The Beautiful Banaue and Batad Rice Terraces

 

We left at 5:00 AM on February 12th to drive to Banaue to see the rice terraces. It was a long drive up. It took us about 8 hours to drive there. We stopped in Lagawe and had lunch at a small café. We ate some kind of soup dish with noodles and chicken. It was called Chicken Mami. We continued up the very windy mountain road to Banaue. We checked into our hotel room and then rode on a tricycle up to the view point for the Banaue Rice Terraces. We took a lot of pictures. It is an amazing sight and a wonder that these people have farmed these terraces for over 2,000 years. The terraces in Banaue have mud walls. We walked back down the 4 km to town, much easier than having to climb. We had dinner at the Sanafe Inn, where we were staying. We were definitely eating Filipino food here because there was no other choice. It was nice and cool up here and there was a nice veranda at the inn for viewing the terraces. Our room also faced the terraces and had a nice big window to look out.

 

This is a picture of the rice terraces in Banaue.  Notice the water flowing from one terrace to the next.

 

 



The next day we rode in a jeepney up a steep, windy mountain road.  The road to Batad was rough, windy, and dirt in many places. They were doing a lot of work on it and there was quite a bit of truck traffic and other vehicles but no cars. We arrived at the Batad Saddle for our hike down to the rice terraces there.  The Batad Saddle is a very busy place with jeepneys and other 4 wheel drive vehicles dropping off and picking up people and supplies. There is very little room to turn around and several small buildings with people selling supplies and souvenirs. We got out of the jeepney and Anna rented a walking stick for 10 pesos and we started down the mountain. The saddle is at about 1500 meters in elevation or almost 5000 feet. We had to first walk down 412 rough very uneven steps and then a path of about 4 kilometers into the town. It is the only way to get there. All of their food, supplies, clothing, water, etc are carried down by hand with no animals to help. A few of the newer places have electricity but not many, mostly only the inns where the tourists stay.

 

 

We arrived at the sign welcoming us to Batad and took a few pictures. The Hillside Inn was one of the first places we came to right after they collected 50 pesos each from us at the tourist center which was basically a lean-to. They said they use the money to maintain the terraces which was fine with us and it was only a little more than $1 each. We ate lunch in the Inn and then talked to our guide, Charlie, about what to do next. We decided that we wanted to hire him to take us through the village and on to the waterfall. We thought we could probably do it by ourselves but it was confusing with paths going in all directions and no roads at all. We also thought it was a good idea to help out the locals and it was not very expensive. I think it was worth it not to get lost and to hear a about the history of the village and the rice terraces. Charlie's family had basically been there forever so he was a good guide. He was also the head of the Batad guide association and he had strong ideas about how important the guides could be to the tourists and obviously did not like the guides from Banaue who come to Batad sometimes and steal their business.

 

 

 

The view in Batad was even better than the one in Banaue. The Batad rice terraces are much steeper and are surrounded by mountains. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It is truly amazing to think that these people have lived in this village for more than 2,000 years. We hiked down to the town across the rice terraces. The terraces here are supported by rock walls and are very steep. You don't want to fall off.

 

 

It was very difficult for me to climb up and down on the terraces. Sometimes we had to walk on very narrow steps on rocks that jutted out from the wall and other times we had to step up on two foot steps. After we walked down to the village we went back up the terraces and walked toward Tappia Falls going up and down many more times. When we got to the viewpoint of the falls I sat down to rest. Derek continued on with our guide down to the bottom of the falls. We watched him get in the water and swim in the little lake created by the falls.

 

 

After he came back we again walked up and down arriving back at the rice terraces near the town. We then hiked across the terraces going up and down again traversing them. We stopped at a souvenir shop in the middle of the terraces. It was newly created because the owner's previous shop which was located on the trail coming down from the saddle had been burned down by some people who our guide thought were from Banaue. We felt sorry for him and bought a fruit bowl and stand from him. The tripod stand had been carved out one piece of wood. I slipped down on some loose gravel and landed on my rear as I walked down from the shop.

 

Our guide showed us a home that is typical for the Ifugao people who have lived in Batad for more than 2,000 years.

 

Then we continued on our journey across the terraces. I was very tired by this point and ended up falling again as I slipped on some loose dirt. This place was too much up and down for me and I was worn out.



The guide took our picture at the end of our hike.

 

We stayed in an inn on the side of the mountain called "Hillside Inn," an appropriate name.  The view of the terraces from there was wonderful.  Here's a picture of Derek in front of the window (no glass) in our room:

 

 

We made it back to the Inn and relaxed on the veranda. We then went and took showers after having sweated all day on the trail. After returning to the veranda, we noticed there was a monkey tethered to a tree down below the Inn. Derek went down and took some pictures of him. Later we ordered dinner and ate looking out over the terraces. I ordered a pineapple pizza which was pan fried. It was very good. We talked with fellow boarders at the inn. One young woman was from Holland and was taking a few months off from her studies to travel. She had already been to Bangkok and planned to visit Vietnam and other places in the area. A gentleman we met was from Germany and travels a lot in the winter time to get away from the cold. It was interesting to meet people from around the world in this tiny little village in the mountains of northern Luzon.

 

Going back up the 412 steps to the Batad Saddle.



 

The next morning Derek got up early and hiked to the highest point to get a good view of the whole area.  Dale and I stayed at the inn and waited for him.  While he ate breakfast we got a head start hiking back up to the saddle. We noticed some young boys climbing up the trail ahead of us. There were three of them and they moved very quickly. We wondered where they were going. Derek caught up with us before we were halfway up. When we reached the top we looked around and saw the same three young boys getting ready to carry supplies back down to the village. We were surprised when two of them, about 9 to 10 years old, were tying two cases of soda cans together so they could carry them back down. The other boy, about 6 years old, was preparing to carry a big package of sandals. I took his picture and gave him 20 pesos. We thought they were just goofing off when we first saw them going up the trail, but it looks like they had an important job to do.

 

 



 

Our jeepney driver arrived very soon after we got to the top. We got in the jeepney and rode back to Banaue. We had thought we might have the driver take us to see another rice terrace, but we were all tired and sore and ready to hit the road for Manila.  We weren't sure if we could make it all the way back to Manila and planned to stop and stay somewhere if it got too late. Dale was able to make pretty good time driving down out of the mountains. He got behind two other vehicles and followed them down as they passed trucks on the windy road. It was a little scary at times trying to get around the slower vehicles around the curves in the road. It took us about 8 hours to drive back and we got to our apartment around 9:30 at night. It was a nice trip, but we were glad to get out of the car and into our beds.