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Back on the road again today and we leave Sagada headed for Clark which is about 50 miles outside of Manila.

It’s a road day and we leave Sagada in the van at 8am. It’s going to be a very very very long day. It’s foggy as we retrace our route down the winding hillside roads, again dodging landslides and overtaking slow lorries as they crawl up hills. We also have to wait for 10 minutes at one stage as a cement mixer delivers a load to the side of the road that is being repaired.

We stop for lunch in Bambang and consume a small plate of chips and a coke each. Really not feeling it today and the roadside dining options aren’t that great either. The owner of the cafe persuades us to have a coffee jelly with a rich coffee cream for dessert and I have to say it’s a great shout as it’s delicious.

Post lunch we take a walk around a local market that sells an absolute abundance of vegetables reflecting just how fertile the surrounding area is.

As we leave the hills the landscape changes to miles and miles of flat paddy fields at various stages of planting, growing and harvest. There’s an army of workers, water buffalo dotted around and hungry egrets vying for the insects disturbed as the paddy fields are worked. They literally go on as far as the eye can see and it makes us realise how essential they are in providing part of the daily rice staple to a population of over 110 million people.

So a bit about our destination for today Clark. It’s 50 miles northwest of Manila, and the former site of the US Air Force’s base, in use from 1903 until the eruption of Mt Pinatubo forced their hasty departure in 1991. Since then the base has been developed into the site of an international airport and the Clark

Freeport Zone comprising a business district, estates, casinos, golf courses, duty-free shops and restaurants. It’s also used as a base by the Philippine Air Force. 

We’re using Clark as a  stopping point in order that we can get a 9.40am flight to the Island of Boracay in the morning rather than driving all the way back to Manila and taking a flight from there.

Before we arrive in Clark we did a bit of light reading in order to see what the hotel was like and our options food wise etc. We discover that the area is synonymous with the sex industry in the Philippines. Where we stayed in Makati, Manila, we were close to the red light district and sadly the sight of unkempt pasty western men hand in hand with locals was an all to familiar sight. Hard not to judge when it’s often a Faustian pact.

We arrive at our hotel in the knowledge of what we’re about to walk in to but have to add at this juncture that even we are quite shocked at what we’re about to witness.

We are checked in by some lovely staff at our hotel and directed to our room. As we exit the lift and walk along the corridor several rooms have their doors open with numerous bodies of both sexes lounging around in various states of undress with loud music and laughter bouncing off the walls. It’s only 6.15pm and feels like a Frat House. We hastily enter our room and pray that the sound proofing works!!

We shower and decide to venture out for dinner Brownie has a couple of ideas where to eat.

We exit our hotel and are dazzled by the neon sign from the neighbouring hotel. We start walking and before long we are greeted by the sight of girls and women working the strip of tacky clubs and bars, many beckoning us in – yikes!! The most disturbing part of all of this is the tables full of single and small groups of men all facing outward to the street surveying what’s on offer. It feels predatory and makes us both feel distinctly uncomfortable. I’m reminded of the hyena scene from the Lion King. We’re in the wrong place and this is one shop window we certainly do not want to parade through. We make a hasty retreat to the safety of our hotel where we decide to have dinner but soon realise that the table we’re sitting at not only gives us a ringside seat to all the comings and goings but also the ability to view the reactions of the hotel reception staff. We definitely saw some sights. We retreat to our room to sleep hoping that the Frat boys are all exhausted!!

We haven’t unpacked so there’s no need to pack and after an early breakfast we leave the hotel at 7am headed for Clark Airport chuckling to ourselves about the previous night’s shenanigans.  Today we’re flying to Caticlan which is about an hour. As we wait for our flight we have a great view of another of the Philippines active volcanoes, Mt Pinatubo.

We arrive in Caticlan and its pouring with rain. It’s a tiny airport and we need to walk to arrivals. Credit to Air Asia there’s a huge pile of umbrellas waiting at the plane’s exit.

We collect our luggage and meet our driver who delivers us swiftly to the ferry jetty. He transfers our luggage to the dock and we await the arrival of our hotel boat. It’s a swift 10 minute transfer by boat to Boracay where we’re met by another driver who transfers us to our hotel.

Our room isn’t ready so we take a walk in the rain down the beach and locate a great Mexican restaurant for a late lunch.

The beach is beautiful but the weather is rubbish and we retreat to our hotel. It’s an early night for us after a very early start. We’re excited for the beach and a boat trip the next day.