Faraway Places: The cave connection

After I returned from my Batad trip I took a quick icy shower (no hot water in my hostel, which was unfortunate considering that Banaue is chilly. Actually, fleeces are necessary) and ran back upstairs to get a plate of steaming hot rice to warm me up. Right when I sat down another girl came into the restaurant and sat at the table adjacent to mine. I did the great one liner that I learned in Cambodia, "Are you also traveling by yourself?" And it was history from there. Kathleen is a 23 year-old Canadian who is teaching English in Thailand for what will total two years. We hit it off instantly. I convinced her to come to Sagada with me, so the next morning we took a van together chatting the whole entire way. When we arrived in Sagada we went to the tourist information center where, believe it or not, we met another girl traveling by herself. Christin is a 22 year old from Germany but she is working in Hong Kong right now for a internship abroad type thing– it is required for her major. Christin told us about the hostel she was staying at, so we went and checked it out and lucky for us, there was a double available. So Kathleen and I just ended up sharing a room together. The three of us spent the next two and half days doing everything together.

Christin, Kathleen, and I. The German, Canadian, and American.

Can we just pause and realize what a coincidence it was that three girls, all around the same age, all traveling by themselves, and all living in Southeast Asia bumped into each other in this tiny town. I have never before met any other young girl traveling by herself. So to meet two within twelve hours of each other was kind of a big deal. I know this may sound really cheesy, but it made me so proud of everything I have done in the past seven months– it felt so cool that I was on the same level as these girls. We shared our experiences of living and working, not simply touring, in SEA, comparing and contrasting the cultures that we all have come to know so well in our respective host countries. After being with Kathleen and Christin I had a moment of understanding– going to Vietnam and then taking the semester off was the best thing I could possibly be doing in this time of my life.

After Kathleen and I had dropped our bags off in our room we met Christin for lunch before heading

this is blurry, but it shows the sort of drops
we had to make. The bright light is the lantern
Jordan carried to lead the way.

off to Sagada adventure #1: spelunking in Lumiang and Sumaging caves. This was by far one of the most difficult but incredible things I have ever done in my entire life. None of us realized how challenging it was going to be. In the middle of the cave I announced that I couldn't believe they didn't make us sign a liability waiver. I am not lying when I say if you take one wrong step you can fall to your death. Or seriously hurt yourself. We had to pull ourselves up ropes, slide along cliff edges, wedge our bodies into what seemed like impossibly too small holes and slowly lower ourselves down, and take some pretty incredible leaps of faith. We also had to crawl all over our guide, Jordan (who thought we were the most ridiculous group of girls ever). We literally had to step on his shoulders in order to get up and over certain rocks. It was unbelievable. All three of us commented on our sore arms the following day. What we did was called the cave connection because we started in one cave, Lumiang, and ended up in Sumaging cave– the most famous cave in Sagada. This route is considered extremely difficult, and not a lot of people get to do it, or can do it. Most of them just take the shortcut right to Sumaging. We all felt pretty accomplished when we learned that we were some of the few tourists that are able to successfully navigate it. It took us four hours to make our way through the cave– you better believe I was pretty relieved when I saw the first ray of sunlight! This was my favorite day of my Sagada-Banaue trip and possibly the favorite adventure of the past seven months. Honestly, it was unbelievable.