Getting to Banaue is easy … it is tourist friendly, easy on the eyes and easy on the budget. Nothing really to write on it – aside from … if you’re in the Philippines and you miss it, then you need to re-evaluate your priorities.
Definitely getting up with the rice terraces in your view every morning isn’t the world’s worst way to wake up in the morning.
Rainy or sunny, it will make a good picture – just a matter of what character you want your pictures to have from the Banaue viewpoint.
Another marvel is to think about the natural irrigation system devised 2000+ yrs ago and the subsistence farming that has existed for 1000′s of years, until tourism came and sure you know that there will be an inexorable decline in the terraces – so go see them now.
Definitely an easy picture to take … no skill required.
Ill equipped vehicle – CRVs are not jeepneys and should never be considered for true offroading
Hiking 20 mintues to the Saddle
Attack of the “splats” from eating “Spaghetti Bolognaise” at Hotel Banaue
We then had to actually do the hike down from the Saddle into Batad properly through the driving rain. One big concern would be, if we could actually see the terraces, since there was fog.
After all that hiking, there really isn’t much to talk about – since the pictures do all the talking.
One also has to love the the lovely waterfalls and streams that come after the rains
And of course, streaming waters down the terraces.
In coming to the Philippines, I had one major travel goal to achieve i.e. Get myself to Banaue and Batad. Given the description of the hike to Batad from the “Saddle” (the limit of where vehicles could go), I was quite reluctant to attempt this hike given the state of my physical condition : “A fat ass who can lift heavy rocks“, however I can halfway around the world and nothing was going to stop me from checking off number 41 on the Hillman Wonders list.
What my research didn’t tell me was that
Rain severely hampers your progress, but not unsurmountable
Landslides can kill you, but only if they fall on you. If they happen 25 seconds after you walk by a point, then you shouldn’t freak out.
Water travels down, hence if it rains at the top the Rice Terrace Amphitheater, then you will get tons of amazing waterfalls – that’s good! Right? Well not, if the waterfalls become mini rivers that cause you to lose your footing down the path
Renting a CRV is useless in going to Batad and that you absolutely must use a jeepney – unless you want to explain a broken axel – See Iceland with Rishi and Lev. You may ride with the locals and broke backpackers or comandeer one yourself at your beck and call.
For instance, the following information about travelling to Batad was not available on video or via a travelogue.
If this information was available, I might have reconsider going to Batad. The operative word is “might”, meaning there would be a 1.10% chance I would not going to Batad – since it would take a broken leg for me not to go. Another thing, that one cannot truly appreciate without being there, is the driving it takes to navigate those roads.
Well in the end, here was the final outcome before we left the van to hike up our own to the Saddle.
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