My cousin Kirsten and I spent most of our time together in the Philippines in the Cordillera mountain range, which is north of Manila on North Luzon Island. We started out from Manila on an overnight bus to the sprawling highland city of Baguio. That wasn't our original plan (it changed because I bought our bus tickets based on the erroneous advice of our hotel owner), but actually I think the revised itinerary was probably better anyway.
We arrived in Bagiou EARLY in the morning at a clean, new bus station. We had a cup of coffee there and waited for the sun to come up, then hopped in a cab to get to the bus station where we'd transfer to Sagada, which became our destination after plan A fell through. We booked tickets for an 8:30 bus, which gave us time to hit an ATM and look for breakfast. It didn't take too much wandering to find a small bakery/cafe where we had good pastries and decent coffee; we also picked up sandwiches to eat on the way to Sagada.
That was a long, bumpy, dusty bus ride, but the views were breathtaking. Kirsten and I ended up in the very back row of seats, bouncing and sliding all over the place and feeling grumpy because an older couple (not sure what nationality, but they looked to be former hippies) were in our assigned seats and didn't seem eager to move when we boarded and pointed that out.
My guidebook describes Sagada as "a tranquil mountaintop town where you can walk down the middle of the road and only occasionally be disturbed by a passing vehicle." After Manila and then a night and a day on buses, we were looking forward to that tranquility - so it was a bit disappointing when we finally arrived to discover busloads of domestic tourists there for the town festival. It turned out to be fun though, and we arrived on the last day - so we were able to experience the festive market atmosphere and then the town as its usual tranquil self.
We did some leisurely hiking around Sagada, first with a guide, who showed us hanging coffins and a burial cave outside the town, and then on our own to a small waterfall nearby. Our map to the waterfall was not so good; we ended up doing some backtracking and along the way we ran into a Spanish girl who was also trying to find it. We teamed up and eventually got there. The nights in Sagada were COLD, but it was warm and sunny that afternoon - perfect for a dip in the pool at the bottom of the falls.
From Sagada we took a packed jeepney to Bontoc, the nearest sizable town. We had to kill a couple of hours there before the next leg of our trip to Banaue, so we checked out the Bontoc Museum, which has fascinating exhibits on the local tribes - including their history as headhunters.
In Banaue we arranged a guide to take us on an overnight hike to Batad, which is the highlight of the Cordillera region. Throughout the area there are rice terraces built 2,000 years ago by the Ifugao tribes in the area; Batad's terraces are considered to be some of the most spectacular. It rained a bit, but aside from that it was a great hike. Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable, the overnight stay in Batad was rustic but interesting, and the views all along the way were simply stunning.
I took far too many pictures of the views, but I tried to be ruthless in editing them, deleting more than two thirds of the pictures that were originally in this album. If you're interested in a tour of Manila, a tug-of-war contest at the Sagada festival, those hanging coffins and yes, a few pictures of the rice terraces, click on the album below:
 |
| Philippines |
No comments:
Post a Comment