From Manila I flew directly to Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan arriving early afternoon. After a HOT walk to the hostel with harassment from several taxi drivers, I booked an afternoon tour of the city. On this trip, we saw the cathedral and the location where many American POWs were massacred by the Japanese during WWII.
We stopped at a small zoo where I got to kiss and hold a crocodile,
Baker’s Hill…a kitschy spot overlooking the ocean,
and the Ilawig Prison…working Filipino prison where the prisoner’s sell their crafts.
The next day, I headed out to the west coast of Palawan to the town of Sabang. The beach was great but there was a thunder storm approaching.
This is the location of the Underground River, supposedly one of the “7 natural wonders of the world”. We saw huge monitor lizards and monkeys as we made our way to the boats. Then we were paddled into the cave that has one of the longest navigable underground rivers in the world. This was neat but probably would have been nicer on a sunny day.
The next day I just chilled out in Puerto Princesa city since I knew I’d be off the grid for a few days and the heat was unbearable – visiting the ATM, internet, supermarket. I got a great haircut for the equivalent of 92 cents!!! Went to dinner with Jamie from the hostel – had crocodile in coconut sauce.
A good way to get from Banaue to Sagada is to take a Jeepney. The jeepney trip took much of the day. We stopped at one point and saw these Filipino soldiers practicing on a hill. Instead of weapons/guns, they practiced with small logs.
In Sagada, I met up with the French guys in Sagada. We hiked down to the burial cave to see the coffins. Sagada is one of the eerie locations in Philippines, for another eerie place, located on a tropical island, check out Siquijor Island.
We later went to dinner and then had a couple beers at a little Rasta bar before saying goodbye. They were leaving the next morning.
The next morning, I went to the Yogurt house to have yogurt, granola and mountain tea – yummy.
I meet a Canadian named Ron and we decided to get a guide from the local guide service. He took us to a church and an overlook of Echo Valley where we could see the hanging coffins.
Next, we hiked to see a waterfall. It was interesting to hear the life of Ron. Ron was a retiree who was traveling the world to meet foreign women. He had been in Mexico with a Mexican woman but had moved on to other countries before ending in the Philippines where he was on the search for a Filipino girlfriend. That night, we joined nearly every other tourist staying in town at the Log Cabin Saturday night buffet. A French chef had been cycling in the Philippines 10 years earlier and just decided to stay in Sagada. Although we had made reservations a day earlier, I ended up at a table with Ron and a guy that had been on my Jeepney the previous day, as well as all the other solo travelers in town (6 of us). We ate and ate and stayed until 10pm talking.
The next day was Sunday so I stopped again at the Yogurt house and then attended church services. Half of the service was in English, including the hymns.
In the afternoon, everyone in the Philippines was watching boxing, where there native Pacquiao was boxing against Martinez. I met up with Ron and the Slovakian for another dinner at the Log Cabin that night.
Getting From Sagada to Baguio
The next day I caught the bus to Baguio.
The vegetable terraces along the way were fascinating and I arrived in Baguio around 2. After a snack of a halo-halo (shaved ice with cream, jellies, ube paste, ube ice cream, red beans, and granola), I visited the Baguio museum and cathedral.
Next, I stopped at the mall to use up a few hours – I saw Puss in Boots in 3D, ate some junk food (the “special” at the cinema is a combo of popcorn, drink, and a donut for a couple dollars) and did some internet. There’s a nice view of the city from the terrace at the mall.
At 11:15, I caught the Express bus back to Manila.
My flight from Palau got into Manila very early in the morning, so I had 5 hours to kill before my bus to the rice terraces. I hung out in the arrivals section of the airport. I killed the time by reading a book and felt safe because a security guard was there and I told him what I planned to do. There was a direct night bus to Banaue but I didn’t want to wait a whole day for it, so I took a combination of Victory Liner bus at 5am followed by jeepneys. At one point the bus stopped and nearly everyone got off. I had to see what the commotion was and I discovered everyone was buying boxes from a stand so of course I did too. I ended up with this buko pie (coconut meat) that made a couple good breakfast and treats.
The bus got to Bagabag at 2:30 pm where I had to catch 2 different jeepneys to get to Banaue just before dark.
The next day, I set out in a tricycle (motorbike with a side car) to head up to the Hapao rice terraces. I wanted to do the famous amphitheater of rice terraces, but it was very hot and I didn’t have the energy for that hike. The road to Hapao was a mud pit and it was challenging to get there. At the entrance to the trails, there had been a mud slide but when some workers saw me, they cut out a walk way across the mud slide so I could walk into the valley.
Upon driving back to town, I had lunch at the Banaue rice terraces and shopped at the view point.
Back in the town of Banaue was a children’s parade.
That night, I met a couple French guys and we made plans to meet up in the next town (Sagada). I was going by jeepney and they by motor bike.
Manila Philippines is the largest city and capital of the Philippines.
I got to spend a few days with my friend Linda, her sister, and her 82 year old father nicknamed “Daddy” in Antipolo, just east of Manila. We ate at lots of restaurants around Manila – Max’s, Cravings.
We made a 1 day/1 night trip to Tagaytay to see Lake Taal, a crater lake with a volcanic island. We stopped at several view points and stopped to have Buko (coconut meat) pie.
Linda, Daddy, and I visited the University of Philippines campus.
Mango & sticky rice
The next day we went to Greenhills mall to shop for Filipino pearls and buy gifts for some of Linda’s relatives.
I had one last half day in Manila at the end of my trip, I spent a day chilling out – visiting the Robinsons Place Mall where I bought lots of gifts for home and eating at the Jolibee. It was the last chance to eat a Halo Halo – an ice and cream concoction with jellies, read beans, and a scoop of purple yam (ube) ice cream on top.
In hindsight, I should have spent a bit more time exploring Manila. If you’re on your way to Manila, check out this destination guide to Manila.
On my first full day in Palau, I took a day tour to the Rock Islands. A naval ship was in port and they were filling up many of Sam’s Tours but they put me on a private tour with a young couple from San Diego. We snorkeled on the “Big drop off” and I saw several sharks.
We ate our box lunches at a beach and then stopped to swim with the Jellies at Jellyfish Lake. We snorkeled more to see 7 ton giant clams and a WWII crashed airplane.
We had another stop at the “Milky Way” where we lathered up with mud and then jumped into the ocean in a big white splash!
Back at Sam’s, I had a couple of “Red Rooster” Beers – the national beer and watched an American magician put on a show for the locals and had a nice sunset.
On the second day was my kayak tour to Nikko Bay. We saw several alligators on our way out to a hidden cove to get on our kayaks.
We swam thru a tiny opening in the rocks to a marine lake called “Disneyland Lake”. The colors of the coral and fishes was amazing.
We kayaked into a big cave and had lunch on a wooden platform in the bay. It was raining pretty hard so we hiked on a couple islands and stopped at a Japanese Pillbox – a bunker from WWII. I had a few beers at Sam’s before returning to the guesthouse.
One the fourth day, I had done most of the non-scuba tours at Sam’s Tours and I had enjoyed the Rock Islands so much I wanted to go back. This ended up being one of the most fun days of the whole trip! There were 6 of us – a couple from Canada, 2 guys from Guam, and an airline pilot. The pilot was hilarious. We saw so many sharks this day and I saw a huge moray eel. I saw even more jellyfish on this day too. Back at Sam’s, I had a beer and then I had to go off to the airport to go back to Manila.
This island looks like Homer Simpson laying on his back
This would mean that I wouldn’t overstay my free 21-day visa in the Philippines
I love the show “Survivor” and they had filmed in Palau a couple times.
It was a relatively “cheap, short” trip to fly there from Manila ($400 and a few hours vs. $2000 to fly from the USA
Palau did not disappoint. It wasn’t the cheapest destination (each day trip cost about $125) Meals cost about what they do in the US. For accommodation, I miraculously found a diver’s room for $25 a night at Antelope Marine Guesthouse. I loved the guesthouse – cute room, nice view, quiet, and cheap – with one exception – Palau was experiencing extreme power outages the whole time I was there and when the power was out, the house was hot. The funniest thing that happened was one day I got back from a tour and was taking a shower. Just then the power went out so the water stopped too so I was stuck with a shampooed hairdo.
I was fortunate that a couple people were planning to do a land tour on my third full day in Palau so I joined the group. We took an SUV to the Man’s Bai – a traditional meeting home for Palauan men. We saw some remnants of WWII in the form of huge cannons and bunkers. We saw waterfalls, monoliths, and north beach.
We drove by the capital building. Apparently, an Asian country paid for the construction of this monstrosity of a building. The locals hate it – it was very cheaply constructed and they can’t even open most of the windows.
I stopped off in town to look for souvenirs and had a small dinner at the Penthouse Hotel – stuffed crab and taro leaf soup. They serve fruit bat here, but I can’t stomach to eat it.
The most famous tourist site in Palau is arguably the Jellyfish Lake. It’s one of only a few marine lakes in the world that are home to stingless Jellyfish and you can go Snorkeling with Jellyfish. At the time I visited, there were only 2 such discovered or known lakes in the world in Palau and Indonesia, but recently I have heard of other lakes in Palau, Indonesia, as well as the Philippines.
The story of the creation of stingless jellies is that some jellyfish got into an inland marine lake. Then something blocked them inside and blocked all their predators out. Thus, they lost their ability to sting as they didn’t need it anymore.
Getting to Jellyfish Lake
In 2011, it cost $30 for the Rock Islands Park Pass. This allows you unlimited entry into the park for a full week. On top of this, you need transportation or a tour to get to the lake. My tours cost $125 thru Sam’s Tours and involve multiple other stops throughout the day.
My Experience at the Lake
First you get dropped at a pier. There are guards here that check your park pass (the only time all day my pass was checked). You then climb up and down a very steep hill of coral and end up at a swimming dock in the lake. All footwear is left near the dock. You’re not allowed to wear fins in the lake as paddling could hurt the jellies.
You’re also not supposed to apply sunscreen before getting in the lake as the lake is getting more and more polluted as tourism increases. Sam’s Tours was good about enforcing this but unfortunately I saw many Asian tourists applying lotion almost immediately before getting in the lake.
It only takes a few minutes to swim out to the jellyfish. I had imagined many more jellyfish than there were – at some times the pollution or disease kill off a portion of the jellyfish population.
It’s weird swimming with jellyfish swimming by your face. You can gently touch the jellies with your hands – they feel pretty much what you might think – just like big gummies.
Before leaving the lake, I swam by the edges. The guides don’t take you here, so you need to do it quick if you want to look. There were all kinds of cool stuff on the edges of the lake – interesting coral-like organisms and fish with glowing eyes.
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I was supposed to have a couple hours in Japan before the flight to Manila but there were storms on the east coast of the USA so the plane that was to take us to Manila was still somewhere in America. We would have a 24 hour layover in Japan. Luckily, Delta put us up for the night in the Radisson, with free buffet dinner and breakfast. I met another stuck traveler – a Filipino guy who was living in the US as a merchant marine. We had dinner together – lots of interesting Japanese mushrooms and veggies.
There was a Halloween party at the hotel that night but I was a little too jet lagged and didn’t have an interesting costume.
We had a few hours at the hotel in the morning so I had breakfast and walked around the grounds at the hotel.
Next time I get to Japan, I hope to actually see some sites!
I have been to Istanbul before. An ideal time is 3 days in Istanbul. But today I only would get to enjoy a long layover in Istanbul, for the duration of a day.
Arrival in Istanbul was at 6:45 am local time after gaining 2 hours on the flight from TBS to IST. I got my $20 visa to visit Turkey and then got thru passport control and collected my bag. I used public transport to get to the old town. It was straightforward to take the Metro/Subway and then transfer to the tram. I was happy it was early because I imagine the tram gets quite busy later in the day. And the good part was it cost $3 for two tokens for the ride as opposed to the 20 Euros or more for a taxi. I got nice views of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque in the early morning.
Since I had spent over 4 days in Istanbul just 2.5 years ago, there wasn’t a lot that I hadn’t seen before, so I was limiting my visits to the markets and the Chora Church which was rated very high on TripAdvisor and that I hadn’t visited before.
I started out with going to the Grand Bazaar. This place is huge. There are a lot of nice things there but you must bargain hard and I had done all my Turkish shopping a couple years ago, so I didn’t buy anything.
I next walked up one of the main streets for over an hour to the Chora Church. I stopped at the old city wall on the way. Maybe I should have paid the extra $5 for the audio guide, but I didn’t get much out of the Chora Church – only spending about 15 minutes there. Yes, the mosaics are amazing and the best in Istanbul, but I didn’t feel it was worth the entry fee.
After the Church, I walked down to the Golden Horn – a large bay off of the Bosporus Straight. I was amazed by the number of jellyfish that are living there – such beautiful but terrible creatures.
At 1:20 I walked by a tour boat that looked ready to depart so I asked the captain if it was an open tour. For $20, I took a tour on the boat up the Bosporus Straight, past the amazing old and new architecture in this huge city of 20 million people. I drank a cup of apple tea as the sites went by.
Mid-cruise, we stopped in a little town for an optional buffet lunch. I skipped the lunch and bought a couple snacks and sat in the park overlooking the body of water. Sunset was a very early 4:30 as we cruised back to the old town. This was the end of my long layover in Istanbul so I headed back to the airport.
Looking for more things you might do on a long layover in Istanbul? Check out these.
Khor Virap Monastery is one of the highlights of Armenia. It’s located near the closed Turkey-Armenia border at the foot of the famous Mount Ararat, famous for it’s role in the Noah’s Ark story. My day trip to Khor Virap was my favorite day in Armenia.
A Little
Khor Virap History
Once
upon a time, there was a 7-meter-deep hole where St. Gregory was imprisoned for
13 years. St. Gregory was trying to spread the Christian faith to the region,
but the King did not want this, so he put St. Gregory in a hole with snakes. Secretly, the local women brought him food
that sustained him all those years. Eventually, the King went mad and St.
Gregory cured him by converting him to Christianity. This was the start of the
adoption of Christianity by Armenia. The first country to do so in the year
301.
Later,
the chapel and monastery of Khor Virap were built around this hole. Surprisingly,
Khor Virap has not been designated as a UNESCO world heritage site, but it
probably should be.
Inside the Chapel at Khor VirapThe ladder into the Snake Pit
Things to
Not Miss at Khor Virap
Snake Pit – You can climb down to the exact spot where St. Gregory was imprisoned. Don’t go here if you’re claustrophobic, the ladder for the climb down and up is pretty tight.
The chapel. At a certain time of the morning, there are some great sun rays that shine through the window. This makes the chapel very atmospheric.
The hill behind the Monastery. From here, I could see just how close we were to the Turkish border – probably only 100 yards away. The barbed wire fence was very high and the only action was an occasional patrol vehicle. At one point, Mt Ararat was part of Armenia but during the Soviet occupation, Ararat and an area containing several Armenian churches was given to Turkey as a gift from the Soviets. I sat there for a while reading the history of Armenia in the Lonely Planet book.
Stroll from the main road to the Monastery, and get pictures of the Khor Virap Monastery with vineyards in the foreground and Mt. Ararat in the background.
The Cemetery. It’s worth a walk around the cemetery to see the beautiful stones.
Khor Virap Cemetery
How to Dress for Khor Virap
Khor Virap is an active monastery, so dress conservatively. I wear a headscarf when I’m visiting the religious sites of Armenia, one of several Armenia travel tips you should know before you visit Armenia.
Getting to Khor Virap from Yerevan
If you don’t have a car, it’s possible to get to Khor Virap
Monastery on the Yerevan to Khor Virap bus.
In Yerevan, you must catch the bus at the metro station Sasuntsi Davit
(or David of Sasun) which is near the train station. Ask around and many people can point you to
the bus. At the time I visited, there
were only buses at 9:00 am and 2:00 pm so I recommend taking the 9:00 to give
you enough time at the monastery. Sit on the right side of the bus for
incredible views of the looming Mt. Ararat.
The bus arrives around 10:00 am.
On my exit of the bus, the driver asked for my language and handed me a
tiny slip of paper that said “Buses to Yerevan: 1:20, 3:20, 5:40”. I
walked the last kilometer on the driveway to Khor Virap with beautiful views of
the walled monastery and Ararat in the near distance. Please check locally for bus times, they may
have changed since my visit.
If you do have a car, it’s an easy drive to Khor Virap if you use
a good map app, like MapsMe. There is a
parking lot/ car park at Khor Virap.
Hotels
Near Khor Virap
There are no hotels near Khor Virap, so I recommend staying in the capital city of Yerevan (Check Rates and Availability) and day trip to the monastery. Alternatively, if you have a car and would like to stay in the countryside, check out this unique stay at the Eco Lodge in the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge, which is 27 km from Khor Virap.
Vineyards at Khor Virap
An Amazing
Story of the Kindness of Strangers and a Solo Female Traveler
I visited Khor Virap on my own. I was feeling particularly lonely because it was Thanksgiving in America and I was missing family. My visit to Khor Virap ended well before the 1:20 return bus to Yerevan was to pass, so I started walking to the main highway where I planned to have something for lunch and try to catch a bus sooner than 1:20. As I was walking on the country road, a white van pulled up. I asked if they were a bus and a woman in the back said no but they would help me get a bus to Yerevan. I had recognized these 3 ladies as other visitors at the monetary. The older women in her sixties said something to the 2 girls in their 20’s. The girl that spoke English told me that they were going to visit their cousin in a nearby village and they wanted me to come with them. After a couple hours, they would then return to Yerevan and help me get there.
Since I didn’t have to go back to Yerevan until evening for the opera, I decided to go along. We got out of the van (I think the 3 ladies were just hitchhiking there, as we didn’t pay anything to the driver of the van), and then walked to a house with Anna, Liana, and Larissa. There we met an Armenian woman with dark hair and blue eyes. She served us snacks of walnuts and dried apricots and then went off to the kitchen to bring out lunch. Her husband came home and then the 6 of us had lunch. What a great way to spend Thanksgiving – having a homemade lunch with my “Armenian Family.” There was loads of food – lavash bread, pickles, a hot green bean dish with an orange sauce, fried potatoes, cold potatoes with onion and cilantro, a sort of local chutney, and red bean salad. It was all wonderful. At one point, Anna asked “Don’t you like the food?” She thought since I was eating slow I didn’t like it. They ate very fast!
My Armenian Thanksgiving
She gave a big bag of lettuce and some preserves to Larissa, the aunt and we set off walking to catch the bus. The walk thru the country was nice. Lots of bare fruit trees. We stopped to pick some mint that was growing next to the road. Larissa told us about an accident she had in this village as a youngster where she tried to jump over a creek and broke her ankle. After a short wait, we were on the bus. On this bus, we saw a fighter jet making maneuvers. The girls said it was common to see this and they weren’t sure if they were Russian or other. I hugged them all as they got off the bus in the south of Yerevan as I continued to the metro station and then took a subway back to town.
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