Tako á Feira

nally we got to the last article about the travel to Philippines. Early uh?

The last stop we did was at Boracay, well known place for beaches and tourism. Before continue, I must say I liked Palawan much more but Boracay was good as well even being much more touristic. As  we got to the beach, we had this beautiful sunset waiting for us:

After wandering around a bit along the beach we decided to indulge ourselves in a good dinner, as a way of celebrating my past birthday at the jungle as there was nothing in there to celebrate. Soooo… pig out of lobster and crabs with seaside views!

After a repairing night of sleep, we decided to get on the morning to enjoy the beach:

That day Oscar, my Jakarta counterpart arrived so once more we walk around the beach, this time at sunlight to see the street vendor kiosks and shops:

At Boracay, the most typical thing is to enjoy a massage at the beach or in a specialized massage shop:

While walking, we saw a lot of restaurants offering seafood on the street so you could poit a lobster out and get it cooked and ready to eat it!

There was a lot of luxury resorts like the Mandarin, which had a HUGE bonsai at its doorstep:

We spent the rest of the day doing some marine activities like jetski or catamaran sailing and terrestrial  as horse riding

To finish it, we spent new year’s eve at Boracay, it was funny to see a lot of “guiris” with their beers just about to cheer for the new year and a bunch of spanish people with a box of grapes, completely lost trying to know where was the clock that showed the chimes before new year… as usual, pig out of grapes.

It looks that there is some delay… this is the last but one entry about Philippines that one of 2008 December.

This time, The Rice Terraces was the place where I spent my 26th birthday. The Banaue Rice Terraces are 2000-year old terraces that were carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines. The Rice Terraces are commonly referred to by Filipinos as the “Eighth Wonder of the World“. The terraces are located approximately 1500 meters (5000 ft) above sea level and cover 10,360 square kilometers (about 4000 square miles) of mountainside.

This trip was madness. It started the night of the 27th of December trying to locate a transportation method to get to the terraces which are relatively close to the capital. I say relatively because they are 200 Km far from Manila and it gets one entire night to get there by car. Firstly we tried to buy tickets for the bus from Manila, but there was only left the tickets for the collapsible seats… doesn’t sound good? 8 ours of bus trip in a collapsible seat without backrest. As this was not a choice, we decided to find a rent-a-car to rent a van at midnight. By chance we met a guy whose cousin had a van that could get us there. This is how things work in Philippines! There we went with two unknown people by taxi to the cousin’s house who offered to give us a ride for 15.000 pesos (more or less 220€).

The same night we departed to the rice terraces, equipped with all the necessary stuff to survive in the hostile jungle: Doritos, Pringles, chips, chocolate and beers. It was an interesting night trip. We get to our destination by the morning:

On the top of the hill we found some weird shops:

With weird products:

And pay restrooms:

And of course… McDonalds!

Its a pity we didn’t realized before that there were luxury cottages for rent with excelent views:

What to say about the transportation methods…

As it was early in the morning, we headed to the first dump we saw and ate something that looked like rice with some sort of meat stew:

Everything under the gawp of a mini-native:

After having breakfast we tried to access the more remote areas of the terraces for which it was needed a more rudimentary transportation method, Jeepney!

What constructions we came across…

and this is what it could be seen from that house:

There was a point where not even a Jeepney could go through so trekking was our last chance. Right through the jungle even with rain and I ended up like this:

A couple of hours walk later… it was worth the effort:

Inside the village we could see how people lived there. As a curiosity, this is the toilet of a private house (check the poster on the wall)

Once at the village, we didn’t stop there so we continue walking among terraces…

… until we reached the waterfall:

Up to there did we got on my 26th birthday and now I can say: Conquered!

Little stop of travel articles not to bore you

On May, 23rd of 2009 I went to one of the most important demonstrations in the world of Aikido. The 47th All Japan Aikido planned by the Aikikai Honbu Dojo.

In this event, all Aikido dojos, schools and clubs show their skill at the Nihon Budokan.

Interior del Nihon Budokan (日本武道館)

In 2009’s edition approximately 6000 “aikidokas” took active part.

Here you can see some videos from Youtube and some pictures I took myself:

Now, a video of my Wednesday’s teacher:

Hiroyuki Sakurai sensei, 6th Dan Aikikai

And Thursday’s teacher:

Hiroshi Fujimaki sensei, 6th Dan Aikikai

Last but not least, a video of the actual Doshu:

Moriteru Ueshiba – 10th Dan Aikikai

And his son:

Mitsuteru Ueshiba