The Rice Terraces of Maligcong, and New Year's Eve in Bontoc

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With our tour of Mainit complete, it was time to leave the magic behind and head out on different sort of adventure. We went with Jones to take the Jeepney to Guinaang. We were going to start our hike to Maligcong along with Noemi and Sebastien. Kanam was heading to Sagada, and Jones had to get back to Baguio for work which would be starting up again for him after New Year's day.

The jeepney was looking pretty full. In fact, it was completely full inside, and our only choice was to ride on the roof. Nothing about that seemed like a good idea on the surface. I can even hear my mother saying “No you did not.” But yes, we did.

We climbed up the skinny steel ladder to the roof, and piled our bags up and squeezed out some space to sit. The good news about the roofs of jeepneys is that they are already built to carry bags and other cargo as well as people. There's a six inch high steel cage and lots of bars to hold onto. I wouldn't classify it as safe by any means, but at least you can hold on to something very solid, and press your feet against the bar around the edge for a relatively secure hold.

But that doesn't mean that any of us were ever comfortable enough to take our hands off the bars, or ever feel relaxed on our short bumpy journey to Guinaag. Except of course for Jones and the other Filipinos riding on the roof with us. It amazes me that this is something you could get used to, but I guess they have to do it all the time.

And it makes for a spectacular trip. Inside the jeepney, you can't see much through the narrow windows, and have to hunch to look outside. And since the two rows along the sides of the jeepney face each other, it's hard to see out the window right behind you without twisting awkwardly, and the view across from you is pretty obstructed by the people sitting there.

But on top of the jeepney, the view you get is an unobstructed 360 degree view all around you. You can see all the way up to the top of the mountains, and really get a chance to see the landscapes your driving past.

So there is an upside. And it was our only choice to get down the mountain to Guinaag, so we're glad we took it.

In Guinaag, we began our hike to Maligcong. We asked about local guides, and had originally hoped to find someone to take us to Aguid and then to Sagada, making it a two day trek, but we couldn't find any guides that seemed interested in taking us. It was, after all, New Year's eve, so I imagine they wanted to be able to get back to home to celebrate with family and friends, which is understandable. So we changed our plans and after stocking up on some water and snacks, we opted to hike over the mountain to Maligcong.

We asked directions as we went, and climbed the steep mountainside with our bags on our backs over the top and down the other side to Maligcong in about three hours. Maligcong is known to have some of the most spectacular rice terraces in the Philippines, though it's not as popular as Banaue and doesn't get the same crowds.

And it didn't disappoint us.

Two thousand year old rice terraces stretched along the valley out from the town. We dropped our bags at a store in town and went to explore. It's pretty amazing, as my pictures will show. We spent quite a while exploring the pathways on the edges of the rice terraces, and following the stone steps higher to get better and better views.

After soaking in the views, we soaked up a couple of beers at the store where we'd left our bags and waited for the jeepney to Bontoc. But there was still quite a bit of time to kill, so we decided to just walk down.

We had asked a few people how long it would take to walk down, and the answers ranged from half an hour to an hour. But it actually took us nearly two hours. Time is not regarded with precision in the Philippines. We should have just waited for the jeepney, and it passed us on the way down as we were getting near the bottom.

We arrived in Bontoc sweaty and tired. Vanessa and I grabbed a tricycle and went to a hotel to enjoy some showers and drink some water to rehydrate. The good news is that tricycles in Bontoc cost 9 pesos to ride, so they're dirt cheap if you don't feel like walking (and we didn't after our long hike). But the town is definitely small enough that you can walk anywhere.

We met Sebastien and Noemi at their hotel for some dinner, and it was nice to have a full and proper meal again after snacking lightly on nuts and chips and things for the last day or so.

We were all pretty tired, but it was New Year's eve so we had to try to make it to midnight. We went out and found a bar down the street with a few people in it. It boasted live music every night... except tonight. New Year's eve is more of a stay at home with your family holiday rather than a go out to a bar and party holiday around here.

We did have some drinks and some friendly chats with the people that were in the bar before deciding to head off to the next bar, but we were a little wary of heading outside. All night long we could hear firecrackers and fireworks being set off periodically. And in the Philippines, people just buy fireworks and set them off. There's no big fireworks display in most towns, so it's self service.

But people don't wait for midnight. People don't even wait for New Year's. In the days between Christmas and New Year's we heard at least a few fireworks every night. So expected it was building to a pretty big crescendo tonight.

And there had been a lot of loud bangs just outside, and even one that I think someone threw inside up the stairs. That's another thing too, the fireworks here seem to be all about the noise they make, and they are extremely loud.

So we went cautiously outside before heading down the street to another bar called “Cable Bar”. This place did have a live music, and a guy on a guitar was playing some reggae. It was alright, but we kind of missed the last place where we could sit and talk to each other a bit.

In the end, Vanessa and I couldn't make it to midnight and we were in bed by 10:30. But we sure woke up at midnight when we heard all the fireworks going off. It went on for about twenty or thirty minutes. Just non-stop random explosions everywhere. New Year's is quite a party in the Philippines, if you can stay awake for it...

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Photos

Admiring the View
And watching our step...

More Terraces
Coming up with unique titles for these photos is getting tough...