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Slogging through Negros

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

A change in islands from Bohol to Negros last week didn’t bring with it a change in weather, and days continued to be wet and very dark (Mordor style) as part of the delayed monsoon that was supposed to be over in November. Still, we managed to do something interesting each day that we spent on Negros so it was still pleasant enough despite the conditions.

WaterfallWe started in the coastal city of Dumaguete and on our first afternoon we took a trip via jeepney (the ubiquitous public transport here), motorbike and a short trek to an impressive 30m high waterfall in thick jungle. We got rained on a bit as we were walking the last part to the falls, but managed to convince ourselves that the rain improved our outing, as it increased the volume of water at the falls, and made the jungle greener and more lush. Needless to say, we were the only ones there, which is always nice.

The next day we visited the Wednesday market at Malatapay village, which, while not among the best markets we’ve seen in various places around the world, was traditional enough and was a nice counterpoint to the shopping malls that so dominate the cities in this country. (Filipino word of the day: ‘malling’, which we saw on a sign the other day and which presumably signifies the spending of one’s time at a shopping mall.)

From Dumaguete, we travelled through the interior of the island to Silay on the west coast, a longish (seven hours) but scenic trip through rice fields, palm trees and gentle mountains. We’ve been impressed with the scenery every time we’ve ventured inland on each island we’ve been on in the Philippines so far, but it seems that all the towns and attractions in the Visayas are on the coast so we haven’t stayed anywhere inland yet; that will come when we get to Luzon.

Silay HouseWe spent a nice day in Silay, an old sugar plantation town whose heyday was in the 1920s and 30s. There are still 31 houses from that era dotted around town, some of which have been turned into museums, so we were able to go inside a couple of them which was pretty interesting. From there, we took another fastcraft boat to Iloilo on the next island to the west, Panay, ahead of the Ati-Atihan festival.

Posted in Asia, Southeast Asia, The Philippines | Comments Off on Slogging through Negros

The Kathmandu Valley

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

It seems like nearly every day in the Kathmandu Valley, you see another UNESCO World Heritage site – we visited two yesterday afternoon alone, and have seen six so far in our first eight days in the country. (Though, unless the Indian embassy in Kathmandu counts as one, we bombed out today.)

Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed the pretty remarkable experience of walking, in about 20 minutes, from the holiest Buddhist temple in Nepal – the Bodnath stupa, with scores of Tibetans walking clockwise around it, praying to themselves while spinning prayer wheels – to Pashupatinath Temple, the holiest Hindu temple in the country.

Tibetans aside, Bodnath was pretty similar to the Swayambhunath ‘Monkey Temple’ we visited a few days earlier (but without the monkeys) and some other Buddhist stupas we’ve seen in Sri Lanka, Burma etc. So, while interesting, Bodnath is unfortunately one of those places that I would have been amazed by six years ago but now seems a bit run-of-the-mill. These days, something has to be pretty extraordinary to really impress me…

… which leads me conveniently to Pashupatinath. I didn’t really know what to expect, having not read up on it beforehand (probably a good thing in this case). We walked from Bodnath through a village to the temple complex, down past the monkeys (and deer!) to see an eclectic collection of shrines, temples, bridges, and cremation ghats on the banks of the Bagmati river – complete with Hindu bodies burning in front of our eyes – recalling our favourite city in India: Varanasi. Pashupatinath is not the type of place that inspires much joy and happiness, naturally, but as in India I found the atmosphere, the realness of it all, the confrontational nature of what you’re seeing, and the ability to contemplate life and death while watching a body burn in front of you, to be quite special. I’d definitely like to return at some point before leaving Nepal.

The other place we’ve been that’s worth mentioning is Bhaktapur, a small historic town that offers a few things Kathmandu can’t – namely some peace and quiet and the ability to stroll around town without getting caught up in throngs of people, car and motorbike horns etc. It’s a nice little place with three historic squares and much old, traditional Newari architecture, and it was worth staying overnight instead of day-tripping from Kathmandu as we got to see the town at its most peaceful and tourist-free. Like Kathmandu, Bhaktapur’s Durbar Square is dotted with temples and is World Heritage listed, and our €3 guesthouse virtually backed onto it. Fortunately, we enjoyed the best weather day we’ve had so far in Nepal on our first day there which kept this blue-sky-obsessed photographer happy.

But on that note, it’s pouring rain today and now I’m a bit worried that the weather won’t magically turn brilliant on October 1 as I’ve been half-expecting. I’m not so keen on trekking every day for three weeks straight while clouds cover the very mountains you’re walking all that way to see, so we’ll have to hope it improves over the next few days or else we might delay the start of the trek and do some other things first.

Posted in Asia, Nepal, South Asia | Comments Off on The Kathmandu Valley