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Published: March 19th 2008
We have spent the last several days exploring the north of The Philippines. I have lost count of the sheer number of times we shook our heads in wonderment and exclaimed, "Wow! Gorgeous!" Probably at least 58 at last count!
We began by visiting the town of Banaue in the north of the Philippines, self proclaimed to be one of the 8th wonders of the world. Well, I am pleased to say that this is one place that earned it! After two days of travel to get here, much of which was along spectacular mountainous roads, we arrived surprisingly on time at 4:30pm in Banaue town. We quickly checked into a basic but nice room and went to explore town while we still had some light. Everywhere you looked was a spectacular view of mountains and cascading rice paddies. At this time of year, the planting is going on and they are full of water, creating majestic reflections of the clouds. After a walk around town, we decided to relax our travel weary bones with a cold San Miguel beer on a patio with dramatic views all down the valley. We knew immediately we were going to like this place!
Apart from the dramatic scenery, even the town is nice, with a cosy log cabin feeling in many of the restaurants.
The next morning, we awoke early for a 7am rendezvous with a several people we had met the night before. We all hired a jeepney and a guide for a day trip to the neighboring town of Batad, famous as having even more spectacular rice terraces that Banaue. After taking a quick bathroom break, which turned out to be nothing more than a designated walled gravel area (see photo of sign), we set off from the mountaintop for the walk down into the village of Batad, nestled cosily in a valley. This is the only way to reach Batad as there are no roads leading into the village. It was a fairly steep and rough path, and we all reminded each other that for every step down, we had to walk back up the same way! Half way down, we stopped at a little restaurant and got one of our first glimpses of the famed ampitheater-style terraces. Rising sharply away from the tiny village below, the terraces were truly spectacular. We ordered lunch, to be cooked ready for
our return trip, as we drunk in the view and used some "machine-gun photography" (finger on the trigger and keep pressing!). I think we must have been on our 20th "Wow! Gorgeous!" by now.
Continuing on our way, we passed a small yellow school. This must have the best school views in the world. Unfortunately for the kids, they have to walk 40 mins each day up a rediculously steep hill. I bet they have a truancy problem!!!
We emerged onto the rice terraces themselves and walked along the walls, getting close up look at the ancient 2000 year old stone technique (rather like dry stone walls in England!) and an aerial view of the tiny town of Batad. This was my favourite part of the day because, for one, it was relatively flat, and two, it was exciting to be right on top of the terraces. I was a little scared, though, that I'd slip and cause the 2000 year old UNESCO World Heritage walls to crumble! Luckily they held strong.
After another stop at a tiny wooden stall along the way for a drink, it was time to descend over 900 steps to the waterfall.
It was pretty, and the water was refreshing, but it was not world class and was most definitely not worth the trek back up the 900 odd stairs in the mid-day scorching sun! By the time we made it back up, the lady at the drink stand knew she was going to make a fortune!
On the way back up to our starting point, we stopped at the restaurant again and our food was ready. We ate as we took in the views for the last time before the final steep climb back to the waiting jeepney. Again, it was a one hour trip along just a 12km road, taking so long because of the poor condition of the road coupled with the numerous twists and turns. Road widening works didn't exactly help, either! Once back, we were glad of a hot shower (bonus!) and a cool San Miguel on our favourite patio, that of the Safaga Hotel.
The next day, we clambered onto a jeepney with many other tourists to go to Sagada, another village high in the mountains famous for its hanging coffins. Apparently, it is a luxury to be laid to rest here and is
only for the richest families because of the high cost of upkeep - each year several animals have to be sacrificed. Maybe I expected too much, but the word "hanging" conjured up images of coffins hanging by rope from the ceiling of a cave. Instead of hanging, however, the coffins were more resting on a ledge. Maybe they should rename them the "resting-on-a-ledge-coffins" but I guess it doesn't have quite the same ring. There was also a cave with a hundred or more coffins piled up rather gruesomely. Not really our thing, we decided to take off early the next morning on the 6am bus, changing once in Baguio, and making it back to Manila at around 7:30pm. The first several hours of the journey were amazing, passing though more mountain scenery with impossibly steep rice paddies, some of them now converted into carrot or strawberry gardens. At one point, there was a sign saying, "WARNING: You are now entering a terrifying and accident prone area of road!" Just by reading the word "terrifying" on an official road sign instilled fear in me. As it turned out, our bus driver was great, negotiating the muddy slippery roads without coming closer
Charming!
This sign was our only way of knowing that we had actually found the bathroom!than an arm's length to the sheer 500 foot drop! No, seriously, he was great and it wasn't terrifying at all, just a bit exhilarating at times! The most reassuring part of it all was that he didn't even seem drunk - we are saving that delight for India!
Now we are back in Manila. My brother Gary and his girlfriend Milena will be joining us tomorrow to travel south for some beach action. Will hopefully update again soon with some beautiful beach scenes!
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Marco
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Gorgeous indeed!
Lovely pictures. I'm glad read that your first stop was the rice terraces and that you guys had a great time! Where to next? What beach? There are 7,000 more islands to discover.