Banaue, Philippines, Asia

Today started out with an early wake up at the George Guest House so I could catch the 8:30am jeepney to Bontoc, and then get a bus at 10am to Banaue. It didn’t quite work out that way. I got up to the bus stop at 8:10am but they jeepney was already full so I had to wait till 9am. No problem really, because I should still have been able to get there at 9:45am in time to get on the 10am bus. Unfortunately, the tourist information center in Sagada had the wrong information, an there is no 10am bus. The first one is at 11:30am, and it’s a jeepney, not a bus.

I figured that since I had some spare time I might as well grab some breakfast so I went to a local restaurant that served omlettes. I recognized a few people that came into the same place as a group of travelers who were also on their way to Banaue. I invited them to join me and I was introduced to Sebastian and Matsy (German), and Seb’s girlfriend Eve (Filipina). We had a pretty decent breakfast and then had a short walk around Bontoc, though there isn’t much to see there.

We got on our jeepney and headed off at 11:30am, and very comfortable with tons of room inside. It didn’t stay that way. None of the transportation here starts at point A and continues to point B without picking up one million stragglers on the way. Half way through the ride we had to move our big backpacks from inside the jeepney, to the roof. This wouldn’t have bothered us at all if it hadn’t started raining ten minutes later! It turns out we had a few passengers hitching a ride on the roof, so the driver gave them a tarp and they covered everything up there for us. Don’t worry, the bags stayed dry. I don’t know about the passengers. The jeepney did get so packed that it was incredibly uncomfortable for the second half of the journey. I think that’s just something I’m going to have to get used to in Asia, they will never turn away a passenger, if it’s possible they’ll get more money out of it.

We finally got to Banaue and I couldn’t have been happier to get out of that vehicle. We were greeted by a guy named Julio who owns the Greenview Lodge and Hotel, and he said they had some rooms available and it was in the center of town. We didn’t have anywhere else to stay, so the four of us took a walk down and had a look at the rooms. They were very basic (not even an outlet to charge things), but very cheap, and it also had an unbelievable view of the rice terraces. We decided to stay and dropped our bags.

We went outside and got a couple of trikes (tricycles) and got a ride up to the main viewpoint over Banaue. Sebastian and Eve took one trike, and then Matsy and I had to squeeze into another. It was a little ridiculous because Matsy is about 6’6″, and I’m not small either, so the two of us must have looked absolutely ridiculous in that thing. It was definitely the most uncomfortable ride I’ve ever taken, but luckily it was only ten minutes.

We got up to the Main view point, and it really was spectacular. The terraces are the second most impressive feat of engineering I’ve ever seen (the Pyramids of Giza are the most impressive). They started building these about 4,000 years ago and it took almost 2,000 years to complete. It was incredible to see the size of these terraces. They literally were the size of mountains. Pictures don’t really do it justice, but it was awe inspiring to see in person. We walked down the only road leading into Banaue and stopped at a bunch of other view points on the way down for different perspectives. Of course about half way down it started to piss it down with rain, so that was fun.

We got back into town and we were all starving so we went to the restaurant across the street from our hotel called Las Vegas Restaurant. It wasn’t anything like Las Vegas, but it was pretty good food at a reasonable price. We finished up and came back to the hostel and we’ve decided that tomorrow we’re going to try to get to Batad. It’s another village with rice terraces about 45 minutes away. We’ll see how I feel in the morning, I’m starting to feel sore from that caving now, so we’ll see if my body can hold up!