I’ll be honest. After one week of being in the Philippines I was wishing we could fly out. I joked with Andrew that the government make you buy a return ticket out of here prior to arriving in order to make you stay longer. Rather than to prevent illegal immigration. If we didn’t have a flight already booked we’d have left. Manila was not a pleasant place. It was dirty and extremely polluted. There isn’t really any green space and it is not a tourist destination. Our next stop over was worse; Angeles is at the heart of the sex-tourism industry. The city is once again polluted and rubbish dumped on the streets. At night the cockroaches came out. We couldn’t wait to leave.

The next stop was Baguio, known as the gateway to the mountains. Although greener it is still very polluted – it made my eyes sore and I felt nauseous. The hotels were overpriced and there was little to do. After a rollercoaster ride to Sagada on the bus. Six hours of being thrown around we arrived.

I think the pictures sum up this place.

It has a well organised tour office that has reasonably priced tours (most of the tours don’t really need a guide but you are helping the economy). It has some really good restaurants that serve local coffee and tea plus delicious yogurt. There are no touts. You don’t need a taxi to get around. From the worst place we have visited it may surprise you all but I think Sagada is my favourite place of the trip. It’s a shame we are moving on. I will miss the cookies and yogurt and the views!

Posted from Sagada, Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines.