be able to view something so old and yet so technologically advanced for its time. The Filipinos like to think of the Terraces as the 8th man-made wonder of the world, as people not only from the Philippines, but also Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. helped to construct and farm the area.

We first traveled to a small village on the closest thing I rode that resembled a jeepney, but wasn't - and we got to sit on the roof!! Dodging low-hanging branches it was just liking riding that wobbly Michelle again. The area around Banaue is visibly poor (but I guess so is most of the country), slum-like almost, with the land serving as a trash can, which I found strange because the people are so dedicated to preserving the beauty of the place. Huh. Dogs roamed around the small villages and often laid in the road looking dead/like a cat would do in the sun in a home, warming itself; they were only swayed to move by the honks from out jeep-ish and sometimes not until our wheels were almost upon them (same with the roosters).

In the village we hiked down to, we passed out sweets to the local children (the guides suggested this) and I took a photo of a village elder dressed in traditional garb - he uses the money to by beetle nuts (sp) that stain the teeth red, and other sweets. Then a woman wrapped my in traditional clothes so I would have "great remembrance" of the place and them, forever.

It is said that if put end to end, the Terraces would stretch 1/2way around the world.

While the views were really quite lovely, I would've preferred more hiking, and this could've been an option had I stayed an extra day or two. Le sigh.
One thing that was pretty cool was when the older brother (and the one who knew more) of the two brother/guides took us to a mock traditional tribal village (though very much like the one we visited earlier w/o him) and explained about hunting and tribal warfare (which raged on until 1965) - you can tell how skilled a hunter, and how brave a man is by the number of bones/skulls he has hanging outside of his house. HUMAN SKULLS. While warring was going on, the eating on the enemy was not an uncommon practice.

Dude also told us that women are highly respected in the community. So much so that a man must obey her every wish and not refuse her, or he will face consequences by the village people. He told us that many women abuse this power, and that is why our hosts court women from elsewhere. It is still practiced that if a man beats/leaves his wife (I think it's those two things...) that he is beheaded... divorce is illegal in the PHL (or at least that area...) and if he cheats, they cut off his manhood. And if one is caught stealing, "Bye bye, hand!" Law enforcement doesn't step in because it's the way of the land.

The Terraces in Banaue are different from the ones in Batad because they are dug out of the ground and divided by these beautiful red flower-like plants, whereas in Batad they are stonewalled in. They are then filled in with rock, clay, sand and dirt to keep their form. Terraces are no longer built, the families just pass them down, and if people cut down a tree, they are required to plant two more.

The farming is organic, and therefore they only have one harvest a year so the soil can recover before the rice is planted again... and because of this Ifuago people do not export their rice and barely has enough for the people (to eat, make liquor and feed their animals) - in the off season, people plant corn and use the paddies as tilapia pools. No pesticides because of the trickle down effect would contaminate the rice and kill the fish, but as a result, these large earthworms are eating through and collapsing the stone terraces. People catch these worms and cook them as "ham" so be careful to eat ham in the PHL (at least that's what the dude said... then again, I'm the girl who believed in the jackalope when I was 10, so maybe I'm still just as gullible).

Misty mountain morning gave way to a cool blue afternoon.

I took my penguin picture this morning, or rather, walked out of my room only to startle two 20something Chinese gals and asked them to take my picture. In return, one of the girls giggly asked to take a picture with me. Still have to think of appropriate shots in all the places I've yet to go.

Alright, so now onto explore Bangkok, Thailand. It's a beautiful sun-shiny day, and I'll be okay. Fingers crossed.