Saturday, November 26, 2011

Banaue


Banaue is famous for its rice terraces, and was the reason why we were visiting the small town.  In itself the village is nothing to look at, but the surroundings are spectacular.  Thousands of rice terraces which are over 2000 years old line the mountains for as far as the eye can see.  It was fairly misty when we arrived in the morning and we weren’t able to see the terraces in all their glory as the mountain peaks were draped in fog. 

We checked into a guesthouse we’d picked from the lonely planet named the Banue View Inn.  It was on a hill with amazing views of the terraces and a good choice.  We had a short rest before lunch, after which we set about exploring.  It was great being in the mountains with the cool air, and in a small peaceful town.  The previous few months of heat and hectic city life was fairly wearing and an escape to the highland countryside was a welcome break.

After a shower and some lunch, we decided to take a walk up to the viewpoint.  We weren’t successful in finding the it but I don’t think there would have been much of a view anyway as we would have been shrouded in mist  We had to walk through a small village where every house kept livestock, mainly chickens and pigs, and the occasional territorial dog that would bark like crazy at us during our approach then run and hide as soon as we got close.  The main path seemed to pass straight through the local people’s houses and barns.  It felt a bit intrusive, but the local people didn’t seem to mind and were very friendly.

We eventually passed through the village and reached the first of the rice terraces.  The path continued along the top of the walled rice terraces snaking its way up the mountainside.  At some points the path was very narrow and we had to use both arms outstretched for balance, as if we were walking a tightrope.  If we’d slipped we’d have ended up either foot deep in the terrace encased in the wall we were walking on, or even worse in the terrace below where we would have fallen head first into the muddy water with a resounding soaking.     

We clambered around the rice terraces not knowing exactly where the viewpoint was until the visibility became poor with the fog and it was also starting to get a bit late.  We descended and went back to our guesthouse. 

I wasn’t overly enamoured with the town, apart from the rice terraces it really was nothing to look at.  The town consisted of a collection of cheaply constructed houses with corrugated iron roofs, dispersed with a handful of hotels and restaurants.  As with most of our destinations on our travels our time in Banaue was short.  I knew there were trekking opportunities in the area which sounded amazing and I wasn’t too keen on hanging around Banaue town.  After discussing with Nev we decided to book a three day trek for the next day.  

We woke up early, met with our guide and then got a Tricycle (a kind of Phillipines tuk tuk) up to the viewpoint.  It was a much clearer day and the terraces looked a lot more impressive when we could see the full range of them.   
We moved on from the view point, found the start of the trail, which is pretty high at around 2000m, then started the trek.  The first part of our trek was to be around a four hour walk through jungle like terrain until we would reach a small village called Pula.  The rainy season, or should I say cyclone season, had just past (the Philippines is subject to around 80 a year).  There were many fallen trees we had to scramble over, and a lot of the muddy trail had been washed away.  This meant that we had to take some minor detours climbing up or down muddy cliff faces with shear drops to a river seemingly miles below.  Along with having to jump from stepping stones to cross rivers, and cross waterfalls using bridges made out of the narrowest pieces of extremely slippery wood, it made for a fairly harrowing, but thrilling experience.



When we arrived at Pula I was quite surprised.  It’s pretty remote, the nearest road is a four hour walk and they don’t have electricity, but they had a big school with an attached concrete baskeball/football pitch.   Bizarrely, all the writing around the school was in English, including a list of the school rules.  Everybody was at church when we arrived.  We’d worked up a fair appetite after our walk, our guide managed to get one women to open the local shop for us to have some snacks.  Not only did she open the shop but she offered to cook us some food, pasta and a choice of the tinned meat that they had available.  We went for sardines in the end. 

It was a very interesting experience watching her prepare the food in an old fashioned wood fired stove, and just seeing how they lived without electricity, a commodity that we take for granted in the west.  The children were very curious with their visitors.  We were offered a kind of water melon as a starter along with salt which we were to smother the fruit with.  Our amateur peeling and smothering technique seemed to entertain the kids, receiving smiles and stifled giggles from our audience.

After lunch it was time to move onto Cambulo, another small village without electricity, where we were to stay the night.  It was a short two hour walk to Cambulo through rice terraces.  The views were absolutely breath taking, we were encircled by mountains and each mountain was sculpted with stepped terraces, some inconceivably high.  The people who work the upper terraces must have to walk for hours every day.  It’s a mesmerising sight, the rolling hills alone are spectacular, but add the chiselled beauty of the ancient 2000 year old terraces and you have an awe inspiring scene.      


After taking plenty of breaks to take in the view, we finally arrived at Cambulo.  Our guest house was nice, but basic.  I had to make do with a bucket of freezing water to wash myself.  Myself and Nev played a bit of scrabble until dinner, then after dinner we had some entertainment provided by the kids of the village.  They did a little bit of a song and dance routine, finishing up with a few of the boys getting dressed up in their traditional tribal gear and dancing around.  After they were finished, we were met with a chorus from the children of, ‘we want to hear your voice’.  After much persuasion I managed to get Nev to do a duet with me of ‘O Flower of Scotland’.  We sang it with patriotic gusto, and frankly, I think we scared the children a bit.  Probably for the best though as we didn’t get an encore.
Playing Scrabble with an Audience

The Local kids
The next day we had a short trek to Batad where we were to stay the night.  It was similar to the previous afternoon’s trek, both in the terrain, and in the breath taking beauty.  As we approached Batad one view point was particularly special.  We could see the spectacular walled rice terraces of Batad, with the village in the valley and other small houses dotted around the mountains.  It was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky and commanding views of the mountains beyond with layer upon layer of rice terraces.



Our guesthouse in Batad was another belter.  It was high up in the town with a restaurant with prime position of the terraces.  We had lunch and had a short rest before our afternoon activity of visiting the Tappia waterfall.

It’s a 40 minute trek downhill all the way to the falls, which makes for a steep climb back to Batad, but it was definitely worth it.  The falls are 30m high with a big pool for swimming at the bottom.  I stripped down to my swimming shorts and went straight in.  The water was fairly chilly, but nothing like some of the rivers I’ve experienced in Scotland.  I swam around for half an hour, which was about all I could manage.  It was exhausting, the torrent of water and the height of the falls gave the pool a very strong current, with big waves.  It was almost like swimming in a pool with a wave machine, but with freezing cold water.  

Our trek on the way back up was fairly demanding and after a cold shower, myself and Nev rewarded ourselves with some ice cold beers (Batad has recently installed electricity).

We had dinner, played some more scrabble and cards, and ended up having another early night.  It was great not having to use A/C and I slept a lot more soundly than I had been, although ear plugs were still required as the animals of the village woke early, and when they did they produced an almighty racket.

The next morning after breakfast I went down to the waterfall on my own for a morning dip.  It was very exhilarating and a perfect way to start your day.  It certainly wakes you up swimming in chilly waters with a pounding waterfall in front of you. 

We left for Banaue after my return.  It was a short one hour hike to the main road where we were met with our Tricycle driver who took us back to town.

 At this point I really should mention how great our guide was.  His family actually owned rice terraces, and he’s worked in the paddy fields all his life.  He’s also built new terraces from scratch, and has a wealth of knowledge about rice farming, which was handy as we had a lot of questions to ask him.  He was quietly spoken and a tad shy, but really friendly and helpful and opened up the more he got to know us.  All in all the trekking experience was fantastic, and this was partly due to our guides expertise and knowledge.

We were getting the night bus back to Manila that night so we checked into Banaue View Hotel again just for a few hours so we could dump our stuff, get changed and have a shower.  We were a bit smelly after trekking for three days without a proper wash.  We had dinner then went to the bus station.

The bus got in at 5am, and we had a connecting flight to Cebu at 9am, the timings worked out perfectly.  After getting a taxi to the airport we only had a couple of hours to kill before we got our flight.

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