Banaue and the Rice Terraces

So I have to start this off by telling you a little bit about the bus company I used out of Manila.  Because, despite being run in a much more rudimentary fashion, I found it far superior to our own Greyhound system back in Canada.  They had different types of buses to choose from.  A regular bus was the equivalent of a run down Greyhound.  But they also had first-class buses which were a roomier version of a Greyhound, deluxe buses which has lazy-boy like seats and sleeper buses with reclining chaise longue bunks.  Brilliant!  And nevermind that, they had a system of running the buses that was actually efficient that included things like actually posting the destination(s) of the buses and time of departure on the front of the bus.  Seems basic, yes, but sadly Greyhound Canada hasn't worked this one out yet.

Anyway, enough about that.  The only bus option I had for my 8 hour trip up to Banaue was a regular bus, so it was less than comfortable.  The one perk was that the bus was air conditioned.  And air conditioned it was.  I'm pretty sure the only setting on that thing was Ice Age.  Luckily, the vendors at the bathroom break stops have caught on to this and I was able to buy a cheap blanket part way through the trip.  Otherwise, I probably would have reached my destination with no feeling in my toes.

We got into Banaue around 5am.  I was a little concerned about what the heck I was supposed to do with myself at that hour, but myself and the few other tourists were quickly herded into a nearby restaurant to have coffee and wait until the hotel opened and sent someone to come pick us up.  This is where I met my new German friends Inken and Katrin.

Not only were Inken and Katrin lovely to spend time with, but they also came in kind of handy over our next few days of traveling together as it saved us all a lot of money to do tours together.  After a bit of a snooze, the three of us headed out for a day tour of the surrounding rice terraces.

View from hotel balcony - morning #1

View from hotel balcony - morning #2 (glad we did the tour the day before the fog came in!)

What was meant to be a 4-5 hour tour ended up being more like 7-8 because of all the crazy rain.  We kept getting caught in these torrential downpours and would have to wait them out under the awning of someone's hut.  Not that I'm complaining.  In the least.  It turns out that I missed what the tour guide claimed to be the worst typhoon the Phillippines has ever seen (or maybe just ever in his lifetime) by about two weeks.  This meant that the roads were really bad due to all the recent landslides which added to the trip time as well.

So the tour itself took us to the lookout points of the rice terraces in Banaue and for a "trek" through the terraces of neighbouring Hungduan with a stop at the hot springs and at a hut owned by the guide's family for lunch.  The trip was beautiful despite the fact the rice had already been harvested (usually the flats of the terraces would be vivid green with rice shoots) and it was interesting to learn all about rice (really).

Enjoying the company of some of the local headhunter tribal elders.

Our jeepney for the day.  The first jeepneys were modified army jeeps left by the Americans after WWII.  Jeepneys are still used as a mode of public transit and are available for hire all over the Philippines.  The new builds stay true to the original design.

These red plants are used to indicate the boundary of a family's rice terraces.  Pretty much all families in the area grow their own rice for personal consumption.

Filipino chicken coop.

Soaked and starving.  Ready for a delicious lunch of red rice (I had no idea such a thing existed) and stir fry!

After lunch we got ready to head back to the hotel, which was a bit dodgy.  When someone asks "So will we be able to make it back?" you never really want the response to be "I'm not sure."  If the answer is yes, great.  If the answer is no, it sucks but you find somewhere else to sleep for the night and figure it out in the morning.  "I'm not sure" could mean getting stuck and stranded on some remote road with no way out.  Not so cool.  We did end up making it home that night after a very slow drive and having to stop and wait for the road to be cleared in one spot from the landslide that happened just that afternoon from all the rain.  We were very glad to make it home in one piece!