Sagada to Banaue, Luzon Province, Philippines
I was awake early, as in 2 am. That’s when the roosters started crowing but they didn’t wake me, I’m still getting used to the time difference as well as the overnight bus “sleep” and it doesn’t help that I fall asleep around 7 pm so really, how much sleep does one need?
I took a Jeepney to Bontoc, found the shuttle van to Banaue, but had about an hour and a half to kill before departure so crossed the street and had breakfast. Longsilog is a traditional Filipino breakfast consisting of longanisa sausage, garlic fried rice- sinangag, as well as a fried egg - itlog. They combine the first few letters of each ingredient and voilà. Unfortunately, I got white rice, however the sausage was excellent. Weirdly, there wasn’t much food considering it was the most expensive dish on the menu-
Two young women sat nearby so of course we started talking. One has just graduated from nursing and the other is still studying. Nurses make about $1200/month and it’s not really enough to rent an apartment so many young people live with their parents. One of the women has no parents - one died in an accident and the other from dengue! Shudder! I do not want dengue! She said it wasn’t the season now so I was “safe”. Still, that’s such a terrible thought to die from a mosquito bite!
After breakfast I wandered the town. Pork chops for sale-
Customized trikes-
The van left pretty well on time, even though there were only 6 of us. The driver played old time music even though he is in his 20s. We stopped at a vegetable stall and 3 of the people bought at least 10 heads of romaine lettuce each. Apparently that particular stand has the lowest prices and all food is grown locally. How lucky are they-
Our next stop was… not sure but the driver disappeared and so did another younger man. I watched a motorbike fill up using gasoline in litre pop bottles-
I was worried about touring today because the clouds were hanging pretty low and it was constantly misting-
Our driver returned with a bag of betel nuts and leaves which most, if not all men and even some women chew. I tried it in Myanmar-
but have no idea what it did to me because I’d had a couple Diablo beer at about 9% so was to the moon. I have since learned that it makes people feel hot and with the cooler weather here in the north and no heating of any kind, they think it’s worth it. It turns the mouth and sometimes the teeth red and it’s necessary to spit and spit-
The spit is a deep red colour, like beet juice. It’s very gross!
Once in Banaue, I was charged 250 pesos for the van ride instead of 400 like I’d been charged the day before going to Sagada. Whatever. Working for minimum wage, a worker gets 645 pesos/day or $16 and if the employer provides food it’s even less. It makes it nearly impossible to have your own place or own any means of transportation, including a scooter. No wonder so many leave and work two jobs to send money home.
Once in Banaue, I bought a rubber rain suit because I could not be wet for the 10 hour bus trip tonight in an air conditioned bus. As it turned out I only needed it for warmth as miraculously, it didn’t rain during my whole tour. I arranged for a driver, Arnel-
to take me to the Batad Rice Terraces and the village of Bangaan. He doesn’t own the trike, he just drives it. I paid 1500 pesos - $37 for his services but I didn’t dare ask him how much of that he got. In Sagada, I gave the money directly to my guide but I don’t know what fees he had to pay the agency.
The Philippines are my 108th country and what I saw today may be the most beautiful place on earth I have seen so far.
Our first stop was at the Banaue Rice Terraces-
Individual families own the fields and the rice is used for their consumption only. Two inches of water will be kept in the paddies during the 3 month growing season so irrigation is necessary. There is a lot of water in the area so no worries at the moment of a drought. No pesticides or fertilizers are used except they plant the leaves of this flower-
in the soil for an organic fertilizer. I think we grow this at home but I forget its name. The terraces have been in production for over 2000 years and the Batad village ones are a UNESCO world heritage site. The ownership is indicated by the red plants so at the bottom of the terrace, you can see one family owns 3 paddies-
I didn’t count the stairs down but there are a lot of them, most without a handrail. Thank goodness I didn’t fall as I am prone to do because I’m pretty sure STARS wouldn’t come to lift me out and I don’t know where they would land anyway. It’s a beautiful place-
Looking back the way I came-
I was sweating a lot by the time I got back to the top. Luckily I had removed as many clothes as I could at the sign-in hut and left them there. I didn’t think I should take off everything so walked down in my bra and panties! Just kidding but wish I could have!
My next stop was Bangaan-
I could hear a cymbal and Arnel explained that a funeral was in progress. They carry the coffin from the village up the hill to the cemetery-
There is no vehicle access down to Bangaan so they use a system of ropes to get goods up and down-
Arnel with his bettel nuts and leaves-
Bangaan from a different angle-
Landslides are very common. This one happened on Saturday and Arnel said it will probably be completely cleaned up by this coming Saturday-
There were many landslides along our route but Arnel said they usually happen at night - weird, and no one has been killed-
There are numerous tours I could have done but I didn’t need to do an overnight trek amongst the terraces or visit any waterfalls. The tourist office has a map indicating what is where. Batad is the green in the middle of the map-
I had planned to either take the 4:30 or 5:30 night bus back to Manila but hadn’t booked anything. On the way back Arnel suggested I take the 8 am bus tomorrow which I didn’t even know existed. I already had an overnight reservation and detested the idea of a freezing “sleep” on the bus so I stayed.
I spent the night at the Banaue Pink Eco Hostel-
There were 3 of us in the room, a woman from L.A. who doesn’t think she will lose her home but the fire is still very close to where she lives and a woman from the Netherlands.
After getting settled, I wandered. Along the way-
I found a restaurant recommended by two French women, there are a lot of French here, and had pancit which was very good-
I also visited with Brian who quit university after 2 years for lack of money and is now into construction. He asked me if I was a Christian and we had a long discussion. After, he told me his friend, with whom he sang a couple of songs, was the pastor from his church. Surprisingly he is not Catholic, because 95% of Filipinos are, but Born Again-
I returned to the hostel, warmed up and sunk into a very comfortable bed. I shut my light off around 7 hoping for a good sleep! Tomorrow I will catch the 8 am bus to Manila which is much better for me. I like looking around - it’s an overlander’s thing I guess.
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