I once again flew from DFW-Narita (Tokyo). This is definitely the worst leg of the trip, 13+ hrs. non-stop, economy class American Airlines. There were eight of us which made things a little more tolerable. We spent the night a full-size hotel (Crown Plaza) that had regular size rooms, bed, slippers, ... We then flew 8 hrs to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Japan Airlines, much superior to AA. Nothing extraordinary happened in KL. 90+ degrees @ 80+% relative humidity. We did head to the Chinatown market and I was intrigued by Robert Looii hair care products, at least they seem to work for him.
We stayed at the JW Marriott which is where I stayed in January, so I was very much at "home". Four days later we flew Air Asia to Clark Field in the Philippines. This is the Asian "Southwest Airlines". No frills but nice new planes.
From Clark Field (an old US Air Force Base) we took a 5 hour van ride to Baguio City, Philippines. We traveled the MacArthur Highway to the Kennon Road; tauted as the most picturesque and hazardous road in the Philippines. This road was built by the Army Corp of Engineers in 1903-05. They established 8 camps along the way, which are still occupied cities named Camp 1, 2, ...
I enjoyed looking at the houses built on the other side of the canyon that only have rope bridge access. Not only do they use this bridge for daily access, but had to carry all building supplies across while constructing..
Baguio City was a nice change from hot and humid at sea level to nice a cool at 5000 feet in the mountains. We stayed at Camp John Hay, which had been a military R&R facility. No A/C in the hotel; 60/75.
The transportation consists mostly of Jeepneys and small (155cc) Honda motorcycles with sidecars. The orginal Jeepneys were modified Jeeps left after WWII. The Honda's can fit 8-10 people with anything from to a person to a full size bed carried on top.
Headed back to Clark Field. The two most interesting things I saw was a guy riding his water buffalo home from work and two guys using rope to tie their wheel back on.
Link to pictures in the upper right.
