San Fernando

I flew from Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, Malaysia to the Philippines and made my way to San Fernando, La Union in the part of the Philippines know as North Luzon. North Luzon is the largest of the islands that make up the Philippines and with the short visa time for the Philippines I decided I would only try and see things in North Luzon.

On the way to San Fernando I passed a number of rice fields but these were at a different stage than all the rice fields that I had seen in the past. These fields were being harvested and looked a lot like wheat to me rather than rice. It was also interesting to see all the rice on the side and in the middle of the road. The farmers would lay out tarps and then place the rice still in husk on the tarps to dry. Most of the time the bus would not drive over the rice but from time to time it would drive right over the drying rice.

I ended up staying south of San Fernando in a place called Bauang and the beach here was not impressive at all. Really there was not much or a beach at all. The boat seemed to take up all of the room on the sand so I never went into the water here. I did spend some time in the pool and just watching the activity on the beach. The fishermen sure did wear strange looking hats.