Ifugao Province — this was why I wanted to come to the Philippines, and it did not disappoint! The headhunters are long gone. On the internet you can still find bicycle touring accounts of slippery, muddy roads, but those are mostly gone as well. When we did find a dirt road in the cordillera, it was usually being improved — concrete coming soon.
Alternatively titled: Into the mountains and terraced fields of Nueva Vizcaya and Benguet provinces. I was very excited to leave the flats and get into the northern Luzon cordillera. For years this is why I wanted to come ride in the Philippines!
For us the climbing started in San Nicolas with what could have been a fairly easy 1200m climb to Malico. However, the strong, squirrelly wind almost blew me off my bicycle a couple times, and some rain made it a bit cold at the top. We chatted with Binz from Angeles, the only fellow bicycle traveler we met during our month on Luzon.
Jeff flew from Denver to Clark (Angeles) for about six weeks of bicycle touring in the Philippines. Even though I arrived in the Philippines about three weeks before he did, I ended up scrambling a bit to meet him in time. I put off buying my Cebu-Manila ticket till I had my passport back from immigration (for a visa extension), and then the two sailings I was hoping for were sold out. “I have space on the 45-hour trip via Nasipit on Mindanao,” the ticket seller offered. Sure.
It was probably the most comfortable ferry trip (out of about 13) I took in the Philippines
Bye-bye, Cebu.
Morning in Nasipit:
Continue readingPhilippines, a new country, how exciting! Flying from Taipei to Cebu was quick and easy. I had prepaid the bicycles with AirAsia (Z2), and check-in was simple and painless. Mac from Busan helped us get settled into comfortable digs in a “little Korea” (my name) neighborhood in Banilad Barangay. It’s literally one Korean restaurant after another.
Palm trees and a huge T-Rex along the highway! We must be in Cabazon, right?
It’s actually Chenggong near Fangshan. Kind of weird (like Cabazon).
Our goal was to get to Taiwan’s second largest city, Kaohsiung, since we had managed to buy train tickets from there to get our bicycles (and us too) north.
Before getting too urban we managed to find this campsite a couple kms NNE of Wulong. There were too many mosquitoes, and it was hot enough that we were sweating just sitting in the tent (in December!).
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