Once in a while, you find yourself walking down the street, not even realizing how bad you need it. But then you round the corner and you see that stand selling fried banana on a stick. And then, for a few minutes at least, the universe becomes orderly, and everything in life makes sense. All of that for 25 cents.
Plus airfare of course.
One of the main reasons we ventured to the north of Luzon was Claire’s desire to see the rice terraces that have been carved into the mountain-side there over the past 2000 years. So, after Sagada we headed to the city of Banaue, which, for tourists like us, serves as a jumping-off point for seeing the surrounding terraces. But how to get there? Well, the easy option would have been to take a coach bus. But Elsie really wanted to ride in a jeepney. We saw tons of these colourful, converted jeeps transporting people around Manila, but were a little too-intimated to try to take one. So we crammed like sardines with a bunch of filipinos into the back of a jeepney in Sagada, headed for Bontoc. Much like a can of sardines, the jeepney had minimal suspension, and the ride along the twisty roads was a little rough on everyone’s stomach. I also hit my head on the roof a few times, to everyone’s amusement. But we made it. From Bontoc, we caught a very comfortable minibus to Banaue, and along the way were wowed by the views as the road twisted and turned. As we approached the city, we caught more and more views of rice terraces.
From Banaue, there were a number of possibilites for an excursion to the nearby rice terraces. We opted for just doing one, because we are on a budget and also because have been exhausting the kids! So we headed out on a private jeepney to the Hapao rice terraces, where we met up with a local guide (mandatory) who took us on a trek through the terraces that surround the village, with a well-deserved stop at the local hot-springs.
The walk was beautiful, and it was impressive to imagine how much work went into altering the landscape to suit agriculture (and to see the effort it took to work the fields). What made this tour even more amazing was our charming guide Joseph, who told us stories about his ancestors (a house adorned with the skulls from tribal warfare!), local customs, and growing up in the village, and answered all of our questions about how to actually grow rice. It was really fantastic!
On est allé à la Sumaging Cave. Les roches étaient très glissantes et si on n’avait pas de lampe frontales on serait tombé. Les chauve souris avaient un nid au plafond. Il y avaient des formes dans la roche comme un lion, un gateau, un crocodile, et des dents. On est passé dans des petites rivières, mais on n’avait pas nos maillots. Pour remonter, on a utilisé des cordes à deux endroits. C’était le fun!
Claire nicely summarized our harrowing escape from Manila in her blog post, and Henri found a way to nicely summarize our subsequent 11 hour bus ride to Sagada by, upon exiting the bus, leaning over to throw up on the side of the road!
But from that point on, everything picked up!
Claire had picked Sagada, tucked away in the Cordillera mountains, as a destination, but I admit that I hadn’t really looked into it at all. We will be doing lots beaches, so I just liked the idea of something a little different. After spending a few days here though, I think it will end up on the highlight reel of our trip.
One of the things I liked most about the town is that it’s certainly set up for tourism, but didn’t feel overly “touristy” in that negative sense of the word. Upon arrival, we registered at the tourist centre, where we paid a fee that goes into keeping up the local infrastructure, and got a pamphlet outlining the main tours, treks, and such. It included the tourist agencies where we could find an accredited guide, and had all of the prices listed clearly. For someone who wasn’t all that prepared, it made things easy!
We opted for one hike per day while we were here, and they were all fantastic! The kids will go into a bit more detail about each of these in upcoming posts: Day 1 was a hike near town past some the hanging coffins, local coffee plantations, and along a river that passes through a cave; Day 2 was an exploration deep (but not too deep!) into Sumaging Cave; and Day 3 was a trek with 850 m of descent past terraced rice fields to the ice-cold Bomod-Ok falls and then with 850 m of ascent back up. The kids did great on all of these, and had a blast. It may have helped that I promised ice cream at the end of each (I think they teach this in Advanced Parenting).
At first, I felt a little dépaysé-d, but the town itself was also very cool. Being in the mountains, the geography made for an interesting layout and it was easy to find great views. We got used to perusing the shops and restos up and down the main road, which somehow takes two-way car traffic and pedestrians despite being only slightly larger than the sidewalks on our street back in Montreal. I even found a bit of a hipster cafe (Tam Tam) along the main road that served great coffee sourced from right in the hood. One afternoon, we felt adventurous and ventured off the main road, and wandered among some of the narrow walkways that snaked their way through whole neighbourhoods that are disconnected from the road.
After an amazing few weeks in Oz, it’s time to embark on the next stage of our family adventure: South-East Asia.
I’ll readily admit that I was feeling a bit nervous about this transition, after such an easy time in Australia. Claire and I have traveled in the region before, but that was over a decade ago. Things went pretty smooth back then, but I am the kind of guy who’re likes his routine, and knowing generally how things work. I knew this would push me a bit out of my comfort zone… but that was always part of the point.
So after an eight hour flight, and many, many movies (I finally saw Barbie!) we landed in Manila. We managed to get our bearings pretty quickly, make it to our hotel, and grab some delish Filipino food nearby. After just a couple of hours amidst the bustling streets, the smell of street food, and the thrill of crossing the street without getting run over, I can say that the nervousness has shifted to excitement!
This morning we woke up with the sunrise and the meowing of stray cats, and headed out the door to explore. I’m happy to say that the kids have fully bought-in to what will surely be our new routine: wandering around the streets trying to find the best cart or hole-in-the-wall serving something that will function as breakfast.
As an aside: how did people travel before smartphones? I mean, we did it going around the world back in 2012, but how? Was it just using those grainy maps in the guidebooks, our own wits, and the kindness of others? This time, upon landing in Manila, we got a SIM card at the airport, and hailed a ride with Grab (think Uber). It sure did seem to make things easy!
Nous avons passé une semaine à visiter Sydney avec nos cousins et je vais vous parler d’une des journées. Nous avons commencé par aller à la plage Bondi.
Quelques minutes après qu’on soit allé dans l’eau les sauveteurs nous ont changés de place parce que la partie où on était avait trop de “rip”. Nous avions amené des boogie boards et des lunettes de nage avec nous. J’ai beaucoup aimé le boogie board.
Donc, nous sommes restés pour à peu près deux heures avant de partir en voiture pour Clovelly. C’était une plage faite de grosses roches. Ce qu’on a trouvé drôle c’était que les poissons venaient manger la peau morte de nos pieds! Après ça, on est allé marcher sur le long de la côte jusqu’à la prochaine plage . La marche était vraiment très belle.
Quand nous sommes arrivés à la plage nous avons décidé que deux personnes devraient aller chercher les voitures. Les deux autres adultes nous ont acheté des crèmes glacée. Après nous nous sommes baignés jusqu’à ce que les parents reviennent avec les voitures. À cette plage il y avait encore plus de “rip” et de grosses vagues!
Have I not talked about running yet? That seems a bit out of character…
Well, there is no plan here! Normally I’ve got a marathon or ultra on the horizon, am running once (or more) a day, putting in the miles, doing the workouts, long runs and the like. I will admit that I get just a tad obsessed (my family may have noticed). But things are clearly going to be a little more relaxed on this trip. There are no races planned, and I’ll just fit in some runs here and there when the travel schedule, terrain, and climate allow.
I had romantic ideas of running on some mountain trail here, but then reality kicked in: I arrived tired and jet-lagged into the tropical heat of the island. We were there for only two days, with one day on a boat. The only realistic option seemed to be a run on the beach, as some people were doing. But, imo, running on the beach is best left to rom-coms.
Once in Melbourne though, I laced up my shoes and got out the door pretty quickly. It turns out that I was not the only one to think about doing a run Sunday morning: the paths were packed with runners, and the road with cyclists! I’ve done all my Melbourne runs along the water, with my longest out to the colourful cabins at Brighton Beach. Why explore when everything is perfect for a runner: no traffic lights, water fountains and bathrooms aplenty, and a coffee shop at the end of the run? I just have to get used to keeping on the left.
I wasn’t too adventurous in Melb, but running is a great way to explore a city. You cover more ground than walking, and have more time to look around than biking. The main thing that I discovered in Sydney: it is full of hills! I covered a lot of ground in Sydney, following the intricate coast in the North end, where I surprisingly stumbled upon some single-track track trails in pockets of suburban forest; running across the iconic Harbour bridge out to Bondi Beach; and finding my way back on exhausted legs after our surf lessons at Manly Beach. Did I mention the hills?
One of my shortest, but more memorable, runs was an early morning out-and-back along the Great Ocean Walk, west from Aire River. I crawled out of our tent (already wearing my running clothes) and headed out along the quiet, sandy, rolling, single track. It was not too exciting at first, but then the forest opened up to the spectacular views of the coast. Adding in the wildlife sightings (4 wallabies, an eagle, and no snakes), made this a definite highlight. Maybe someday I’ll aim to do the whole 105 km?
There are a few other runs I could mention here… but I wouldn’t want this post to run-on for too long.
(Elsie)
On est allé à Luna parc, un parc d’attractions. Mes manèges préférés étaient les Ciseaux et le Powersurge. En plus, il n’y avait pas de file. Une fois on était sur le manège des ciseaux et quand on a débarqué on est retourné dans la file et celui après nous on est arriver à être dedans. Donc on l’a fait deux fois de suite. Mais il y avait aussi le plus vieux roller coaster au monde. Le manège préféré de Benoît c’était l’entreprise, qui était des cages à une ou deux personnes qui tournaient super vites pour nous faire sentir lourd et qui allaient à l’envers. On a mangé une très grosse barbe à papa. On est arrivé les premiers dans la file et quand les manèges ont terminé on était encore là.
J’avais très hâte d’aller à Luna parc. C’était super!
Happy 2026 from Australia! My New Year’s resolution: travel more! And write more blog posts (I like achievable goals). So here we go…
We were welcomed to Melbourne a few days ago by family holding a sign for the Rogers and the 35 degree heat. After a fairly relaxed day catching up with the LJGGs, we threw our bags back into the boot of our hired car and headed off to spend a few days at The Cabin in the idyllic Australian alps. We’ve been waking up to the kookaburras, listening to the cousins laughing, and heading to bed after the crackling of the fire…. It’s a tough life up here. Just remember to watch out for the snakes.
New Year’s Eve included a trip to the nearby trout farm, where Elsie channeled her grandpa Rogers and caught us a fish for the next day’s supper (Gabe and Georgia were equally skilled). We were also treated to a fish-gutting lesson by the staff, who immediately made it into our food books by telling us how much they liked Canadians.
The place to be around here for New Years Eve is the Noojee Pub! We found a spot on the lawn not too far from the river (right next to the helicopter parking… yeah, that’s right), ordered some great pizza, and eagerly awaited the fireworks. They didn’t disappoint. I’ve never been so close to (official) fireworks, and we had to lie back on the lawn in order to take in the whole show.
2025 ended with a bang! More travels, and more blog posts to come!
En 2012, Patrick et moi avions un blog pour garder nos amis et familles au courant de notre voyage d’un an autour du monde. Nous en avons fait un livre que nous gardons en souvenir.
Voici notre nouvelle page pour notre prochaine grande aventure en famille!
5 billets SVP 