June 14, 2025 • 32 mins
We hiked through the ancient rice terraces of Banaue, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that's been dubbed the 8th Wonder of the World. Carved into the mountains of Banaue on the main island of Luzon, Philippines, these 2000 year old rice terraces are well worth the 10 hour night bus north of Manila. As predicted, Adam falls victim to heatstroke, but who's to blame? Was it the midday sun? Was it the questionable hiking gear? Or was it the work of the Engkanto?
Adam also flirts with the idea of changing career, as he tells the story of him being approached by a model scout whilst showering; a meeting that was "unprofessional at best."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We hiked through ancient rice terraces.
Play the theme music. Hello and welcome to this
episode of Tripology. I'm Alan on here with the ever
(00:22):
cultivated Adam. Like a genetically modified crop
with no nutritional value. Well, I'll come back to the
concept of genetic modification and crops later in the episode
because we're talking all about hiking through them.
What's some of the most ancient rice Paddy fields terraces in
the world as we continue our sojourn through the Philippines?
(00:42):
Yeah, we've just been on a little 2 day, three day jaunt,
haven't we? A couple of crazy night buses,
but we are currently back in Manila, a city that we are
really enjoying. Yeah, I enjoy it too.
And it's become ever such a tripological hub.
There's a lot of amazing things brewing.
And Manila is very much becominga new sort of Bethlehem for the
(01:03):
rebirth of a tripological event the likes of which the world has
never seen. There's going to be all kinds of
news coming over the next few months.
You get ready like one of the three wise men.
You have the opportunity now to look at the tripological stars
and be a part of a wonderful movement.
Yeah, it's all taking place in Manila.
Manila, fair to say, got a bit of a bad rap in the backpacking
scene. Was it really?
(01:23):
I don't know anything about that.
Ignorant of its wrap. Well, if you were to judge a
place by your experiences in it,which we always do encourage
people to do, it's been overwhelmingly positive.
I've been overwhelmed by positivity.
Absolutely. I can scarcely find time to go
about my daily chores, brush my teeth, have a shower, do my
evolutions because I'm so busy being overwhelmed.
Yeah. I mean, I was back, well, back
(01:45):
in 2015, I was in Manila and I had heard that it was dangerous.
And I guess that was not compounded, but certainly
confirmed by the fact that I waswalking through Rizal Park one
afternoon somewhere that we've been together and and it felt
almost positive reaction to land.
If we're going to say no, I'm Jackie.
But yeah, there was a group of guys there who were roughly the
(02:06):
same age as I was back then, so early 20s, mid 20s.
And they signaled to me from across the way that they were
going to slit my throat. And one of them did sort of a
gun sign where he was going to shoot me.
Once you've shot someone, the slitting of their throat becomes
a redundant threat, doesn't it? Yeah.
I mean it was kind of in that order.
So I mean, in in that example, obviously it didn't feel very
(02:26):
safe. Other than that felt really
safe. And then I mean, we we must add
that we have been in McCarthy City, which is kind of the more
commercial upmarket, one of the wealthier areas.
So we can't speak to the whole of Manila really.
But yeah, harsh, isn't it? I mean, if you do think that
Manila is one of those places you don't want to go because
you've heard horror stories, just give it a go.
(02:47):
You are no one to attract attention from the Filipino
people. I've noticed it.
Really. Yeah, I've noticed it by the
stories you've told me, basically.
OK, so you, you know, you've hada few suitors, haven't you?
Yeah, well, it's ironically the story I'm about to tell is
probably when I've felt most unsafe.
Yeah, yeah, I want to hear aboutit again.
I've already heard this story once, but I am not the
(03:10):
tripological audience. I'm just one of the hosts.
Yeah, I mean unsafe, of course. That is a little bit of a joke.
I was totally in control of the situation, but this was way back
when, three days ago. And even though the listener
might think that when we're together, we do everything
together, we do spend a lot of time together, but sometimes we
like to do things separately. Yeah.
And this is one of the things that we always do separately as
(03:31):
well, which is get changed. You were getting changed,
weren't you? Yeah, I had.
It was on the day that we were checking out of this apartment
with the incredibly slow elevator and you were upstairs
doing your thing, you were getting your bag ready and all
that sort of stuff. I thought I'll take the
opportunity. I was actually getting changed
upstairs. You do it at opposite ends of
(03:53):
the building. Yeah, just to make sure neither
of us looks. Yeah.
So yeah, I, I was down having a swim in the complex.
You know, there's a obviously a communal swimming pool.
And then I went to have a showerin the changing rooms.
But now, I'll be completely honest, the guy listening, the
guy that this involves may well be listening to this.
I don't know. Yeah.
(04:13):
So I've got to tread a little bit carefully, but I'm going to
tell. Everything you do, I'm.
Going to tell the story exactly as it happened and I've got the
photos to prove it as you take asip of your coconut water.
I had noticed that when I went into the shower cubicle there
was a man on the left hand side in a different cubicle,
completely naked but with the door open and I thought that's
fine, I feel comfortable with that.
(04:34):
Nice. If anything, we're all boys
together. Yeah, it made me feel relaxed.
So I put, I put my, I put my stuff down.
I thought South Korea. No, I put my stuff down.
Had a shower came out and there I was drying myself, flossing
with the towel as as you do. And and then he was kind of
looking in the mirror, cleaning his ears with a cotton bud.
(04:55):
Nice. You can't make that up.
Now I've noticed that you are a user of the cotton bud because
I've seen them in the bathroom. I personally think they're bad
for the environment. Maybe they are, but I don't.
I also don't use them in their traditional fashion.
I do use it to sort of clean my my nose piercing.
I don't know if I've mentioned that on an episode before, but I
got my nose pierced. Is that the only reason you use
cotton buds is to keep your piercings clean?
No, no, every now and again I'lldo the ears.
(05:17):
For sure you've always done that.
Would you always travel with cotton buds even prior to the
piercing? Situation.
No, not really because I think I've been told that they are
very bad for your ears, not justthe environment.
Yeah. Don't they kind of push the
whatever is in there? Very.
Careful, you'll end up pushing some wax deeper.
Yeah. I mean, I'm no expert, but I
just want clean ears. Can we do in that situation on?
This guy, I didn't know that he was there.
He was jamming wax deep into hisear holes.
(05:39):
Well, I'm not going to give him a bloody lecture in the changing
room. Survive.
Well, I'm starkers and go, oh, I've noticed that you're
clearing cleaning your ears. I'm not sure you care about the
environment. That's one of the key
differences between us. I'd have gone up and said, Sir,
have you thought about the health of your cochlea?
So anyway, we sort of caught each other's eye in the mirror
that was in front of us. Yeah.
He looked at me and said, oh, what are you doing here?
(06:01):
I said, oh, I'm, you know, visiting my friend.
Whatever, he said. Oh, OK.
I'm we work for a talent agency.I've got kind of contacts in
modelling and I think you've gota really nice body and that is
that's a great compliment. Nice to hear, but.
When, when you're absolutely starkers and he's not and, and
(06:24):
sort of looking you up and down in an appreciative way.
I was caught off guard a little bit because it it, there was no
preamble up to that. It was just straight in.
I felt quite comfortable, he said.
Look, I don't know how long you're going to be in Manila
for, but I would really. I'm free to know that.
But I would, I would really liketo take your details and maybe
(06:46):
put you forward to do some, somemodelling in entertainment.
Is that something you'll be interested in?
And I was thinking about the podcast in general.
I thought the Philippines, it's not a market we've tapped into.
It could be one that we, you know, it's quite prosperous for
us. So it's a lot of backpackers
obviously in, in the Philippines.
If I can do some or we can do some modelling, I hope you don't
mind. But I showed him pictures of you
(07:06):
as well. Yeah, OK.
What do you? Think not.
Not the ones in my recently deleted album.
What else is he going to say other than, oh, he's very
handsome as well? He's gone, oh, because any of
him with his top half, no, his body ain't is good.
But yeah, he he then got his camera out, his phone out and
just pointed it in my direction when I still have my towel in my
(07:26):
hand. Yeah.
And I mean that that is just in terms of etiquette and ethics.
I would say it's unprofessional at best and the worst Adam, it's
a predatory man hitting your fornudes in a shower cubicle.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, he said could you mind if I take a few
photos of you? I said no, but as long as it's
(07:48):
sort of from from the shoulders up once I've got my towel around
me, the. Right answer to that question
was yes. I do mind a bit on accounts of
the fact that I have a public facing podcast and I'm Naked and
you've got a camera. And you could extort me for
money. Yeah.
So no, You know, I put the towelaround me.
It was all in good spirits. Absolutely.
I felt totally comfortable. And then he said, have you have
(08:11):
you got a partner? I said, well, yeah, what do you
mean? He was like, no, no, I'm just,
I'm gay as well. And, and, and he and he said,
even though I'm 60, I I still sex well.
And I was like, I don't know where this is going.
So what happened is like, this is basically just a, a
situation. I mean, it's what we all
(08:32):
thought. It's you being hit on by a gay
man. It's not anything to do with
modelling at all. Yeah, I mean, it's a hell of an
elaborate story. It could well be true and I'm
still waiting for that text message.
Has he not even texted you back?Well, I didn't text him first.
You've been. Texted him every day since hey
only going to be in minimum for a few more days.
Any modelling work question mark?
(08:53):
If you want me to send more photos I can do that, just if
you want my height. Sorry for putting this help back
on, it was a mistake. I should have just let you do
what you. Want.
Yeah, yeah, he did ask my heightand he got a little sort of
video and a few head shots and all that sort of stuff.
It was a really. Strange about the height.
About the height. Yeah, yeah.
OK, good. Yeah, I said.
Yeah, I want a good day. When I wake up, I'm eleven.
(09:16):
Who's asking? No.
So yeah, 511 for all those people who don't know.
OK, well what's the? Cautionary tale, because I think
you were a little naive in this situation, in this context, was
if it was me, you know what my reaction would have been, don't
you? Yeah, totally.
Yeah, you would have said go bananas.
Yeah, good bananas, man. No, you know that I would have
just been like, sorry, I'm leaving the changing room
(09:38):
because I'm unfriendly to peoplewho aren't trying to take
pictures of me in the news usually.
Yeah. I mean, we do, yeah.
But yeah, funny, funny you should mention that because
that's where I was kind of going.
At which point in this story do you think you would have shut it
down? Immediately.
What as? Soon as I saw a.
Camera, the cotton bud come out.Yeah.
Yeah, I'd have been like, think about your cochlear health.
(09:58):
I would have left in disgust. No, no, I think as soon as as
soon as he came up to me and started talking about modeling,
I'd have been like, oh, Sir, I'mnot interested.
Really. Yeah, but you've seen me.
I'm sometimes standoffish. And I mean, we met someone in
the Benai Rice field, a lovely guy who's not hanging out with
us a little bit. I didn't speak to him for the
first hour he was in. I'll come there just like you 2
talk until I got the general vibe.
(10:19):
I'm quite unapproachable. Yeah, I mean, this is, this is a
funny thing that's just spring sprung to my mind in real time.
You know, when you have those yearbooks.
I wonder if I've mentioned that on the podcast before, but, you
know, in when you're 161516, when you leave school, secondary
school, you have yearbooks. Yeah.
And it's just loads of photos ofeach class and all that kind of
stuff. And, and usually there's a fun
section where it's like, most likely to be an actor.
(10:40):
Yeah. Super.
The tips, they're called. Yeah, yeah.
Most likely to be. I mean, what would be another
example most likely to be rich? Yeah, whatever.
Most likely to marry a supermodel that kind.
Of yeah, yeah, so so I won the category.
I was awarded the category by like the 8 girls who made this
book. Well, they were given charge of
that. Yeah, there were, There were,
there were around 8 girls in my in my last year of secondary
school who were given the task of producing the yearbook for
(11:03):
the entire year. And of course they got probably
other people involved, teachers and all that sort of stuff.
There's already an existing format that they have to fit
within, but I won the category of most likely to make it as a
model. OK.
Do you do you think when they assigned you that they
anticipated that that would comeby way of a predatory Filipino
man or do they think it was really more traditional?
(11:23):
Well, I think more to the point is that maybe that is buried
somewhere in my head. And now any opportunity I get, I
think this is me living my dream.
This is what everyone thought I was going to be when I was
older. And now this is my opportunity.
My big opportunity at the age of35 in a changing room in some
fucking apartment. So when that guy comes up to
you, in everyone else's mind is like, oh, hold on, this doesn't
feel quite right. What's this?
(11:44):
You're going finally. Now's the time.
The universe has set me up an opportunity.
I'm gonna grab it with. Both apps okay, only 15 years
too late, but I'm still ready. Yeah, okay, fair enough.
You never know. You never know, do you?
So yeah, with those types of things, I think it's important
(12:04):
what you know, what's the take away.
It's maybe manage the situationson a case by case basis if it
feels fairly innocent and you can have a bit of a laugh and
then tell it on your podcast a couple of days later.
What do you think you're too friendly sometimes?
Because more to that point, I mean, we took a night bus to
Banana Way or Banana Way. Banana Way.
Banana. Way.
It's called Banali. It's got some rice fields there.
(12:25):
It's a very interesting place. We took a night bus.
When we boarded the bus, I mean,immediately, within seconds, you
were turned around. You were talking to the people
behind us, all that stuff. I give off a different vibe.
I'm taking my contact lenses out.
The glasses are on. I'm wrapping myself in Pashanka,
my cursed Bedouin robe. Yeah.
And I'm sort of going to sleep straight away.
(12:46):
I feel like you, you create a social environment on the bus
and it's led to, I mean, complications in terms of Airbnb
because now we've got friends that are staying with us, so.
Well, yeah, I, I don't know whatthat is.
I know that I've now been toutedas the more sociable one of the
two. Yeah.
When conversation gets going, I mean, I, I kind of sit out of
the discussions that we're having now with with our good
(13:08):
friend. Yeah, Yeah.
Yeah, so I have, I'm more extroverted, but less social.
What that means is in in this context of travel, I think I
have a threshold. Yeah.
The ones you pace through the membane and I decide that you're
OK, then I'm extroverted and it's like we're friends.
But getting beyond that threshold with me is sometimes
difficult. And I think it's an interesting
point because I think I do that to protect myself because I've
(13:30):
been travelling for so long, meeting so many different
people. I mean, we've travelled for
similar amounts of time, but you've definitely had more roots
and be more bedded than me. I've definitely been fleeting
from hostile to hostile, engaging all these new temporary
relationships with more frequency.
So I think having that protective mechanism of I'm not
going to let everyone in immediately probably serves me
(13:51):
well in that environment. It's also about efficiency,
isn't it? And conserving energy.
I would quite happily spend the entire bus journey chatting to
someone about, you know, whatever.
Because I can't think of anything worse.
But you, you got things to to think about.
You got, you know, stresses and things on a on a night bus that
maybe I don't have. Like, I know I'm going to be
(14:13):
awake for the entirety of the journey, right?
That's. I'm trying to sleep.
Yeah, and I think we've probablygot a good dynamic between us on
a night bus now where I'm more than happy to give you the
window, mate. I'm more than happy to give you
the window, OK, because I know you're just going to pop your
head up against it. And yeah.
Well, on the way there you popped your head on my shoulder,
didn't you? Was that annoying?
No, what I liked was the fact that you slowly did it with
(14:34):
without much weight and I could almost feel that your eyes were
like completely open. You were like, is he going to
say anything? Is he going to say anything?
And then you're like stuck your ear to my shoulder and that
pause there for a second. He's allowed it.
He's allowed it. And then you like let yourself
kind of. Relax.
Yeah. And it's difficult to talk to
you telepathically in that situation because I would have
been totally comfortable with you just popping your popping
your shoulder up and saying go and fuck up.
(14:55):
Like for fans of martial arts out there, like Conor McGregor
did against Cowboy Cerrone in his comeback fight where he sort
of just like leapt up with one shoulder and sort of like
shrugged him off out of the clinch.
I imagine that would be the method to get you dislodged in
that if I just done a kind of half shoulder shrug.
Yeah. I mean, another thing that was
going on in the bus, which I really wanted to get involved
(15:16):
with, but I was very conscious of how it would impact me and
you and our trip was there was some French popping off behind
us, wasn't there? Couldn't believe.
He would get involved in French language conversation.
Because it wasn't, it wasn't just two French people having a
conversation, it was the guy that we're now travelling with
who speaks very high level French having a conversation
with a French person. And I was like eavesdropping.
(15:37):
I could see you. Bristling like, Oh my God, Oh my
God, Oh my God. I also speak French, the French
triumphia conform. But you kind of like, you didn't
want to, I guess, because I was there as an English, as an
Anglophonic sort of wedge in your French trapdoor.
Yeah, well, I guess that's where, because we've been such
close friends for such a long time, we're already a few steps
ahead of each other here. So I knew that you would you
(16:00):
like, I knew that you would knowthat I wanted to engage in
conversation. So therefore thought I'm not
going to give him the pleasure. Of getting that, of getting
that. You knew that I knew that you
knew you were going to speak French, and therefore you don't
give me that point. Yeah, I mean, we've even met a
couple of French people along the way with this guy who speak
for and has spoken French to them since, and I still haven't
(16:21):
really engaged. So it's kind of AI don't know
what that I don't know what thisis about me I'm proud of you
for. Playing the triple mind game.
We really should talk about those battered rice fields in by
the way, so we'll do that after a brief meditation break.
I hate arriving at an airport and needing to prove I have an
onward ticket before boarding the plane.
(16:42):
It's the worst. I don't know when I'm going to
leave the country. OK, I'm the traveller.
That's why instead of buying a flight, we use a flight rental
service. Yeah, it's so convenient.
You just find a flight, rent it for 48 hours.
So it's the assistant they let you on the plane.
Onwardticket.com They're a greatcompany.
Click the link in the description.
Support the podcast. Like a piece of rice being
(17:04):
cultivated in one of the most ancient, most beautiful rice
Paddy fields in the old damn world.
Allow your conscious mind to return into your brain.
Adam and I, we've arrived in Banaway and we're going to go to
the bat had rice fields aforementionedly ancient.
They're over 2000 years old. They're incredibly beautiful.
We made our way there. What did you think of them?
(17:25):
I thought they were absolutely astonishing.
I mean, rice fields, rice terraces are in the the tiny
fraction of things that humans have have done to land way the
way that we've worked landscapesthat I think actually
aesthetically make them more beautiful.
Yes, I think that there's something funny about travelling
for as long time as we have. Like it's neither of us.
It's neither of our first time seeing rice terraces before.
(17:48):
Oh goodness. So it goes.
Maybe it's the 5th or 6th time I've seen a rice terrace, but
this French guy was behind us onthe bus.
He wanted to come along with us so he said yeah of course man,
don't worry, he's just an 18 year old lad with his whole life
ahead of him. He said.
I just want to get up close and personal with some rice.
He. Just referred to him as a French
man. He's English, but he speaks
French. Oh yeah?
Yeah. Well.
(18:08):
Exactly. Yeah, one of those French
people. Ironically has the same name as
the previous French person you mentioned on the podcast.
So give you getting confused. He did.
He wanted to get up and close, up close and personal to some
rice. Which I just want to see some
rice in the flesh. And I said, well, we can make
that happen for you. I've got some news for you,
mate. There's no flesh.
There's not much flesh. Made me excited about the rice
(18:30):
because I felt like I was travelling through his young
francophilic eyes, you know, I got to see the rice in a whole
new vibe, but. What was quite interesting?
I don't know if this speaks to him as well, It probably does,
but I didn't feel almost any older than him.
He's 18 years old and he's travelling with us.
It's just the three of us. I'm obviously the oldest of the
(18:50):
bunch. Yeah.
And we're walking around these rice fields, spending, You know
what it's like when you go hiking or whatever, you have
conversations for hours and you learn a lot about a person, even
just a one afternoon. Yeah, but I really felt like.
He was one of us. I mean, I'm twice his age.
Mature the French, though, aren't they?
So well, I will say about the rice fields.
I mean, 2000 years old in 2009 they declared that there was no
(19:13):
GM organisms anywhere on the terraces.
Completely GM free. OK.
And that means you get some of the purest, most delicious rice
anywhere in the world. It's just eaten locally.
It's like serves the community started by tribal people
thousands of years ago. Very, very picturesque.
It's on the back of the 20 peso.No, in it is it Think so.
(19:36):
I only deal with five hundreds, mate.
I wouldn't know. Yeah, so we hit the big time
some. Waterfalls there that are very
beautiful. The walk itself, I've done some
fucking hiking at my time, you know, I've been to the
Himalayas, all that stuff. But the combination of the
steepness of the steps and the sharpness of the Soleil, the
sun, for all our French listeners, those two things
(19:59):
combined, I mean, were dangerous.
Yeah, yeah, they were. In terms of the rice terraces
themselves, I think they're hailed as one of the most
beautiful set of rice terraces you can find on Earth.
It's a UNESCO World Heritage site as well.
Absolutely astonishing. Ridiculously steep.
So, so steep and so, so hot, yousaid almost immediately you're
(20:21):
like, I think heat strokes A foregone conclusion.
Yeah, it doesn't matter how muchwater we drink today.
It doesn't matter how little we spend in direct sunlight.
I'm quite sure that after because we we're going to do the
hike. I mean, you kind of arrive at
the the village, it's only accessible by by foot.
Yeah, we made, I'm going to say,a mistake.
We made a mistake by having something to eat.
Not, not. It wasn't the fact that we had
(20:42):
something to eat before we did the hike.
It was the fact that we chose a restaurant that then took about
an hour to prepare the food. I had some chicken and she
literally went out like finding a chicken, murdering it,
slucking it, all that stuff on site.
Yeah, it might have been. All the rice that you can see is
consumed locally, however the chicken probably.
Would have chosen the chicken ifI'd known it was going to be
that chicken right there. Yeah.
(21:03):
And you know, what that does to the rest of the day means that
instead of starting the hike at,say, 9 or 10 AM, you start the
hike at 11:30. And then it's the middle of the
day, sun's at its highest point,and we're walking around for a
few hours at least to the waterfall, which was
extraordinary. Strange thing about the
waterfall, first time in my travel history no one near it.
(21:24):
Yeah, but, but because I told you this at the time, the
Encantos, those are the Filipinospirits.
Tabi, tabi PO makiki rampo. That's what you got to say to
keep him at Bay. There you go.
Adam paid no dividends to the Encantos, I thought, because
they clearly, you know that theygot the waterfall.
You know that you can't get too close.
You stepped out into the waterfall as closer than anyone
(21:45):
else. I.
Wanted a full on swim? And I think that's what unstuck
you later on and we'll talk about that in a little bit
because you did get heat stroke.How you think it was the
Encantos? I'd be very, very surprised if
it wasn't the Encantos, yeah. I mean, it's very unusual to see
a waterfall and I love going close to water force because you
feel the power, can't you if thewater and it could, the wind
(22:06):
sort of blows you back. It's, you know, it's a surreal
experience. I really love it.
So I was I was prepared to swim close enough to feel that, but
absolutely no one else was goinganywhere near it.
Everyone was just enjoying it from a distance.
But for a. Wall of Filipino spirits keeping
them away. Yeah, you know that the heat was
a bad thing because I asked someone, a stranger, for
sunscreen. Yeah, which is?
(22:28):
Typically your role in in our group.
Yeah, and, and important to add,you're normally the one who's
very good at putting on sunscreen and not the one who
talks. Yeah.
So. So not only were you already
wearing sunscreen, you still approach this complete stranger
and ask them for more sun cream,which you did for the group and
I'm very grateful of, but it didn't save me from a little
cheeky heat stroke. Yeah.
(22:48):
So once we finished our sojourn around the rice towers, you were
like, we're definitely, definitely getting sunscroke.
We took a motorbike back and we were zipping all the way back
to, by the way, from Batad. So it's all of like a 40 minute
cycle ride. Yeah, yeah.
So I mean, we were in a tuk tuk,the guy's driving.
It's essentially A motorbike with a sidecar.
Yeah, me and the French guy werein the side and you were on the
(23:12):
motorbike itself. He goes over a great at one
point you go flying off, sort ofmanaged to save yourself and run
alongside the bike. I think that was the work of an
Encantos. You mean you mean it was like
when Cantos say we're going to just make him check himself
here, we're going to scare him enough that he realizes he's
done something wrong, but not tothe point where he rolls his
(23:33):
ankle and it ruins his whole? Trip Absolutely.
Well, I think they're doing whatthey can with the powers they've
got, and I think that one thing in the Cantos is want to do is
throw you off a bite. Yeah, it was like like a cattle
grid. Luckily we were going uphill,
but we're still going, We're still on a motorbike, right.
And just the way that the the bike sort of popped in and out
of the of the grill made me go airborne because I wasn't
(23:54):
holding on. What I was actually trying to do
with my hands was use my scarf to cover my face because I was
inhaling all of the fumes. There was a lot of fumes kicking
out the back of that. Bike.
Some say it's a motorbike, some say it's a normal engine, other
people will say it's in Kantos. The French guy was going into
his. He was like a turtle retreating
into his T-shirt. And I, I kind of popped off.
I got airborne. I was what, what would you say?
(24:15):
Nothing more than about 5 seconds in the air.
Yeah, probably about 5 seconds of hang time followed by a Loony
Tools style run. Yeah, kind of did a skateboard,
some sort of manoeuvre in the air and then carried on running
almost like a cartoon next to the bike.
You actually overtook the bike. And then jump back on and you,
bless you God, pop your head outthe side car and went, mate, you
all right? I was like, yeah, no, I'm fine.
(24:36):
I didn't fall over or anything. But I am.
I should have been holding. And then in Kantos strike #2 we
got back to Banana Way and you went and my head hurts and I'm
going to bed. Yeah, it was really early for
me. I mean, I don't like to to admit
that I suffer from that sort of stuff.
But as we heard on the Patinder's episode, when we were
in Pakistan, got a bit of altitude sickness and here got
(24:57):
some heat stroke. I don't get it that often, but I
was also, hang on, can we just preface this by saying I was
wearing a sweater? I was wearing a thick black
sweater for the entirety of the time we were hiking out because
I had chosen to not get sunburned but contract or some
form of heat stroke or whatever.So it's a strange decision, but
I think on balance I would rather have the heat stroke and
(25:18):
not get sunburned than have sunburn and not get heat.
Stroke. Now I didn't have the symptoms
of heat stroke, right. Do you think that's because I
was recently in Brazil for Carnival and have acclimatized
to the heat stroke? Or do you think it's because I
showed some fucking respect to the encounter?
By not going near the waterfall.By saying.
Www.makiki Rampo by not going close to the waterfall, by being
(25:40):
a general guy on the vibe, showing respect to nature while
we're here in the Philippines. Is it column A or column B?
Would you say it's? Difficult because you did say
that little phrase quite early on in the hike.
I repeated it under my breath several times as well.
Every time I felt an in Kantos get near.
Yeah, I don't know. It's difficult One, I think it's
probably just the fact that maybe I'm more susceptible to
heat stroke than you are. Could that be something that's.
(26:02):
It's easy to think that, it's easy to say that if you want to,
but again, I would. I think you taking that line is
a little bit disrespectful to the encounter.
So it's a self perpetuating problem, isn't?
It, I mean, the heat stroke itself was crippling because I
had, I wanted to just spend a good evening.
I mean, we'd, we'd actually likeallocated some time in the
evening to play a bit of ball, maybe even have a beer.
(26:23):
Haven't had a drop of alcohol since I've been in the
Philippines with you. It's been over a week.
Guys, me of course, in recovery,no alcohol at all.
Has that been a positive impact on your life, do you think, or
has it been a net negative? I want to be completely honest
with you and the listening audience.
Yeah, always. I don't feel any better than I
would do if I'd had a drink. Really.
I don't think that. Yeah, I mean, I do think that.
(26:44):
I think I would be, you would think, oh, a week off alcohol.
I was drinking, I wouldn't say heavily in New Zealand, but I
like a drink and I work in the wine industry.
So I'm of course I'm, I'm going to be drinking fairly regularly,
but. You don't feel any better now,
is that evidence that actually the alcohol wasn't causing much
harm to your body? Or is it that an encampus is
sapping your energy at present as we speak?
(27:05):
And actually, you would feel fucking incredible that I'm free
from alcohol, but the encampus is draining your sort of energy
out from under. You, well, I don't know how
much, how much control they havebecause it's it's a lot.
I don't, I don't want to rationalize how I'm feeling.
But we are also getting night buses and having shit sleep.
Yeah. And are they night buses?
(27:27):
Oh, as an Encantos stolen the sun.
Yeah, I don't know. I mean the fate that I succumb
to I guess is, is far less than what it used to be back in the
40s. Because an interesting tidbit I
read on the Internet last night on the night bus that I wasn't
asleep on because of the encantos, because of my
behaviour. Yeah, in the in the water.
Because every time I'm fall asleep, an Encantos slaps.
(27:48):
You know, it's like that. Oh.
You disrespect. What bikini Rambo?
I was fast asleep. Yeah, there was basically in in
World War Two, there was a, a Japanese general that went to
the area in search for gold. I I think his name's General
Yamashita, but I'm now drawing from the, you know.
Yeah, yeah. I think it's really in the
(28:09):
ballpark, the General Yamashita.Yeah, Yamashita.
And he was searching for gold inthe area.
And back then there, there was agroup of headhunters, the
original tribespeople that sort of.
Started the rice fields, yeah. Yeah, yeah, Descendants of.
They just killed him because they were headhunters.
So maybe I should feel grateful that the the fate I suffered was
(28:29):
only heat stroke. Yeah.
And you know, thank goodness I'mnot parading my head around on a
stick saying look at this guy who want to get close to a
waterfall. I think that's something we can
all be thankful for as we embarkon the next leg of our Filipino
adventure, which is going to take place primarily in Manila,
the aforementioned Bethlehem of the resurgence, the rebirth of
(28:50):
this tripological event. Guys, we've got big, big things
coming. If you've made it to this part
of the episode, I mean, you at least like the show a little
bit. So thank you for sticking
around. We love you very much.
In a few weeks time, namely the first weekend of July, some
things are going to happen with Tripology.
It's going to still be the same amazing show, but we've got this
(29:12):
new aim to be the biggest, best travel podcast in the world by
the end of 2025. And to do that, we're going to
reshuffle things around a littlebit.
We're going to have some new dynamic artwork.
We're going to make some updatesto the to the website, to the
format of the show. There's going to be some
brilliant, brilliant things coming, but we wanted to find
some way to sort of say thank you to the to the people who are
(29:33):
fans of the show right now and the fans who have been with us
since the start. Now we have a Patreon section
and after the show we do this thing called the Lost and Found
section where we go and talk about all random little events
and stories. It comes out 24 hours early,
only costs a dollar to have access to that Patreon show as
patreon.com/tripology podcast. A lot of the people who love
(29:54):
this show and listen to this show see the T-shirts that me.
Unfortunately, we don't wear oneright now.
Adam, go and get a T-shirt if you have 1:00.
Nice. I am going to but.
We have a T-shirt that the fans of the show often ask us for.
So it's our original logo design.
Because we're doing a bit of a reshuffle of the branding and
artwork. We don't want to be in a
situation where people who love that old design and asked us
(30:15):
when can we get a T-shirt design?
When can we get that T-shirt design?
We we always want to deliver. So just for our Patreon
subscribers who are members of the Patreon, before the first
weekend of July, we're going to give you a coupon code to go and
get that T-shirt from our website at cost.
Just pay the cost of the T-shirtand shipping.
We'll be able to get that to you.
(30:36):
We wish we could do more for youright now.
That's all we can do just to make that T-shirt design
available. So sign up to our Patreon before
the first weekend of July, we'llsend you a coupon code.
You'll be the only people who can buy that T-shirt from our
website. And then we'll go on to launch a
full merchant store in the near future for everyone else.
So now there's no better time tojoin the Patreon.
(30:58):
Like like I say, a dollar a month and you get access to lost
and found section. Get the show 24 hours early.
There are huge things coming forthis podcast in the very, very
near future. So stay tuned and thank you so
much for listening. Yeah, we really appreciate the
support. It's been an amazing 2 1/2
years. Lots of great things are going
to stay the same. Lots of exciting things are
going to happen. We do get asked about this much
(31:19):
very, very regularly. And I can't wait for hope,
hopefully people to be representing the show.
Yeah, we're just going to produce that as easily as
possible for you, and as with minimal cost to you, you're not
going to make any money from it.That's just so we can make that
T-shirt available in limited runjust for the Patreon
subscribers. A little bit of admin at the end
there. There'll be more information on
the reformatting of the show in the next couple of weeks, but it
(31:40):
will happen in July. We cannot wait and we'll see you
all next week. We'll see you there.
Bye.
We hiked through ancient rice terraces.
Play the theme music. Hello and welcome to this
episode of Tripology. I'm Alan on here with the ever
(00:22):
cultivated Adam. Like a genetically modified crop
with no nutritional value. Well, I'll come back to the
concept of genetic modification and crops later in the episode
because we're talking all about hiking through them.
What's some of the most ancient rice Paddy fields terraces in
the world as we continue our sojourn through the Philippines?
(00:42):
Yeah, we've just been on a little 2 day, three day jaunt,
haven't we? A couple of crazy night buses,
but we are currently back in Manila, a city that we are
really enjoying. Yeah, I enjoy it too.
And it's become ever such a tripological hub.
There's a lot of amazing things brewing.
And Manila is very much becominga new sort of Bethlehem for the
(01:03):
rebirth of a tripological event the likes of which the world has
never seen. There's going to be all kinds of
news coming over the next few months.
You get ready like one of the three wise men.
You have the opportunity now to look at the tripological stars
and be a part of a wonderful movement.
Yeah, it's all taking place in Manila.
Manila, fair to say, got a bit of a bad rap in the backpacking
scene. Was it really?
(01:23):
I don't know anything about that.
Ignorant of its wrap. Well, if you were to judge a
place by your experiences in it,which we always do encourage
people to do, it's been overwhelmingly positive.
I've been overwhelmed by positivity.
Absolutely. I can scarcely find time to go
about my daily chores, brush my teeth, have a shower, do my
evolutions because I'm so busy being overwhelmed.
Yeah. I mean, I was back, well, back
(01:45):
in 2015, I was in Manila and I had heard that it was dangerous.
And I guess that was not compounded, but certainly
confirmed by the fact that I waswalking through Rizal Park one
afternoon somewhere that we've been together and and it felt
almost positive reaction to land.
If we're going to say no, I'm Jackie.
But yeah, there was a group of guys there who were roughly the
(02:06):
same age as I was back then, so early 20s, mid 20s.
And they signaled to me from across the way that they were
going to slit my throat. And one of them did sort of a
gun sign where he was going to shoot me.
Once you've shot someone, the slitting of their throat becomes
a redundant threat, doesn't it? Yeah.
I mean it was kind of in that order.
So I mean, in in that example, obviously it didn't feel very
(02:26):
safe. Other than that felt really
safe. And then I mean, we we must add
that we have been in McCarthy City, which is kind of the more
commercial upmarket, one of the wealthier areas.
So we can't speak to the whole of Manila really.
But yeah, harsh, isn't it? I mean, if you do think that
Manila is one of those places you don't want to go because
you've heard horror stories, just give it a go.
(02:47):
You are no one to attract attention from the Filipino
people. I've noticed it.
Really. Yeah, I've noticed it by the
stories you've told me, basically.
OK, so you, you know, you've hada few suitors, haven't you?
Yeah, well, it's ironically the story I'm about to tell is
probably when I've felt most unsafe.
Yeah, yeah, I want to hear aboutit again.
I've already heard this story once, but I am not the
(03:10):
tripological audience. I'm just one of the hosts.
Yeah, I mean unsafe, of course. That is a little bit of a joke.
I was totally in control of the situation, but this was way back
when, three days ago. And even though the listener
might think that when we're together, we do everything
together, we do spend a lot of time together, but sometimes we
like to do things separately. Yeah.
And this is one of the things that we always do separately as
(03:31):
well, which is get changed. You were getting changed,
weren't you? Yeah, I had.
It was on the day that we were checking out of this apartment
with the incredibly slow elevator and you were upstairs
doing your thing, you were getting your bag ready and all
that sort of stuff. I thought I'll take the
opportunity. I was actually getting changed
upstairs. You do it at opposite ends of
(03:53):
the building. Yeah, just to make sure neither
of us looks. Yeah.
So yeah, I, I was down having a swim in the complex.
You know, there's a obviously a communal swimming pool.
And then I went to have a showerin the changing rooms.
But now, I'll be completely honest, the guy listening, the
guy that this involves may well be listening to this.
I don't know. Yeah.
(04:13):
So I've got to tread a little bit carefully, but I'm going to
tell. Everything you do, I'm.
Going to tell the story exactly as it happened and I've got the
photos to prove it as you take asip of your coconut water.
I had noticed that when I went into the shower cubicle there
was a man on the left hand side in a different cubicle,
completely naked but with the door open and I thought that's
fine, I feel comfortable with that.
(04:34):
Nice. If anything, we're all boys
together. Yeah, it made me feel relaxed.
So I put, I put my, I put my stuff down.
I thought South Korea. No, I put my stuff down.
Had a shower came out and there I was drying myself, flossing
with the towel as as you do. And and then he was kind of
looking in the mirror, cleaning his ears with a cotton bud.
(04:55):
Nice. You can't make that up.
Now I've noticed that you are a user of the cotton bud because
I've seen them in the bathroom. I personally think they're bad
for the environment. Maybe they are, but I don't.
I also don't use them in their traditional fashion.
I do use it to sort of clean my my nose piercing.
I don't know if I've mentioned that on an episode before, but I
got my nose pierced. Is that the only reason you use
cotton buds is to keep your piercings clean?
No, no, every now and again I'lldo the ears.
(05:17):
For sure you've always done that.
Would you always travel with cotton buds even prior to the
piercing? Situation.
No, not really because I think I've been told that they are
very bad for your ears, not justthe environment.
Yeah. Don't they kind of push the
whatever is in there? Very.
Careful, you'll end up pushing some wax deeper.
Yeah. I mean, I'm no expert, but I
just want clean ears. Can we do in that situation on?
This guy, I didn't know that he was there.
He was jamming wax deep into hisear holes.
(05:39):
Well, I'm not going to give him a bloody lecture in the changing
room. Survive.
Well, I'm starkers and go, oh, I've noticed that you're
clearing cleaning your ears. I'm not sure you care about the
environment. That's one of the key
differences between us. I'd have gone up and said, Sir,
have you thought about the health of your cochlea?
So anyway, we sort of caught each other's eye in the mirror
that was in front of us. Yeah.
He looked at me and said, oh, what are you doing here?
(06:01):
I said, oh, I'm, you know, visiting my friend.
Whatever, he said. Oh, OK.
I'm we work for a talent agency.I've got kind of contacts in
modelling and I think you've gota really nice body and that is
that's a great compliment. Nice to hear, but.
When, when you're absolutely starkers and he's not and, and
(06:24):
sort of looking you up and down in an appreciative way.
I was caught off guard a little bit because it it, there was no
preamble up to that. It was just straight in.
I felt quite comfortable, he said.
Look, I don't know how long you're going to be in Manila
for, but I would really. I'm free to know that.
But I would, I would really liketo take your details and maybe
(06:46):
put you forward to do some, somemodelling in entertainment.
Is that something you'll be interested in?
And I was thinking about the podcast in general.
I thought the Philippines, it's not a market we've tapped into.
It could be one that we, you know, it's quite prosperous for
us. So it's a lot of backpackers
obviously in, in the Philippines.
If I can do some or we can do some modelling, I hope you don't
mind. But I showed him pictures of you
(07:06):
as well. Yeah, OK.
What do you? Think not.
Not the ones in my recently deleted album.
What else is he going to say other than, oh, he's very
handsome as well? He's gone, oh, because any of
him with his top half, no, his body ain't is good.
But yeah, he he then got his camera out, his phone out and
just pointed it in my direction when I still have my towel in my
(07:26):
hand. Yeah.
And I mean that that is just in terms of etiquette and ethics.
I would say it's unprofessional at best and the worst Adam, it's
a predatory man hitting your fornudes in a shower cubicle.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, he said could you mind if I take a few
photos of you? I said no, but as long as it's
(07:48):
sort of from from the shoulders up once I've got my towel around
me, the. Right answer to that question
was yes. I do mind a bit on accounts of
the fact that I have a public facing podcast and I'm Naked and
you've got a camera. And you could extort me for
money. Yeah.
So no, You know, I put the towelaround me.
It was all in good spirits. Absolutely.
I felt totally comfortable. And then he said, have you have
(08:11):
you got a partner? I said, well, yeah, what do you
mean? He was like, no, no, I'm just,
I'm gay as well. And, and, and he and he said,
even though I'm 60, I I still sex well.
And I was like, I don't know where this is going.
So what happened is like, this is basically just a, a
situation. I mean, it's what we all
(08:32):
thought. It's you being hit on by a gay
man. It's not anything to do with
modelling at all. Yeah, I mean, it's a hell of an
elaborate story. It could well be true and I'm
still waiting for that text message.
Has he not even texted you back?Well, I didn't text him first.
You've been. Texted him every day since hey
only going to be in minimum for a few more days.
Any modelling work question mark?
(08:53):
If you want me to send more photos I can do that, just if
you want my height. Sorry for putting this help back
on, it was a mistake. I should have just let you do
what you. Want.
Yeah, yeah, he did ask my heightand he got a little sort of
video and a few head shots and all that sort of stuff.
It was a really. Strange about the height.
About the height. Yeah, yeah.
OK, good. Yeah, I said.
Yeah, I want a good day. When I wake up, I'm eleven.
(09:16):
Who's asking? No.
So yeah, 511 for all those people who don't know.
OK, well what's the? Cautionary tale, because I think
you were a little naive in this situation, in this context, was
if it was me, you know what my reaction would have been, don't
you? Yeah, totally.
Yeah, you would have said go bananas.
Yeah, good bananas, man. No, you know that I would have
just been like, sorry, I'm leaving the changing room
(09:38):
because I'm unfriendly to peoplewho aren't trying to take
pictures of me in the news usually.
Yeah. I mean, we do, yeah.
But yeah, funny, funny you should mention that because
that's where I was kind of going.
At which point in this story do you think you would have shut it
down? Immediately.
What as? Soon as I saw a.
Camera, the cotton bud come out.Yeah.
Yeah, I'd have been like, think about your cochlear health.
(09:58):
I would have left in disgust. No, no, I think as soon as as
soon as he came up to me and started talking about modeling,
I'd have been like, oh, Sir, I'mnot interested.
Really. Yeah, but you've seen me.
I'm sometimes standoffish. And I mean, we met someone in
the Benai Rice field, a lovely guy who's not hanging out with
us a little bit. I didn't speak to him for the
first hour he was in. I'll come there just like you 2
talk until I got the general vibe.
(10:19):
I'm quite unapproachable. Yeah, I mean, this is, this is a
funny thing that's just spring sprung to my mind in real time.
You know, when you have those yearbooks.
I wonder if I've mentioned that on the podcast before, but, you
know, in when you're 161516, when you leave school, secondary
school, you have yearbooks. Yeah.
And it's just loads of photos ofeach class and all that kind of
stuff. And, and usually there's a fun
section where it's like, most likely to be an actor.
(10:40):
Yeah. Super.
The tips, they're called. Yeah, yeah.
Most likely to be. I mean, what would be another
example most likely to be rich? Yeah, whatever.
Most likely to marry a supermodel that kind.
Of yeah, yeah, so so I won the category.
I was awarded the category by like the 8 girls who made this
book. Well, they were given charge of
that. Yeah, there were, There were,
there were around 8 girls in my in my last year of secondary
school who were given the task of producing the yearbook for
(11:03):
the entire year. And of course they got probably
other people involved, teachers and all that sort of stuff.
There's already an existing format that they have to fit
within, but I won the category of most likely to make it as a
model. OK.
Do you do you think when they assigned you that they
anticipated that that would comeby way of a predatory Filipino
man or do they think it was really more traditional?
(11:23):
Well, I think more to the point is that maybe that is buried
somewhere in my head. And now any opportunity I get, I
think this is me living my dream.
This is what everyone thought I was going to be when I was
older. And now this is my opportunity.
My big opportunity at the age of35 in a changing room in some
fucking apartment. So when that guy comes up to
you, in everyone else's mind is like, oh, hold on, this doesn't
feel quite right. What's this?
(11:44):
You're going finally. Now's the time.
The universe has set me up an opportunity.
I'm gonna grab it with. Both apps okay, only 15 years
too late, but I'm still ready. Yeah, okay, fair enough.
You never know. You never know, do you?
So yeah, with those types of things, I think it's important
(12:04):
what you know, what's the take away.
It's maybe manage the situationson a case by case basis if it
feels fairly innocent and you can have a bit of a laugh and
then tell it on your podcast a couple of days later.
What do you think you're too friendly sometimes?
Because more to that point, I mean, we took a night bus to
Banana Way or Banana Way. Banana Way.
Banana. Way.
It's called Banali. It's got some rice fields there.
(12:25):
It's a very interesting place. We took a night bus.
When we boarded the bus, I mean,immediately, within seconds, you
were turned around. You were talking to the people
behind us, all that stuff. I give off a different vibe.
I'm taking my contact lenses out.
The glasses are on. I'm wrapping myself in Pashanka,
my cursed Bedouin robe. Yeah.
And I'm sort of going to sleep straight away.
(12:46):
I feel like you, you create a social environment on the bus
and it's led to, I mean, complications in terms of Airbnb
because now we've got friends that are staying with us, so.
Well, yeah, I, I don't know whatthat is.
I know that I've now been toutedas the more sociable one of the
two. Yeah.
When conversation gets going, I mean, I, I kind of sit out of
the discussions that we're having now with with our good
(13:08):
friend. Yeah, Yeah.
Yeah, so I have, I'm more extroverted, but less social.
What that means is in in this context of travel, I think I
have a threshold. Yeah.
The ones you pace through the membane and I decide that you're
OK, then I'm extroverted and it's like we're friends.
But getting beyond that threshold with me is sometimes
difficult. And I think it's an interesting
point because I think I do that to protect myself because I've
(13:30):
been travelling for so long, meeting so many different
people. I mean, we've travelled for
similar amounts of time, but you've definitely had more roots
and be more bedded than me. I've definitely been fleeting
from hostile to hostile, engaging all these new temporary
relationships with more frequency.
So I think having that protective mechanism of I'm not
going to let everyone in immediately probably serves me
(13:51):
well in that environment. It's also about efficiency,
isn't it? And conserving energy.
I would quite happily spend the entire bus journey chatting to
someone about, you know, whatever.
Because I can't think of anything worse.
But you, you got things to to think about.
You got, you know, stresses and things on a on a night bus that
maybe I don't have. Like, I know I'm going to be
(14:13):
awake for the entirety of the journey, right?
That's. I'm trying to sleep.
Yeah, and I think we've probablygot a good dynamic between us on
a night bus now where I'm more than happy to give you the
window, mate. I'm more than happy to give you
the window, OK, because I know you're just going to pop your
head up against it. And yeah.
Well, on the way there you popped your head on my shoulder,
didn't you? Was that annoying?
No, what I liked was the fact that you slowly did it with
(14:34):
without much weight and I could almost feel that your eyes were
like completely open. You were like, is he going to
say anything? Is he going to say anything?
And then you're like stuck your ear to my shoulder and that
pause there for a second. He's allowed it.
He's allowed it. And then you like let yourself
kind of. Relax.
Yeah. And it's difficult to talk to
you telepathically in that situation because I would have
been totally comfortable with you just popping your popping
your shoulder up and saying go and fuck up.
(14:55):
Like for fans of martial arts out there, like Conor McGregor
did against Cowboy Cerrone in his comeback fight where he sort
of just like leapt up with one shoulder and sort of like
shrugged him off out of the clinch.
I imagine that would be the method to get you dislodged in
that if I just done a kind of half shoulder shrug.
Yeah. I mean, another thing that was
going on in the bus, which I really wanted to get involved
(15:16):
with, but I was very conscious of how it would impact me and
you and our trip was there was some French popping off behind
us, wasn't there? Couldn't believe.
He would get involved in French language conversation.
Because it wasn't, it wasn't just two French people having a
conversation, it was the guy that we're now travelling with
who speaks very high level French having a conversation
with a French person. And I was like eavesdropping.
(15:37):
I could see you. Bristling like, Oh my God, Oh my
God, Oh my God. I also speak French, the French
triumphia conform. But you kind of like, you didn't
want to, I guess, because I was there as an English, as an
Anglophonic sort of wedge in your French trapdoor.
Yeah, well, I guess that's where, because we've been such
close friends for such a long time, we're already a few steps
ahead of each other here. So I knew that you would you
(16:00):
like, I knew that you would knowthat I wanted to engage in
conversation. So therefore thought I'm not
going to give him the pleasure. Of getting that, of getting
that. You knew that I knew that you
knew you were going to speak French, and therefore you don't
give me that point. Yeah, I mean, we've even met a
couple of French people along the way with this guy who speak
for and has spoken French to them since, and I still haven't
(16:21):
really engaged. So it's kind of AI don't know
what that I don't know what thisis about me I'm proud of you
for. Playing the triple mind game.
We really should talk about those battered rice fields in by
the way, so we'll do that after a brief meditation break.
I hate arriving at an airport and needing to prove I have an
onward ticket before boarding the plane.
(16:42):
It's the worst. I don't know when I'm going to
leave the country. OK, I'm the traveller.
That's why instead of buying a flight, we use a flight rental
service. Yeah, it's so convenient.
You just find a flight, rent it for 48 hours.
So it's the assistant they let you on the plane.
Onwardticket.com They're a greatcompany.
Click the link in the description.
Support the podcast. Like a piece of rice being
(17:04):
cultivated in one of the most ancient, most beautiful rice
Paddy fields in the old damn world.
Allow your conscious mind to return into your brain.
Adam and I, we've arrived in Banaway and we're going to go to
the bat had rice fields aforementionedly ancient.
They're over 2000 years old. They're incredibly beautiful.
We made our way there. What did you think of them?
(17:25):
I thought they were absolutely astonishing.
I mean, rice fields, rice terraces are in the the tiny
fraction of things that humans have have done to land way the
way that we've worked landscapesthat I think actually
aesthetically make them more beautiful.
Yes, I think that there's something funny about travelling
for as long time as we have. Like it's neither of us.
It's neither of our first time seeing rice terraces before.
(17:48):
Oh goodness. So it goes.
Maybe it's the 5th or 6th time I've seen a rice terrace, but
this French guy was behind us onthe bus.
He wanted to come along with us so he said yeah of course man,
don't worry, he's just an 18 year old lad with his whole life
ahead of him. He said.
I just want to get up close and personal with some rice.
He. Just referred to him as a French
man. He's English, but he speaks
French. Oh yeah?
Yeah. Well.
(18:08):
Exactly. Yeah, one of those French
people. Ironically has the same name as
the previous French person you mentioned on the podcast.
So give you getting confused. He did.
He wanted to get up and close, up close and personal to some
rice. Which I just want to see some
rice in the flesh. And I said, well, we can make
that happen for you. I've got some news for you,
mate. There's no flesh.
There's not much flesh. Made me excited about the rice
(18:30):
because I felt like I was travelling through his young
francophilic eyes, you know, I got to see the rice in a whole
new vibe, but. What was quite interesting?
I don't know if this speaks to him as well, It probably does,
but I didn't feel almost any older than him.
He's 18 years old and he's travelling with us.
It's just the three of us. I'm obviously the oldest of the
(18:50):
bunch. Yeah.
And we're walking around these rice fields, spending, You know
what it's like when you go hiking or whatever, you have
conversations for hours and you learn a lot about a person, even
just a one afternoon. Yeah, but I really felt like.
He was one of us. I mean, I'm twice his age.
Mature the French, though, aren't they?
So well, I will say about the rice fields.
I mean, 2000 years old in 2009 they declared that there was no
(19:13):
GM organisms anywhere on the terraces.
Completely GM free. OK.
And that means you get some of the purest, most delicious rice
anywhere in the world. It's just eaten locally.
It's like serves the community started by tribal people
thousands of years ago. Very, very picturesque.
It's on the back of the 20 peso.No, in it is it Think so.
(19:36):
I only deal with five hundreds, mate.
I wouldn't know. Yeah, so we hit the big time
some. Waterfalls there that are very
beautiful. The walk itself, I've done some
fucking hiking at my time, you know, I've been to the
Himalayas, all that stuff. But the combination of the
steepness of the steps and the sharpness of the Soleil, the
sun, for all our French listeners, those two things
(19:59):
combined, I mean, were dangerous.
Yeah, yeah, they were. In terms of the rice terraces
themselves, I think they're hailed as one of the most
beautiful set of rice terraces you can find on Earth.
It's a UNESCO World Heritage site as well.
Absolutely astonishing. Ridiculously steep.
So, so steep and so, so hot, yousaid almost immediately you're
(20:21):
like, I think heat strokes A foregone conclusion.
Yeah, it doesn't matter how muchwater we drink today.
It doesn't matter how little we spend in direct sunlight.
I'm quite sure that after because we we're going to do the
hike. I mean, you kind of arrive at
the the village, it's only accessible by by foot.
Yeah, we made, I'm going to say,a mistake.
We made a mistake by having something to eat.
Not, not. It wasn't the fact that we had
(20:42):
something to eat before we did the hike.
It was the fact that we chose a restaurant that then took about
an hour to prepare the food. I had some chicken and she
literally went out like finding a chicken, murdering it,
slucking it, all that stuff on site.
Yeah, it might have been. All the rice that you can see is
consumed locally, however the chicken probably.
Would have chosen the chicken ifI'd known it was going to be
that chicken right there. Yeah.
(21:03):
And you know, what that does to the rest of the day means that
instead of starting the hike at,say, 9 or 10 AM, you start the
hike at 11:30. And then it's the middle of the
day, sun's at its highest point,and we're walking around for a
few hours at least to the waterfall, which was
extraordinary. Strange thing about the
waterfall, first time in my travel history no one near it.
(21:24):
Yeah, but, but because I told you this at the time, the
Encantos, those are the Filipinospirits.
Tabi, tabi PO makiki rampo. That's what you got to say to
keep him at Bay. There you go.
Adam paid no dividends to the Encantos, I thought, because
they clearly, you know that theygot the waterfall.
You know that you can't get too close.
You stepped out into the waterfall as closer than anyone
(21:45):
else. I.
Wanted a full on swim? And I think that's what unstuck
you later on and we'll talk about that in a little bit
because you did get heat stroke.How you think it was the
Encantos? I'd be very, very surprised if
it wasn't the Encantos, yeah. I mean, it's very unusual to see
a waterfall and I love going close to water force because you
feel the power, can't you if thewater and it could, the wind
(22:06):
sort of blows you back. It's, you know, it's a surreal
experience. I really love it.
So I was I was prepared to swim close enough to feel that, but
absolutely no one else was goinganywhere near it.
Everyone was just enjoying it from a distance.
But for a. Wall of Filipino spirits keeping
them away. Yeah, you know that the heat was
a bad thing because I asked someone, a stranger, for
sunscreen. Yeah, which is?
(22:28):
Typically your role in in our group.
Yeah, and, and important to add,you're normally the one who's
very good at putting on sunscreen and not the one who
talks. Yeah.
So. So not only were you already
wearing sunscreen, you still approach this complete stranger
and ask them for more sun cream,which you did for the group and
I'm very grateful of, but it didn't save me from a little
cheeky heat stroke. Yeah.
(22:48):
So once we finished our sojourn around the rice towers, you were
like, we're definitely, definitely getting sunscroke.
We took a motorbike back and we were zipping all the way back
to, by the way, from Batad. So it's all of like a 40 minute
cycle ride. Yeah, yeah.
So I mean, we were in a tuk tuk,the guy's driving.
It's essentially A motorbike with a sidecar.
Yeah, me and the French guy werein the side and you were on the
(23:12):
motorbike itself. He goes over a great at one
point you go flying off, sort ofmanaged to save yourself and run
alongside the bike. I think that was the work of an
Encantos. You mean you mean it was like
when Cantos say we're going to just make him check himself
here, we're going to scare him enough that he realizes he's
done something wrong, but not tothe point where he rolls his
(23:33):
ankle and it ruins his whole? Trip Absolutely.
Well, I think they're doing whatthey can with the powers they've
got, and I think that one thing in the Cantos is want to do is
throw you off a bite. Yeah, it was like like a cattle
grid. Luckily we were going uphill,
but we're still going, We're still on a motorbike, right.
And just the way that the the bike sort of popped in and out
of the of the grill made me go airborne because I wasn't
(23:54):
holding on. What I was actually trying to do
with my hands was use my scarf to cover my face because I was
inhaling all of the fumes. There was a lot of fumes kicking
out the back of that. Bike.
Some say it's a motorbike, some say it's a normal engine, other
people will say it's in Kantos. The French guy was going into
his. He was like a turtle retreating
into his T-shirt. And I, I kind of popped off.
I got airborne. I was what, what would you say?
(24:15):
Nothing more than about 5 seconds in the air.
Yeah, probably about 5 seconds of hang time followed by a Loony
Tools style run. Yeah, kind of did a skateboard,
some sort of manoeuvre in the air and then carried on running
almost like a cartoon next to the bike.
You actually overtook the bike. And then jump back on and you,
bless you God, pop your head outthe side car and went, mate, you
all right? I was like, yeah, no, I'm fine.
(24:36):
I didn't fall over or anything. But I am.
I should have been holding. And then in Kantos strike #2 we
got back to Banana Way and you went and my head hurts and I'm
going to bed. Yeah, it was really early for
me. I mean, I don't like to to admit
that I suffer from that sort of stuff.
But as we heard on the Patinder's episode, when we were
in Pakistan, got a bit of altitude sickness and here got
(24:57):
some heat stroke. I don't get it that often, but I
was also, hang on, can we just preface this by saying I was
wearing a sweater? I was wearing a thick black
sweater for the entirety of the time we were hiking out because
I had chosen to not get sunburned but contract or some
form of heat stroke or whatever.So it's a strange decision, but
I think on balance I would rather have the heat stroke and
(25:18):
not get sunburned than have sunburn and not get heat.
Stroke. Now I didn't have the symptoms
of heat stroke, right. Do you think that's because I
was recently in Brazil for Carnival and have acclimatized
to the heat stroke? Or do you think it's because I
showed some fucking respect to the encounter?
By not going near the waterfall.By saying.
Www.makiki Rampo by not going close to the waterfall, by being
(25:40):
a general guy on the vibe, showing respect to nature while
we're here in the Philippines. Is it column A or column B?
Would you say it's? Difficult because you did say
that little phrase quite early on in the hike.
I repeated it under my breath several times as well.
Every time I felt an in Kantos get near.
Yeah, I don't know. It's difficult One, I think it's
probably just the fact that maybe I'm more susceptible to
heat stroke than you are. Could that be something that's.
(26:02):
It's easy to think that, it's easy to say that if you want to,
but again, I would. I think you taking that line is
a little bit disrespectful to the encounter.
So it's a self perpetuating problem, isn't?
It, I mean, the heat stroke itself was crippling because I
had, I wanted to just spend a good evening.
I mean, we'd, we'd actually likeallocated some time in the
evening to play a bit of ball, maybe even have a beer.
(26:23):
Haven't had a drop of alcohol since I've been in the
Philippines with you. It's been over a week.
Guys, me of course, in recovery,no alcohol at all.
Has that been a positive impact on your life, do you think, or
has it been a net negative? I want to be completely honest
with you and the listening audience.
Yeah, always. I don't feel any better than I
would do if I'd had a drink. Really.
I don't think that. Yeah, I mean, I do think that.
(26:44):
I think I would be, you would think, oh, a week off alcohol.
I was drinking, I wouldn't say heavily in New Zealand, but I
like a drink and I work in the wine industry.
So I'm of course I'm, I'm going to be drinking fairly regularly,
but. You don't feel any better now,
is that evidence that actually the alcohol wasn't causing much
harm to your body? Or is it that an encampus is
sapping your energy at present as we speak?
(27:05):
And actually, you would feel fucking incredible that I'm free
from alcohol, but the encampus is draining your sort of energy
out from under. You, well, I don't know how
much, how much control they havebecause it's it's a lot.
I don't, I don't want to rationalize how I'm feeling.
But we are also getting night buses and having shit sleep.
Yeah. And are they night buses?
(27:27):
Oh, as an Encantos stolen the sun.
Yeah, I don't know. I mean the fate that I succumb
to I guess is, is far less than what it used to be back in the
40s. Because an interesting tidbit I
read on the Internet last night on the night bus that I wasn't
asleep on because of the encantos, because of my
behaviour. Yeah, in the in the water.
Because every time I'm fall asleep, an Encantos slaps.
(27:48):
You know, it's like that. Oh.
You disrespect. What bikini Rambo?
I was fast asleep. Yeah, there was basically in in
World War Two, there was a, a Japanese general that went to
the area in search for gold. I I think his name's General
Yamashita, but I'm now drawing from the, you know.
Yeah, yeah. I think it's really in the
(28:09):
ballpark, the General Yamashita.Yeah, Yamashita.
And he was searching for gold inthe area.
And back then there, there was agroup of headhunters, the
original tribespeople that sort of.
Started the rice fields, yeah. Yeah, yeah, Descendants of.
They just killed him because they were headhunters.
So maybe I should feel grateful that the the fate I suffered was
(28:29):
only heat stroke. Yeah.
And you know, thank goodness I'mnot parading my head around on a
stick saying look at this guy who want to get close to a
waterfall. I think that's something we can
all be thankful for as we embarkon the next leg of our Filipino
adventure, which is going to take place primarily in Manila,
the aforementioned Bethlehem of the resurgence, the rebirth of
(28:50):
this tripological event. Guys, we've got big, big things
coming. If you've made it to this part
of the episode, I mean, you at least like the show a little
bit. So thank you for sticking
around. We love you very much.
In a few weeks time, namely the first weekend of July, some
things are going to happen with Tripology.
It's going to still be the same amazing show, but we've got this
(29:12):
new aim to be the biggest, best travel podcast in the world by
the end of 2025. And to do that, we're going to
reshuffle things around a littlebit.
We're going to have some new dynamic artwork.
We're going to make some updatesto the to the website, to the
format of the show. There's going to be some
brilliant, brilliant things coming, but we wanted to find
some way to sort of say thank you to the to the people who are
(29:33):
fans of the show right now and the fans who have been with us
since the start. Now we have a Patreon section
and after the show we do this thing called the Lost and Found
section where we go and talk about all random little events
and stories. It comes out 24 hours early,
only costs a dollar to have access to that Patreon show as
patreon.com/tripology podcast. A lot of the people who love
(29:54):
this show and listen to this show see the T-shirts that me.
Unfortunately, we don't wear oneright now.
Adam, go and get a T-shirt if you have 1:00.
Nice. I am going to but.
We have a T-shirt that the fans of the show often ask us for.
So it's our original logo design.
Because we're doing a bit of a reshuffle of the branding and
artwork. We don't want to be in a
situation where people who love that old design and asked us
(30:15):
when can we get a T-shirt design?
When can we get that T-shirt design?
We we always want to deliver. So just for our Patreon
subscribers who are members of the Patreon, before the first
weekend of July, we're going to give you a coupon code to go and
get that T-shirt from our website at cost.
Just pay the cost of the T-shirtand shipping.
We'll be able to get that to you.
(30:36):
We wish we could do more for youright now.
That's all we can do just to make that T-shirt design
available. So sign up to our Patreon before
the first weekend of July, we'llsend you a coupon code.
You'll be the only people who can buy that T-shirt from our
website. And then we'll go on to launch a
full merchant store in the near future for everyone else.
So now there's no better time tojoin the Patreon.
(30:58):
Like like I say, a dollar a month and you get access to lost
and found section. Get the show 24 hours early.
There are huge things coming forthis podcast in the very, very
near future. So stay tuned and thank you so
much for listening. Yeah, we really appreciate the
support. It's been an amazing 2 1/2
years. Lots of great things are going
to stay the same. Lots of exciting things are
going to happen. We do get asked about this much
(31:19):
very, very regularly. And I can't wait for hope,
hopefully people to be representing the show.
Yeah, we're just going to produce that as easily as
possible for you, and as with minimal cost to you, you're not
going to make any money from it.That's just so we can make that
T-shirt available in limited runjust for the Patreon
subscribers. A little bit of admin at the end
there. There'll be more information on
the reformatting of the show in the next couple of weeks, but it
(31:40):
will happen in July. We cannot wait and we'll see you
all next week. We'll see you there.
Bye.
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