Rice terraces in Northern Luzon
We arrived in the morning in Banaue. As it was raining and foggy, we hired a jeepney - which is like a van with benches on both sides - to go to the rice terraces of Hapao which apparently were the only one not in the fog. Indeed, the North of Luzon - which is the island where Manila is - is famous for its rice terraces that are supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the world. Let’s check it! Rice terraces were carved out of the hillside by Ifugao people 2,000 years ago to provide flat fields where natives could plant rice. The road was very muddy with landslides all the way long (which was a bit scary) and indeed it was not too foggy so we could have nice views over the rice terraces. The highlight was the viewpoint over rice terraces that were flooded, and this site belongs to the UNESCO heritage. We waited a bit for the rain to stop and the clouds to go away to have a clear view on this stunning landscape. While waiting, our driver took out some “betel” which is the same as in Sri Lanka: seeds of the betel nut that they put in a leaf with a kind of paste and they chew it to get high (and have the teeth red). But our driver didn’t have the tobacco leaf that is the one that gets you high, because he didn’t like it. It was actually safer for us because he had to drive to go back to the guesthouse, and there were more and more fog. As it was raining back in Banaue, we went for some “shopping” in the few shops that were in the village, with many wooden crafts and textiles. A woman in the guesthouse, called Lollita, was insisting to be our guide for tomorrow to go to other rice terraces in Batad. We were doubting about her guiding capacities as she was quite fat, and as it was foggy we didn’t know if it would be useful to take a guide. We tried to decline politely even though she was coming back all the time.
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The weather was still foggy when we woke up, but locals told us that it would be ok in Batad as it is lower than Banaue. We declined again Lollita’s offer to be our guide or to hire us a jeepney (we then learnt from our driver that she was taking huge commissions on this), we bought cakes in a local bakery for 2 pesos each (which is about 0.03 euros!) and took the same driver as yesterday. On the way to Batad we couldn’t see that much the landscapes of the road because of the fog, and when we arrived in Batad we were completely in the clouds. We decided to go down to the village, which was the right choice because the fog dissapeared little by little so we could see the flooded rice terraces with the village in the middle of them. As it was a bit raining we didn’t hire a guide to hike, we took pictures and went back to the jeepney to have lunch in front of other rice terraces, avoiding another rain shower. Then we went back to Banaue and bought betel to try, as we had nothing to do. But the tobacco leaf was smelling so bad that we didn’t put it in the mixture, so we didn’t get high. Otherwise, this betel had the same taste as the one in Sri Lanka :)
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We woke up early to catch a jeepney for Sagada, a city in the mountains. Today the sun was shining so we could see huge rice terraces on the way, unfortunately we couldn’t stop to enjoy the view. After a 5 hours journey in two jeepneys to cover 60 km, we finally reached Sagada, left our bags in a small guesthouse and went for three different hikes. The sun was shining and the mountains landscapes were like the ones that we can find in the Alps, with trees and rivers, so for a moment we forgot that we were in the Philippines and felt like it was summer in France! Sagada is indeed a peaceful city in the mountains, and people here seem to be richer than in Banaue, wearing clean clothes and having houses with hard walls and not only wood and metal sheets. Moreover, Sagada is famous for its “hanging coffins” which are coffins that they hung in the middle of the mountains, quite weird. We finished our days with a stunning view over flooded rice terraces, then ate “sizzling sisig” in a local restaurant, which is shredded pork with onions cooked on a sizzling plate, where they add an egg at the end that cooks slowly on the meat. Delicious!
Sizzling sisig
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We woke up early to catch a bus to Baguio at 6am, but the bus finally left at 7am, as usual! After a 6 hours journey, we reached Baguio which is a modern city North of Manila, but less polluted and cleaner. We went to an apparently nice natural park but it was very common so we took a public minibus to go back to the city centre and “visit” the malls to finish the day.
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