LuzonLuzon

Once again this year we decided to escape the gloomy December for something exotic, so we've now been in the Philippines for over a week.

The trip went smoothly. At a local Italian bike shop, a very kind lady gave us two great cardboard bike boxes that had just come in. Great because our bikes (barely) fit inside them, and both boxes then (barely) fit into our not-so-big Toyota Auris.

At Milan airport everything went surprisingly smoothly, and after a 12-hour flight we found ourselves at midnight European time in Singapore. We took a nap on our sleeping mats and had a walk around the world's best-rated airport. It was quite an experience, Singapore's airport is really huge, very traveler-friendly, and has regulated prices, so it's not even that overpriced compared to prices in the city, as is usually the case elsewhere. The airport's centerpiece is a giant water "funnel" in the middle of the shopping mall, surrounded by a growing jungle.

From Singapore to the Philippines was just a 4-5 hour flight. Fun fact: even though the Philippines is 4-5 hours by plane to the east, it's in the same time zone, check the map, it's pretty funny. We landed in Manila around 11pm local time, and surprisingly both bikes arrived with us this time without any problems or torn boxes.

From the airport we took our still-packed bikes straight by taxi to Paul's place. Paul is a 75-year-old American of Japanese descent who has lived here for 30 years and whom we found on Warmshowers (a site where long-distance cyclists help each other out).

At Paul's we sleep on our sleeping mats, and in the morning we assemble the bikes and start the first day of the trip. Heading south! The first days of a trip are always a bit about acclimatizing. This time was no different, and we rolled out of bed the first morning around eleven (roughly 4am European time).

Our Warmshowers host Paul made us breakfast with coffee, and while we assembled the bikes, he told us his life story. He was born in Hawaii into a family of Japanese descent, studied at Berkeley, and led 2,000 people at a chemical engineering company. At 45 he gave it all up, left for the Philippines, and has lived here for 30 years now. He even packed us cookies and nuts for the road, a truly golden-hearted man.

Since we got up late and assembling the bikes takes a while, we didn't get moving until around three in the afternoon. Sorting out a working SIM card took surprisingly long, so we took lodging just a few kilometers from where we'd started. Over the following days, though, we settled into a more steady rhythm. Wake-up around six in the morning, departure around seven or eight, lodging at dusk around five or six in the evening.

We're finding out that it's still rainy season in the Philippines, which means we get a pleasant 27-30 degrees, but also proper downpours pretty much constantly. Fortunately, they're mostly short-lived showers, so there's usually somewhere to duck into for a bit and wait them out. On the other hand, whenever it's not overcast around midday, the sun this close to the equator really scorches. So several times a day we alternate between running from the rain and running from the sun, and we've found the best strategy is to ride right on the edge of the storms, where it's not raining yet but still overcast. Even so, we're permanently damp, and whenever we can in the evening, we set up a makeshift drying room at our lodging using the air conditioning or fans.