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Published: December 14th 2009
On our return to the Philippines we spent just one night and day in Manila before catching our night bus all the way up the Banaue in the Cordillera region, famed for it's rice terraces and beautiful mountain views. The bus was far from the best we've been on but like most transport in the Philippines it was stupidly cheap for a 9 hour journey at P450 (£5.92) so we didn't complain.
We arrived in Banaue at around 7am and after only a few hours sleep on the bus we decided we'd have a relaxing day to catch up on sleep and take in the tiny town. In retrospect we could really have fitted in a trip to the famous viewing area overlooking the town but hindsight is a wonderful thing that lives only in the past! The guesthouse we checked into was fairly basic but very homely with lovely staff and we got to enjoy our first sights of the famous terraces we'd come to see while we had our breakfast on the patio. As we said our first day there was spent sleeping and generally wandering around but we also managed to hook up with a local guide
who we employed to take us up to Batad and their terraces the following day.
Whether you actually need a guide for this tip is debatable. Our guide had a tricycle which you do need to get there but you could just hire one and get them to wait while you trek to Batad and back again. The thing was though, we have missed out on guides so much in the past in order to keep the costs down and the result has been sometimes getting the feeling that you are missing out on vital information that would make the whole trip seem a little more worthwhile. On this occasion we wanted to know the ins and outs of this area which is why we asked Charles to be our guide for the trek to Batad and it's surrounding area.
The ride there took around an hour on the most terrible muddy, potholed roads, not helped at all because it had been raining the day before. We were so impressed with Charles's riding skills over this terrain, it must have been totally exhausting for him but for us we got what they call a free Filipino massage as
we went.. something we were to experience a lot in this area!
We were a little out of practice with trekking after quite a while on the beaches so when we had to start the day with a steep trek up the side of a mountain it really took it out of us and we soon worked up a sweat. It only took around 30 minutes to reach the top and from this saddle you are supposed to get your first views of some terraces & mountains around this valley. As we'd woken up with very low cloud we really didn't see much at all and had fully prepared ourselves for the weather to be like this for the whole day and to perhaps not get to see this beautiful area at all.
After about an hour of trekking down and down we rounded the corner and were greeted by the magnificent sight of the Batad Rice Terraces, said to be the 8th Wonder of the World and in 1995 were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They certainly are spectacular and to learn that these were made around 2,000 years ago without the aid of metal tools
and mostly by hand just makes it more incredible. At this time of year they are a kind of brown colour because they only grow rice once a year with the best time to view them being around May when they are bright green and about to be harvested but for us them not being green didn't detract from their splendor one bit.
At the entrance to the village we picked up a new friend to join us for the trek around, he was a lovely dog who we named William. Sophie paid him the usual attention and he took that to mean we were his new best friends and for that reason he stuck to us... for the whole time we were in Batad! We walked along and across the terraces, to the other side to enjoy more amazing views then went down to the house you can see towards the middle of the photos which is the entrance to the path which takes you to Tagia Waterfall.
Walking along, up and down the terraces is actually a lot harder than it looks. There are lots of steps involved and when you walk along you have to
balance on the rock walls which are only a few inches wide with the mud of the rice paddy’s to soften your fall one way and a 5m drop the other you can see why it's not as easy as it looks. With Sophie complete lack of sense of balance she had to really concentrate so she didn't fall off to the next terrace below, meanwhile Dale skipped along like the mountain goat he is! The way to the waterfall was all downhill which was great at first until we realised we'd be coming back the exact same way! It was pretty steep and to make it worse some of the stone steps were like sheet ice so we had to go steady with William stopping every few steps to make sure we were ok.
We've seen lots of waterfalls on our travels but this one was pretty spectacular, gushing down from about 30m to a lovely pool in the bottom it's kind of a hidden waterfall as you can only see it if you follow this path around, you would never guess it was there if you stood on the terraces. Charles asked us if we wanted a
Sophie & Charles walking along the terrace walls
it's actually quite difficult to do this and there's a long drop down!swim and although we had both worked up a huge sweat trekking up and down steps for the morning it was only Dale who braved the ice cold water and enjoyed a soak while Sophie made do with dipping in her feet.
Having cooled off it was time for the dreaded trek back up the steep steps to the terraces. As we were both a bit of our practice for all this trekking we were both fading a bit by this point so had to take it quite slowly. Sophie decided that it was actually easier to go barefoot as it reduced the risk of slipping on the ice steps and it really helped, so much so that she spent the rest of the afternoon doing the same around the terraces! Back at the house in the middle, which we both agreed was probably the prime spot in Batad because it not only enjoys views of the terraces but also the deep river valley to the other side, Sophie made an executive decision to take the easy route back again. It was only easy in that it reduced the number of steps we had to go up by not
going down first and still involved a huge amount which was exhausting.
Back at the top William deserted us without even a goodbye and we enjoyed our pre ordered food from a lovely restaurant and sat back to enjoy the view and a well earned rest before the trek back to the tricycle. We were both dreading this a bit as it had been downhill all the way to get here and as everyone knows what goes down must go up! The first part was relatively easy on a steady incline but the killer was left until last in the shape of a steep flight of steps. Just remember that this route is the only way in and out of the village as there is no vehicle access so everything that has to get there has to take this route. Ok so the people who live here are totally used to doing this most days but we had to wonder if they cursed when they got to the top and remembered that they'd left their keys behind?!
From the saddle at the top it was all downhill to the tricycle but as we started walking a jeepney pulled
up and offered us a free ride to the bottom which would have just been rude to turn down. On the way back we got yet another free Filipino massage on the bike and arrived back in town just as the clouds were drawing in to cover that beautiful view and toasted our first proper day in the Cordillera with a few San Miguels on the patio.
Having enjoyed the views in Banaue and Batad we ventured on to Bontoc, a 2 hour jeepney ride away through yet more breathtaking scenery. Honestly when you are in this area the views just never stop and every trek or bus/jeepney ride lets you enjoy more and more of these amazing views. Some of the roads between the towns are a little hair raising as you teeter on the edge of a sheer drop but all are gradually being concreted so hopefully this should make travelling between the towns a little easier & quicker.. Whether this is a good thing or not is debatable.
We'd only planned one night in Bontoc and had come here primarily to visit the museum which comes highly recommended by those before us and now us
too! It's only a small place but has some great photos & exhibits of the various tribes in and around this area over the past including the infamous Ilfugao head hunter tribe that lived around Banaue and built their terraces. It never fails to amaze us just how similar tribal jewellery, weavings and to some extent wood carvings are between the various tribes we've encountered along our journey.. from South America all the way though to here in the Philippines. Here they use a lot of beautiful small beadwork for decoration which was a bit original, the snake vertebrae headdress certainly was unique, but the cloth and weavings are such similar designs & styles to those we have seen elsewhere you have to wonder if they all came together at one point to discuss the way weaving fashion would go across the world!
The photos of the tribes people were fantastic, there were (and are) countless tribes both here in the Cordillera, and this museum gave information on a good number of these. Of all the tribes the most famous is the Ilfugao who like we mentioned created the terraces around Banaue around 2,000 years ago. This tribe were
also the headhunters that other tribes feared and sported many tattoos on their body, in the museum were exhibits of both the heads of those they defeated and photos of the ceremony that went on once they had the head.. nice. Of course this ritual doesn't go on any longer although tribal wars do still flare up in the area every now and again but it's no threat to tourists so don't let this put you off.
Outside the museum is a mock up of a traditional village with tiny huts, a ceremonial area and even a pig in a sty! The huts, whilst really tiny were very well laid out with separate areas for cooking, eating & grinding flour but the bedroom was unbelievable. It was literally just a tiny person length cupboard where the mother & children would have slept, it certainly must have been quite claustrophobic in there every night. After having a good look around the village we made our way to the next building which was part of the nunnery next door. Inside we chatted to a lovely nun who was keen to learn all about our travels, well for the first part of
the conversation anyway, she soon moved onto marriage and questioned why we weren't yet married.. we tried to palm her off by saying it was too expensive which didn't wash and were soon wishing we'd just lied and said we were but thoughts of what might happen if you lie to a nun weren't appealing so we just gritted our teeth and accepted the lecture that was given to us!
After a night in Bontoc we made our way to Tinglayan in the Kalinga Province just a few hours North up the Chico River. Again we had a very hair raising journey.. probably our second scariest since that dreaded one in Bolivia so long ago.. but made it in once piece and settled into a lovely basic guesthouse on the banks of the river. This village is a bit more off the main tourist track so you have to work a little harder to get what you want, accompanying this comes more lets say 'rustic' food which we have to say we hadn't missed at all but tried to look like we were enjoying it whilst savouring the cokes to wash it down with! We'd come here to trek
Low cloud
we were a bit worried we wouldnt' see anything at first to still very much traditional tribal villages in the area and soon hooked up with Francis who offered us a great 2 day trek which would start the following day. Tinglayan is a very small village and there really wasn't much to do so we took a small walk round then retreated to our room as the clouds came down and the rain started up.
The following morning things had got no better, the rain was even harder and the cloud made it very difficult to see much at all so after a discussion with Francis about what to do we all agreed it was probably best to call the trip off leaving us bitterly disappointed. It was Sophie's birthday the following day and we were really up in the air about whether to wait another day to see if conditions improved or not but with another day to fill playing cards and not much else we threw in the towel and caught the one bus out of there back to Bontoc.
This ride was not without it's excitement though. We weren't sure we'd even get on the bus after finding it literally full to seat height with
rice bags which must have weighed tons, we perched on top of these favouring this in place of sitting on the roof in the rain, and it wasn't long before we'd gone 20m up the road to drop off a few people who'd thought it best to sit on the bus for 1 hour while it stopped for lunch rather than walk the 20m and we got seats.. yes this really happens! Bear in mind that this road is being concreted so at some points you are literally on the very edge of a sheer drop to the river, it was during one of these points that we were flying along and Dale's bag decided to jump off the roof.. thankfully not 500m to the valley below but 4m to a huge stream that ran along the road on the other side. Yes we were grateful that it hadn't plunged to it's doom in the river but we also weren't impressed that everything was soaked though because someone hadn't strapped it to the top of the van and thought it would just balance there on it's own.
So back again in Bontoc and of course the sun was coming
Betel nut ingredients
Everyone chews Betel Nut here! We thought it was just the nut but they chew the nut, a vine leaf, tobacco and crushed up snails in a powder to get the full effect! out which made us a little more frustrated about leaving but we were excited to be going to our next destination of Segada and jumped straight on a jeepney to take us there that afternoon...
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thomasclear
non-member comment
hi
i enjoyed reading this blog. i am going to the philippines in january and i hope to see this and boracay. your blog is very helpful. thank you.