February 14, 2015 (Manila to Baguio, Phillipines)

How can I describe the traffic in Manila?! All I can say is that my hands have calluses from gripping the steering wheel so hard and my left calf is sore from using the clutch for 9 hours of driving yesterday- 4 of those hours in bumper to bumper traffic. I will say that our day starting with a visit to the temple and the peaceful sweet experience there was a stark contrast to the 2 hours of traffic it took to get there and 2 hours of traffic it took to go 5 km to get to the freeway. The saying of you must know the bad to know the good and the hard things make the sweet things sweeter #truth.

The hotel couldn't wrap their head around the fact that I was going to be driving an 8 passenger van through Manila and then to Baguio. They helped coordinate a sturdier van then the one I rented since they were so concerned. They called me 5 times to make sure I wanted to drive it myself and not have a driver. Well, I think I graduated. I was dodging cars and passing trucks and driving up steep roads with an overheating engine once we arrived to Baguio. I was also totally spent! But it was definitely a cultural experience and we had lots of conversation amongst our now group of 6.

Coming out of the city, which is not a beautiful city and is defined by it's traffic, we almost immediately came upon rice paddies and peaceful green scenery. We drove through many little towns, one which was having a parade which we became part of and everyone got out of the car and walked along with it and I picked up at the end of the parade route. As we got into bigger towns we came across tons of tricycles/trikes. It was the main source of getting around. Literally hundreds of them - a motorcycle with a little side car that should fit one but here fits 4 ;) As we got closer to Baguio we began climbing up a steep and winding mountain and you expect to come across a tiny little mountain city but there are almost 300,000 people that live up here in the mountains with homes cascading up and down the hillsides.

The lesson learned today, is one wrong turn has huge consequences- from 30 - 1:30 mins of traffic to correct the mistake. This happened a few times today, but somehow we finally pulled into our hotel and I was happy to be parked. For dinner everyone was going to take a taxi into town. I opted to stay in the hotel and have dinner in our room with Sam. I couldn't imagine getting in another car. Sam and I put our warm clothes on (its very cool in this mountain city, which is also why it is so popular) and we sat in bed and ate dinner while channel surfing before crashing.