Los Baňos - Hot Springs and Buko Pie
On Friday night Neil and I escaped Manila to head 2 hours south to a town called 'Los Baňos'. Situated on 'Laguna', a large inland lake, and surrounded by agricultural farming fields Los Baňos is well known for its natural hot springs and resorts. It took Neil and I about an hour and a half just to get out of Manila because of the traffic and the very full buses heading south out of the city. We eventually arrived at our accommodation - City of Springs - where we had dinner, a swim in the warm pool and some drinks.The next day we headed out for a walk to observe the local Los Baňos community. It was very hot (mainit!) but it was great to see a more relaxed pace of life. After a while we decided to head out to the university and to the starting point to a climb up Mt. Makiling, a mountain (about 1400 meters) framing Los Baňos to the west. A tricycle, jeepney, long walk and another jeepney later, we found the start of the hike. However by this time, we were already tired, had ran out of water and were hungry for lunch. We headed back down to get some supplies and decided to head into the Botanical Gardens which were close to the starting point of the hike up the mountain, and which had a swimming pool located in the middle of the forested area. It was very picturesque and very refreshing after our tiring morning.
After chatting with some locals at the pool we decided to give the climb a miss. While the guidebook had indicated that it would take 2 hours to climb Mt. Makiling, they said it would take up to 6 and had become fairly dangerous with some hiker having recently been held up by knifepoint and all their belongings stolen. We were keen to see the hot mud springs, about an hour up the track, but decided to heed the warning and instead wandered around the Botanical Gardens.
It was a beautiful setting with tracks leading all through jungly forested areas. We walked up to see the Philippine raptors - mainly threatened and endangered native hunting birds, such as owls, hawks and the large and impressive Philippine eagle. On the one hand it is always to see these graceful large birds caged, at the same time they are being protected, are at least situated in a natural environment and are fed live natural food (like rats and rabbits!).
Neil on the walk through the Botannical Gardens
We then headed back down to Los Baňos proper to meet up with Naomi, an AYAD who is living here for the year and is working with with sweet potato farmers. We went to see her house and then caught another jeepney to get a local delicacy - 'Buko Pie'. Buko pie is coconut pie and is absolutely delicious!
I bought 2 pies, one for us to enjoy and another for merienda at work on Monday. With Naomi we headed back to our hotel for a swim and an icecream before heading out to the small pier to watch the beautiful sunset over the Laguna. (Pictures soon I promise!!) We also watched a large band who had been practicing for an upcoming festival in the local park near our hotel - a band of drummers and xylophone players along with girls twirling large flags.
We then went to a restaurant for dinner which was on stilts located over the Laguna. We had a meal of fresh grilled tilapia (fish), steamed vegetables (okra, sweet potato leaves and local zucchini) and sizzling sisig (pork) with rice of course with calamansi juice (lime juice), fresh mango shakes, some funky turnip drink that Naomi ordered and of course a couple of San Miguel Lights. For dessert Neil and Naomi tried the local Halo Halo - another funky Philippino drink/dessert with crushed ice and milk over a bizarre mix of various things like jelly piece, sugar, turnip, corn, chick peas, mushroom and whatever else is thrown in by the maker. All in all, it was a nice meal in a nice setting - despite the occasional stink from the Laguna there was also an impressive thunderstorm in the distance and fireworks from an unknown town across the lake.
Emily looking at the menu
The next day we had a bit of a sleep in and headed into the main part of Los Banos for some breakfast. We were a bit indecisive about what we should do for the day - there was a large festival in a town some distance away (we would need to take 2 or 3 jeepneys with travelling time of about an hour and a half if we didn’t get lost) and another pineapple festival in a town a bit closer, but we weren't actually sure if this was on or not. Plus we had our bags and buko pie which we would need to carry around with us all day, so instead we decided to head on the bus back to Manila to ensure that we got a seat, and had some time to relax and get organised before work on Monday. When we got home we went to the gym, picked up our laundry, went for a swim, bought Neil a new SIM card (his phone was lost/stolen on Wednesday) and found a good Chinese restaurant walking distance from our house - so heading back home a little early was probably a good decision in the long run. But we will be back after the wet season to climb Mt. Makiling with Naomi when it becomes a bit cooler!
View of boy with kite from our hotel
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