I am in quest of World Heritage Sites and Batad is one of them. Most of my travels are in line with culture and history though I am not a historian nor am a fan of history in my school days. I simply hate memorizing the exact names of a significant character and at the same time associating it to the plot of the story. I regard history before as a subject only to comply with my studies.
Now that I am in quest of this valuable, rich culture and historical events, I laugh at myself thinking that what I ignore before is one of my targets now. Not too late though, my understanding in history now is just according to the facts that the guides are sharing to me during and at the same time I am visiting a certain place. Some of the knowledge are from my friends and most are from basic researches. Oh well, it helps a lot in understanding one’s culture.
During my childhood days, Banaue Rice Terraces is one intersting topic. Though they simply explains that it is a farming method of our fellow Filipinos living in the mountains. It is truly amazing though on how they build it, something like I cannot imagine to exist on the mountains comparing to rice fields on the plains.
As I grow older, little by little I know that these precious creations become famous not just in the Philippines but worldwide. It is also one of the features in one of our Philippine currency. I just think, this must be something.
I had my first look at the Banaue Rice Terraces in November 2005 when we went to Sagada, Mountain Province with my colleagues in Makati. It is truly amazing upon seeing it in a bigger picture. An overwhelming feeling is on me that what we only see on the books and other publications are right in front of me. Such a nice feeling though.
So much for the Banaue Rice Terraces, in 2013, a friend of mine whose name is John shared to me his experience in Batad. Though I already have knowledge of Batad when I first come to Banaue yet due to our limited time, we exclude Batad in our trip. I am a bit curious by how John is describing the place. While he relays to me his experiences, I am in awe and from then I am the most eager one to come to Batad if my schedule permits.
Another friend of mine, Sir Ben, is sharing to me his recent Batad activity. He also sends invite for another wave of his event. It makes me confirm to him immediately without any hesitations. One bonus to me is that we will be staying at an authentic Ifugao house in the village. From then, that feeling of excitement to experience one is on me! Sir Ben also confirms the final dates on May 28-29, 2016 and that we will leave Manila on the night of May 27, 2016. I also make some final notes on my schedules and blocking that dates too.
On the departure date, the meeting place is at the Coda Lines Terminal in E. Rodriguez Sr Ave in Quezon City to which I arrive there early. I am expecting to encounter an older bus plying to the route but what surprises me is the opposite. They have the newest bus I can ever imagine that time. They cater routes going to Sagada, Mt Province via Banaue.
At 9pm we are set to depart Manila. Since I arrive early, oh well; to avoid traffic since it is Friday, I just take my dinner at Burger King walking distance to the terminal. That time, there are four buses set to depart. Passengers bound for Sagada are arriving in quite a while and some buses having scheduled departures are already on their way towards the destination. We board the last bus by the way.
The departure schedule is at 9pm however we depart few minutes past 9pm and arriving in Banaue morning of the following day. Before reaching the Coda Lines Terminal in Banaue, we ask the driver to drop us at the registration area for Batad. There is a restaurant nearby for our early morning breakfast while stretching ourselves due to the long travel. While Sir Ben is busy with the logistics, we are also busy with our orders.
I am a solo joiner and I am happy to meet new friends on this trip. Most of the participants are group of friends they are Apple, Shades, Cha, Chai and Paul while I already know Eden and Sir Ben during our Calaguas trip in 2014.
After taking our breakfasts, our jeep is waiting for us to visit the viewing decks in Banaue. They have several viewing decks for the different viewpoints of the Rice Terraces. Each deck features different angles of the Rice Terraces and good venues for photography. Excitement is on us to pose everywhere. Some locals are also with their tribal costumes and most likely to approach us to some photo opportunities with some minimal donations. Some of them are kind enough in letting us borrow their native costumes to make us look like authentic locals.
Each of the viewing deck features distinct sceneries with such a nice panoramic view of the mountain where its walls are all made up of the terraces. This is not new to me since it is already my third time to visit this same view. Yet it never bores in me, I am still enjoying the view. I think even if I will visit this place the nth time, I will still continue to appreciate and enjoy it. Hopefully, the locals will continue preserving it as if it was created in the olden years.
After finishing the visits to the four viewpoints; we now proceed to our target destination, the UNESCO World Heritage site, Batad Rice Terraces. It is known to be part of the list for its amphitheatre shape of rice terraces covering almost one side of the mountain in Batad, Banaue. I am yet to discover it personally; it really excites me to come to Batad immediately.
We hail a private jeepney as our transportation to Batad. As part of the adventure, it is exciting to sit at the roof to have a better view of the place, anyway there are railings on each side so it is safe. We just put our bags inside the jeepney and oh by the way, Eden is also staying inside. It is so enjoyable that the weather also is cooperating with our craziness. Another bonus is our kind driver. He always stops at certain viewpoints where we can take out our cameras and shoot.
The entire 45 minutes ride to the jump off of Batad is full of fun and excitement. There are amazing landscapes too. Countless rice terraces surprises us along the way that are offering various panoramic views. How will you be not surprised that some of the structures you’ve seen from the other side of the mountain were eventually one of your destinations? We are thankful for the concrete access road to the jump off. It really makes our trip a lot easy and enjoyable.
Arriving at the jump off, we alight the jeepney and take each of our bags. We organize ourselves and prepare for a short walk. I am really expecting a longer walk when a friend of mine shares to me her experience with her last Batad Adventure years ago. What’s new now is the concrete roads that cut short our trek to the Heritage Village. It is like they are walking for an hour to go to Batad and the way back is quite tedious due to a longer assault trek towards the saddle.
We start trekking towards Batad Heritage Village. The trails are okay maybe because it is the everyday access of the villagers. Though vehicles cannot pass the walkway, it is always accessible to all ages. Our trek is a quite relaxing one with a bit of excitement. Along the way, we find some beautiful rice terraces that welcomes us to the village along with its signage. We take a short rest while enjoying ourselves taking pictures everywhere.
We continue walking until we reach the village. The registration booth is at the entrance of the village where we individually fill out our names on the logbook. Just a few meters from there, I am in awe when I see the spectacular view of Batad Rice Terraces. I am speechless for a while seeing this with my very own eyes. My excitement to roam around Batad Rice Terraces is increasing.
Few meters down from the registration booth is the location of Mang Ramon’s homestay. We walk down the narrow concrete steps heading towards the homestay. It is all going down, and from there, I can’t help myself but imagine how I will survive climbing up the stairs going back to the registration booth together with my heavy load. Anyways, we arrive at the homestay all safe and quite tired from the overnight bus trip down to the trek towards Batad.
At Mang Ramon’s homestay, we are staying at the traditional Ifugao homes within their compound. Our stay there is so perfect that we will be experiencing how it is to live like locals. We have a wonderful and memorable overnight stay at Ramon Homestay. More fun and excitement on our stay at Mang Ramon’s Homestay here.
While planning for tomorrow’s activity, we also finalize of our transportation back to Manila. We don’t have seat reservations on our return. When we arrive in Banaue, Sir Ben immediately approach another bus company and tries to get reservations for us. Unfortunately, all units were fully booked. Our chance is the Coda Lines trip back to Manila.
Initially, before going to Batad, we call the booking manager of Coda Lines to ask for reservations. They still have to confirm vacancy from their Sagada office since their buses are coming from there. They are also waiting from the management to decide whether to add another trip using their available bus. So we need to reconfirm with them the schedules and reservations later. But we need to leave for Batad so we opt to do the phone calls upon arrival in Batad thinking that they have good network connection. The odds are not with us, phone networks are not that good that they can only receive messages and cannot send an outgoing one.
Sir Ben and I are planning to go back to the saddle to contact and confirm from Coda Lines our reservation. One grandchild of Mang Ramon offers to drive us to the saddle at a minimal fee just to get good mobile connections. So we walk back to the jump off just to get to the parking area of the motorcycle. Sir Ben then asks me to do the calls for reservations since the motorcycle can only accommodate one passenger and that is not a problem to me.
At the saddle, I find a good network connection and tries to call the booking office. Until then, they haven’t come up with the decision and asks me to call back in 15 minutes. They have to call the Sagada booking office again. Finally, after series of calls and talking, the management declines to ply the available bus. Now, we need to come up with Plan B.
While waiting at the saddle, I drink a bottle of beer. I am also talking to the storeowner and my driver. The storeowner suggests that if we cannot get a bus tomorrow going to Manila, we have an option to take the Jeep from Banaue to Bagabag junction for us to hail a bus to Manila. At least in Bagabag, a lot of buses coming from Cagayan and Isabela provinces bound for Manila. I am thankful for her for suggestions. So my driver and I drive back to the jump off where Sir Ben is waiting for us.
Upon meeting Sir Ben, we immediately run the trail going to the homestay since the sky is getting dark and it’s about to rain. Just in time we arrive at Mang Ramon’s, the rain starts pouring. Another worthy experience of trying the rain in Batad.
We just stay at our cottage while it is raining. At our assigned cottage, we will be able to see the whole view of the terraces to we are able to enjoy the view while it is raining. The rain continuously pours until nighttime. We have to eat dinner and experience the local harvest. Mang Ramon also invites us to join the socials at after dinner, another experience worth to be remembering. Please read this article on how we enjoy our stay at Mang Ramon’s Homestay here.
The following morning, we wake up early to experience the morning breeze of Batad. We also have to prepare ourselves for the trek to Batad Rice Terraces and eventually the adventure hike to Tappiya Falls. Our adventures to Tappiya Falls are quite interesting due to the challenging way going to the falls. Read it here.
As we have known from what Mang Ramon is sharing to us, they have three varieties of crops in the fields. These crops yield harvests after a span of five to six months so in one-year time; they only have a single cropping season. It’s good to know these ideas ahead before we start trekking the terraces. More of the adventures can be read here.
We spend the whole morning enjoying the beauty of Batad. From the trail towards Tappiya Falls, we pass along the bountiful rice terraces with its green and yellow healthy crops. The walkway are good, however, we must have to be extra careful in walking since the heights are high enough to fracture ourselves when we fall. It is such an enjoyable experience spending our morning at the rice fields.
Trekking towards Tappiya Falls is another challenge having the accessible way to be of an almost 40-60 degrees inclination. In going there is quite easy since it was all going down. The challenge here is the way back to our homestay that are all be going up. We need to store more energy to walk back to our accommodation. The very good thing is we all have the luxury of time to do it. There are no more activities after the falls and we are set to leave Batad at 2pm.
A sumptuous tinolang manok using native chicken for lunch. It is timely enough to energize us after our challenging activities at the terraces and the falls. It is so delicious with local harvests in it. Lucky for us we get to taste their bounty.
After lunch, we organize ourselves, take a shower and pack our things. We leave Mang Ramon’s homestay at 2pm since we want to avoid the rain while walking back to jump off. Fortunately, we arrive the jump off just in time for the rain to fall. We plan again to ride on top of the jeepney, yet we are thinking not to do it this time since the sky keeps on getting darker and darker. As we drive back to Banaue, heavy down pour are on us.
Our driver takes us to the terminal of one Bus Company just hoping we can have an available seat, unfortunately it is also in full capacity. So we opt for our Plan B, to take the jeep going to Bagabag junction. Another worthy experience that we are able to mingle with locals while riding the jeepney. An hour trip to the junction, so we alight the jeep and wait for buses bound to Manila.
All the buses are also full. While Bagabag is accessible to all modes of transportations, some van operators take chances of haggling passengers for Manila at quite higher fare. While waiting near the road, Sir Ben tries to signal one van passing us. Few meters away, the van stops so we go to the direction of the van.
We are lucky that the van let us ride at a price of Php 3,500 for all of us to Manila. We have a good ride and we are safe reaching Manila. Thanks to our driver though.
The whole experience in Batad is such a memorable one. I am so thankful that I am able to join the trip. I am also thankful that I meet and makes new friends with other participants on this event. I personally thank Sir Ben for organizing this wonderful trip.
Until our next adventure!
Been here: May 28-29, 2016
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