Bewitching Banaue – Bones, Bulols and Breathtaking Rice-terraces

Bewitching Banaue – Bones, Bulols and Breathtaking Rice-terraces

By Joel Katz 

 

BANAUE, PHILIPPINES – My travel companion breaks into a smile.  Quite an ordeal getting here: the overnight bus trip from Manila was rough, and the subzero aircon left us with frostbite – but the payoff is big.

 

Before us lies a stunning sight: rippling across lush green hills are the rice terraces the local indigenous people, the Ifugao, built over two thousand years ago.

Lake Taal – the perfect tonic to madcap Manila

Lake Taal – the perfect tonic to madcap Manila

By Joel Katz

 

LAKE TAAL: CJ’s a friendly guy. Great guide too. Clicking and whistling, he leads my donkey up the side of the volcano, explaining how he’s glad he moved here from Manila a few years back.

 

“City’s too busy”, he says. “Here, it’s peaceful and pretty”.

 

As we reach the summit, and look over the dark green water of Lake Taal, I couldn’t agree more. The view is breathtaking: it’s hard to imagine the fast-paced Filipino capital is only 2-hours drive to the north.

Lost and Lovin’ It in El Nido, Philippines

Lost and Lovin’ It in El Nido, Philippines

By Joel Katz

 

EL NIDO - Is this paradise? Stunning limestone islands. Azure water. Frosty bottles of San Miguel beer. Pretty spot on, right?  Lovin’ the boatman’s rendition of Sinatra’s ‘My Way’, too.

 

Cruising through a maze of lush islands; sun’s warming my back. Never guess that smog-choked, manic Manila’s only a 45-minute flight away.

 

We’re just off the northern tip of the Filipino island of Palawan, in El Nido: gateway to the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Bacuit archipelago. Limestone ‘karst’ islands dot the blue-green sea, like lumpy versions of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral.  

Muddled, Mystified and Misshapen in Manila

Muddled, Mystified and Misshapen in Manila
By Joel Katz

MANILA – “Eeeeeeeeee… KarBOOM!”, and another inner-ear bursting explosion goes off nearby – my knees start shaking uncontrollably. As we cough and splutter on our rooftop terrace, the noise of laughing, screaming kids and stereos blasting the latest American hip-hop from the alleyways below, reminds us that this isn’t a conflict-ridden hotspot, but just another firecracker-free-for-all Saturday night in the working class suburbs of North-eastern Manila.

Speaking candidly, I never really expected to find myself – an Aussie-Canadian of Jewish descent and delicate bowels – spending time inside the ghettos of Manila, but here I am starring in my own Filipinoised version of ‘Meet the Parents’.

Salvadore de Bahia: A seductive spell doth cast

Salvadore de Bahia: A seductive spell doth cast
By Joel Katz

Brasil is brilliant as it is big.  And golly, it is big!   My journey started in Rio de Janeiro, city of the big Jesus crowning Corcovado, one of the many stunning granite mountains, including Sugarloaf, that plunge down to the shimmering white sands, where everyone skips around in g-strings, plays beach volleyball and sand soccer – that’s everyone, including old grandfathers and grandmothers… and even the older folk look good.

Galapagos

Galapagos
By Joel Katz

SAN CRISTOBAL – Well, who could have predicted that I’d have ended up here?  Somehow I’ve wound up on the island of San Cristobal, on the eastern tip of the Galapagos archipelago off the coast of Ecuador. I managed to get a job here, teaching English at the grandly named Universidad San Fransisco de Quito de Burritos con Queso.

School of hard knocks for Cambodia’s street kids

School of hard knocks for Cambodia’s street kids

By Joel Katz

As our motorboat skips along the river surface past the floating village of Chong Keas, a group of skinny kids joke around on the steep muddy banks, dive-bombing into the thick, brown water below. As they swim through the chocolatey water, it’s as if they’re splashing about in one of Willy Wonka’s streams - their Oompa Loompa-sized mothers calling them from floating wooden platforms to do their chores.

Located a short tuk-tuk drive from the northern Cambodian city of Siem Reap, which is famous as the launching pad for trips to the ancient temple city of Angkor Wat, Chong Keas is one of the less known tourist destinations in the area.

Fresh-faced and bored-looking, Nhean, aged 16, is at our boat’s wheel, while our tour guide, 15 year old Lee, looks down on us from the boat’s raised brightly painted bow, squatting Asian-style on his haunches. A thoughtful expression on his weather beaten face; oddly out of place atop his tiny child-like frame.