West Virginia, Mountain Momma

The air con bus to Banaue was more arctic than air con. At one point I was dreaming of those little airplane blankets, all I had was my fleece. Next air con bus I take I'm putting on every piece of warm clothing I can find with me.

But it worked out, we arrived in Banaue just in time to see the sunrise and to be hassled by tricycle http://www.travelblog.org/Admin/edit-entry.htmldrivers... either to take me into town or out to the Junction so I could hike to Bataad. We ended up renting a Jeepney with the Germans (Norbert and his girls Claire, and Colleen, I think). Oh yeah, we is Glenn and I. We met in the Hostel in Manila and both just happened to be going to Banaue to see the rice terraces and do some trekking.

Bataad is a truly amazing place. To get to it you have to hike a minimum of 40 minutes from the saddle at the top of the mountain. Once there you are treated to the most amazing rice terraces. The people here, used to get by on rice farming. Now I think they make more from tourism but we'll get to that later. They have managed to sculpt out rice terraces in some of the steepest mountain sides. The terraces range in height from a small 2 feet to maybe 15 feet between terraces. To get around them you walk precariously along the edge. On bad step and you are knee deep in mud or off the 15 foot edge. To get between levels they have built steps, which are nothing more than rocks sticking out of the terrace walls. You really sort of have to know what you are looking for to find these steps.

Of course everyone in Bataad believes that you really can't get around without a guide. The guides do know the best way to get from A to B, but if you don't mind backtracking then its not so hard. Once you figure out what the trails look like. So we never used a guide, and really never got lost.

It was great being in Bataad, the mountains, the rice terraces, and trekking around the area. One day was spent walking to a waterfall and then next was spent climbing up the mountain on the other side to get a panoramic view of Bataad We even had a campfire, complete with guitar and singer. When I joined the campfire, the first song I hurt was “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” I couldn't help but laugh. Sitting around the campfire watching the full moon on the rice terraces and mountain valleys, listening to John Denver... it was surreal for some reason.

But after two days it was time to head on. Glenn and I decided to take a two day trek up valley and back to Banaue. Of course we were told we would need a guide, but they were too expensive. The road to the next town of Cambulo was pretty easy. I don't think we saw anyone until we got there. We stopped in Cambulo for a snack and the shopkeeper got her daughter to show us the quickest way through town. Well I don't think Cambulo gets as many tourists as Bataad because we quickly had an entourage of children. Most were going home from school. So they became our guides for awhile. Probably a good thing too, because they showed us a few routes that we might not have chosen. Not that it would have mattered, everyone we saw along the way told us the right direction. We arrived in Pula after about 4 hours of hiking.

It took a couple of circles around the school before the kids finally got us to the right house that accepted guests. But no one was here. We finally found an adult in town that confirmed, that was the guest house and the proprietor was out in the fields, he would be there “by and by.” So we waited. He finally arrived about 1.5 hours later and his wife showed up shortly after that. They didn't really even acknowledge us at first. They just proceeded with their normal chores... put up the chickens, start the cooking fire and whatever else. But that was awesome, dinner and breakfast were both provided... they just made more of whatever they were having. It was also here that I was introduced to mountain tea... really good tea once you add lots of sugar.

From Pula it was a pretty easy 4 hour trek to the National Highway were we caught the bus to Bontoc. In Bontoc we hopped up on top of a Jeepney to go to the mountain Shangra La of Sagada. Sagada is famous for its caves and hanging coffins and just a good place to hang out.

Sagada lived up to all its hype, but it is an interesting little town. There is a 9PM curfew for quiet. Almost all shops close at 9. We were told this was to cut down on drunk tourists making noise. The people of Sagada are farmers and need to get up so they don't want to be kept awake by drunkards. Don't worry though I did manage to find one little whole in the wall used by other locals that was still going when I stumbled out at midnight.

We paid for the long cave tour which was more than worth it. The entrance to the first cave we were in had some human bones scattered on the floor. This was a burial cave. The people are buried in small wooden coffins placed high up in the cave. Well not long ago an earthquake knocked many of the coffins down. Some of the remains still remained on the cave floor.

On our second day in Sagada it was decided to do our best to find out way through Echo Valley where instead of using caves for the coffins, they suspended them from the cliff face. The guidebooks also mention a way out of the top of the valley through a cave following an underground river. We undertook this en devour without too much trouble. Though it was a little nerve racking when we made it almost all the way through and had to do some bouldering!!!

Well that is the long narrative of what I've been doing.
In the bigger picture of things little events have happened that I'm now going to share.
So far on this short trip, 3 things have broken for me. I broke the button on my pants before I left Hong Kong. I did manage to sew the button back on and its holding, I'm pretty proud of myself. The 2nd thing that broke was a small piece came off of my backpacking knife, but I think super glue will fix that. Last but not least I broke my sternum strap on my backpack. Not sure how I'm fixing that yet.

On the subject of the backpack, while I was packing I kept weighing the pack and then I would weigh everything... like back and daypack and shoes. Though I never believed I would be carrying all of that. Well guess what. On my trek to and from Bataad that is exactly what I did, oh yeah, and don't forget water. I spent all kinds of time cussing that I wanted my Shasta with better suspension and ability to carry more weight. But then to catch the bus to Bontoc we had to jump on and I had to sit with my pack on my lap for 2.5 hours.... then I was glad to not have the Shasta.

And since I'm not doing a good job of righting this stuff down in my other journal:
Places to stay and eat:
Manila: Friendly's
Bataad: Simon's
Sagada: St. Joes or Greenhouse... liked the ambiance at St. Joes better
Sagada: If you are there on Saturday go to the buffet at Log Cabin


Oh yeah and now for the pics:
Click these links for

Pictures of Hong Kong
Pictures of Manila
Pictures of Bataad
Pictures of Sagada

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