A Long and Winding Road 9: And a Checkmark for Tuesday

We'll start with the footnote. Because sometimes footnotes deserve more credit. As in this instance. For the footnote that isn't at the moment a footnote, but will maybe be relegated to that status later, is Guam. Not though, because I didn't like it. I think maybe I liked it too much. Only it's sort of a place where not a lot happens. It was enjoyable more in the 'hang out with a good friend, watch ice hockey, spend days lounging in a pool' kinda way. And not in an 'Oh my goodness I've just seen the most amazing something' kinda way.

Speaking of amazing somethings... I, am just back from Donsol. Which is a tiny town on the southeast coast of Luzon Island, Philippines. And the amazing somethings I saw there are called locally butanding. Or in English, whale sharks. And by 'seeing' them, I mean I swam with them. And it's now right up there on the list of most amazing things I've ever done (just in case you were about to ask). Imagine flinging yourself off a still moving boat, mask and fins on, and swimming as quickly as you can behind the guide, until you find yourself in open water, looking up and down and around and all you can see are varying shades of blue. Until you catch a sudden glimpse of a few white spots. That's all. Just a grid of white spots moving in the water, until they coalesce into a vaguely fish-like shape...

And, you remember that scene in 'Finding Nemo,' (I know, I'm referencing a Pixar movie, how sad), where Dori calls out to the little fish in the distance, which swims toward them and grows larger and larger until it's a whale? Well it was kinda like that. The whale shark would appear out of the blue and be this lovely, elegant, manageable fish swimming towards you. And then it would reach you and pass slowly underneath, and continue to pass you, and continue... Eight metres in length, moving past with lazy flicks of its tail.

But even more amazing than that, was when some of them stayed near the surface, and let us follow along. Essentially, gaping at this creature swimming sedately, with dozens of sucker fish clinging to it and swimming around and over it. And every now and then, when I got ahead of it a bit, I could dive down and turn, to see this vast mouth approaching me and then gliding past... Or, and imagine this, diving down to swim alongside this 25 foot long creature, who slowly rolls one eye to look you up and down, oh so casually, and blinks. As if to say 'Noted. Not interested.' Then turns away just as casually.

I've never felt at the same time that the world was such an amazing place, and that my place within it was so insignificant...

However, the Philippines tour hasn't just consisted of swimming with leviathans of the deep. There were other amazing somethings. Spent my first week here trekking in the rice terraces of Ifugao. Known locally as the Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World. And they are pretty damned impressive. But I sadly can't compare them directly to the Great Pyramids or Hanging Gardens of Babylon, so I won't comment on their status beside those. I'll let the locals argue the case. Essentially, and to save you the trouble of Googling them, these particular rice terraces were carved out of the slopes between 2 and 4000 years ago. And not just a few terraces. But whole mountainsides were carved, and walled in stone, with water courses laid down and through them. And today they function much as they did then. As well as serving as amazing panoramic photo-ops for the opportunistic traveler.

Funny enough though, the four days I spent trekking through the region weren't entirely intentional. I'd gone to the first mountain village, Batad, with a couple of friends met on the bus from Manila. And after hiking there, and doing some localized trekking the next day, I convinced them to join me on a longer trek to a particular village named Pula. The reason being there was an organic farm there I wanted to volunteer at. Only, after 8 hours hiking through the heat and jungle to reach Pula, I discovered that there was no farm there. It was in fact at the other Pula, 30km away. Turns out there are three remote mountain villages named Pula, all in the same district. Who knew?

I did find my organic farm, but it was another day's travel on, by jeepney, motorcycle, and foot. But hey, had I gone there first, then I never would have spent so much time trekking in the mountains. So it all works out in the end. Go with it.

Right. That is the nicely summarized nutshell version of my life.

Lastly. Any of you who are vegetarians for moral reasons, close your eyes. Or at least skip the rest of this paragraph. Maybe just skip to the 'All my love' bit at the end. The rest of you, dig this. This one's up there for the weirdest things I've eaten: a boiled egg. Not for me thank you, I'm not hungry. But my friend says, 'There's something inside it.' 'There's something inside it?... I'm getting one.' And what is inside it? Rather unsurprisingly when you think about it, but strangely unappetizingly when you think more about it, is, well... an embryonic chicken.

Veggies, if you've been reading anyway, you'll be pleased to know that I found it absolutely horrid and hope never to see one again. I like my eggs nice and unfertilized and scrambled in a breakfast burrito thank you.

Ummm... ummm... plans! I have them! Way too many of them. Had a marathon flight booking session whilst still in Guam, and thus have more of an itinerary than I want. But it includes Singapore again, Bali, briefly, and the wonderful world of Oz by the end of the month. How exciting is that? Will let you know how it goes, when it goes, and why it goes. Soon...


All my love,
Davey