Pretty nice fish lunch at my hotel, the St. Joesph's Resthouse.

Lunch at my hotel in Sagada. San Miquel had a super tight monopoly on beer in this country.

Sagada hanging coffins

The chair is the deceased "Death Chair" into which they were strapped up right shortly after dying. That is pretty much how they do their wake. The deceased sits up right in a chair, and friends come by and talk to him as if he were still alive, or some such. Basically, you get to get everything "off your chest" before they are put to rest.

Supposedly you have to offer up 20 pigs, and 42 chickens to the town elders to get yourself similarly situated. Most folks are also Christian, but most seem to prefer this method of internment, if they can afford it. Supposedly no one really keeps a lot of pigs and chickens these days, they get donated by friends / family when you pass.

You can see the coffins shown close up above, in the lower part of the picture below.

McDonald's in Chinatown and jewelry shop girls

I had to see what the spaghetti was like. Not bad, but unfortunately the sauce was just a better version of a relatively crappy Phillipine style red sauce that I had at my hotel restaurant.

I think these girls were MJ and Jane, L-R. Very nice. They worked the counter of one of the many small jewelry shops in Chinatown. I think if I ask MJ to marry right there, it would've been a done deal. It was hard to leave such a strong fan base behind.

Chinatown scene

Streety looking lady selling boiled, roasted, burnt corn.
Man selling parakeets.
Jeepny in downtown Manila.

Notice the four desks in this little shop? This is how business in done in Chinatown.
Street scene Chinatown.
Same selection as Home Depot in a tiny shop.
Same for lamps.

Chinatown, Manila

Chinatown street scene.
Old style Pharmacy.
None too attractive apartment block in Chinatown.
Typical Chinatown entry gate.

Intramuros in Manila - Old Town

Prison cell in the old fort.
View across the harbor from the fort in Intramuros.
View from inside of Manila House, and recreation of an old Intramuros building complex. They have a replica of an old home - the whole place was apparently destroyed several times, lastly in WWII - with amazing flooring, wall decoration, furntiure, etc. No photos allowed. But shows how the elites lived in 1850. Pretty swank. But I'll take relative poverty, a nice hot western bath and antibiotics circa 2010, thank you very much.

Coming back from Sagada and the Rice Terraces

Food hawkers at a toilet break on way down from rice terraces. The woman above was embarrassed to have her picture taken. After I took it she wiped her hand across her check. I didn't realize exactly what she was saying, other than it was a shy/embarrassed gesture. But now I do.

Probably road workers getting shuttled back home at the end of the day. Endless work to be done on these mountain roads.

Coming down from Rice Terraces #2

This stuff was just stellar. Unfortunately on the way up, I arrived rather late, and didn't get to appreciate the granduer. Then coming down, because I didn't know the view would be so good, I didn't set myself up to have a window seat till late in the trip, and by then light was fading then. But this 6 hour, $5 bus ride from Baguio to Sagada is actually one of the highlights of my trip. Well, mostly just the 2 hours closest to Sagada.

One is given the impression before going to the mountains that the rice terraces are just in certain towns. But, no, they follow this road for 2 hours. Some/many are no longer cultivated, but many are. Wow.
Pics above taken around 5 at night out the window of the bus that I would later be throwing up on. Luckily the first time it was at a rest stop. The next, an hour later, I was equipped with a plastic bag, which I then dropped out the window. Six hours of non stop bumps and turns on a full stomach of food, beer, soda. Ouch.

School stuff in Malicong rice terraces

Teachers at the school. Left lady was 65ish, other two on the right were 55 ish I believe.




This was a school/playground at the top of the Malicong rice terraces.

Malincong rice terraces

Unfortunately I got here a little early in the season so most stuff hadn't yet been planted thus no full on green effect which must induce a rather blissed out emotion. Anyway, this stuff is just huge. Go around the bend and the whole thing repeats, and repeats. Amazing.

Above is all from Malincong.
Door to a field.

Bontoc tribal native museum

The two pics above show a pre-modern house for "young women." According to the pics at the museum, this is how they were living in 1950. Now its the regular comfy, ugly stuff we live in.