Trekking Through the Rice Terraces of Batad

---

We left Sagada on a jeepney early in the morning and arrived in Bontoc just before the museum opened. We had missed seeing the museum when we were in Bontoc before, since it was closed on New Years day.

We were hoping to make it to Batad, so we only had about 45 minutes to spend in the museum before we needed to leave to catch a bus to Banaue, but we could have spent a bit more time there. The museum was full of ethnographic exhibits, including rice pots, dishes, statues, spears, gongs, models, a full scale mockup of a traditional village, and headhunting photographs. Let me tell you something about decapitated heads... they really do look creepy, as you might expect. I'm betting there aren't a ton of museums that display pictures like that out there.

When we went to catch a bus, we ran into Noemi and Sebastien, who had taken a later jeepney. They told us that all of the buses were full, and they were arranging to take a jeepney to Banaue. We checked out the buses too, and sure enough, they were full for the day. So we went back to take the jeepney with them.

But the inside filled up right away. I don't know what it is, but I think the locals know exactly when a jeepney is about to leave and come out of nowhere, because there was nobody on the jeepney when we first saw Noemi and Sebastien, and we were only gone five minutes. And the jeepney drivers are never specific about when they're leaving either, so it must be a sixth sense that comes with experience.

We had two options. We could wait for another jeepney or bus, probably tomorrow, or ride on the roof...

So Sebastien and I climbed up onto the roof. Vanessa and Noemi snagged a couple of seats inside. Sebastien sat right on the front of the roof and held onto the pile of bags that were tied down to the roof. I wedged myself into the pile of bags, and held onto the metal roof rack and the spare tire.... until I realised the the spare tire wasn't attached to anything.

So this was the second time riding on the roof of a jeepney on this trip, but this time it was a three hour trip on the highway. And that means that this is the second time on this trip that I've done something that my mother probably specifically told me never to do. But the way I look at it, if I didn't sit on the roof, and old lady would have had to. So I effectively gave up my seat for an old lady. That's just good science.

And what a way to see the countryside! A totally unobstructed 360 degree view of the mountains? Not bad. Once I got a bit more comfortable with my hand and footholds, I reached for my camera and took a bunch of pictures and made a couple of videos.

We got to Banaue and were immediately offered a ride to Batad. So the good news was that it was going to be doable to get there in a day. After registering at the tourist office, we decided to head up the hill away from the hassle to buy our night bus tickets to Manila. We figured buying advanced tickets for a few days from now was a good plan, just in case it filled up while we were out of range in Batad.

With that sorted, we went back to the tourist office and met up with a British couple that had also taken the jeepney from Bontoc and were also heading to Batad. Together, the six of us arranged for a private jeepney to Batad, since all of the public jeepneys had left already.

JP was the young businessman that was going to be our guide for the short trip, and he got a jeepney, and we loaded ourselves inside. Yes, inside this time. But that jeepney took us about 14 feet before breaking down. Luckily there are twenty five billion registered jeepneys in Banaue alone, so he went around the corner and got another one for us.

The trip to Batad was a bumpy one over dirt roads, and up to the top of a mountain. It took about an hour, but yes, we were comfortably inside this time. At the top, JP continued his role as guide, and showed us the traditional way to chew tobacco in the cordillera, called moma, by stuffing a tobacco leaf with a betel nut and using lime to dissolve everything. He said it's really bad for your teeth, and he doesn't chew it anymore except when demonstrating it to toursits. We've definitrly seen this all over the cordillera, and have seen red stains all over the streets from people spitting it on the ground, and signs in restaurants and bars saying “No spitting moma”. So it's popular here.

Afterwards, we headed down the other side of the mountain for the short walk to Batad. JP's uncle led us on the way there, and he happened to also own the Hillside guesthouse in town. The British couple was staying there, and JP's uncle definitely wanted us to stay there too (clearly this was a family of good businessman). But we wanted to check things out a bit, so we had lunch at a place up the hill, and ended up taking beds in a place nearby called Simons which was almost empty.

But the views were amazing! Not that there are any bad views in Batad of the spectacular amphitheatre of rice terraces extending down the mountain into the valley, but from Simon's there's a 270 degree view from the point that it's perched on, and you can see all the way up the valley.

Vanessa and I took spent the last couple of hours of daylight exploring the rice terraces and scouting out some hiking trails before enjoying some tasty pizza for dinner.

The next day, we hiked to nearby Cambulo with Sebastien and Noemi. It's waa a few hours away, and made for a great day, with half of it spent hiking along rice terraces. And on the way back we walked through the lower part of Batad, deep in the rice terraces. It's like a mini village below the main village.

And then it was time to say goodbye to our friends. The next morning they were heading to Banaue and then back to Manila to catch a flight to Palawan. It's too bad we had to cut Palawan out of our trip, but we'll take an extra day in Batad instead.

We used our extra day to hike all the way down to the waterfalls, and scope out the route to Bangaan. We were planning to hike out this way to make it a bit different from the trip in.

All in all, Batad did not disappoint, and delivered some of the most spectacular views of the trip. The panoramas and tranquility of the area really helped make it special. The isolated location keeps the crowds away, but it's worth the small effort to get here. It's one of our favourite places so far.

---

Photos

Riding on the Roof of the Jeepney
Much faster this time...

The Stunning Rice Terraces of Batad
Brought to you by Cannon's "Super Vivid" setting