Going Around Batad Terraces

After arriving in Simon's Inn in  Batad and having lunch and siesta, the group decided to explore Batad town below. You see we we're billeted in the Inn which is located on the top of the mountain while the town itself is located below (or on the side) of the mountain.

Exciting!!!

View from the top

 One thing that caught my attention in Snmon Inn is the Wall post of remembrance (or sort) for the visitors of the Inn. They post different items on the wall like calling cards, photos, stationaries, etc. I think it's cool to leave something behind on a place (just like this wall) instead of marking your memory on some stones, trees, and what not (which is not cool!) or bring something to Manila from Batad!

Look for my calling card here =P

Trekking starts at 3:00PM. The weather is perfect and we we're all excited. It was not that scary nor challenging when you trek to Batad. It's like a walk in the park. Naks!

Green foliage everywhere!

View from the mountain side!

Dapit hapon na dali!!

Majestic!

Outstanding!

Batad is full of Sunflower as well. There's a lot of sunflower on the road side. Wonderful!

After almost an hour we finally arrived on our main destination, it's the hut in the middle of the field. There we took rest and savor the majestic view of Batad.

We we're in front of the pack, the girls trek so fast! I think being a long legged person does make you walk fast. LoL! Since we walk fast, we have time to take some picture while we wait for others =D.

Lovely ladies Edz, Madam Patel, Alex and Mica

Finally the others catch up on us, and it's time for a group photo-shoot =D

From the terraces we finally made our way to the town proper which is located on the middle of the mountain slope. Here is the steep stairs which we need to pass through. where only one person is allowed to pass (no overtaking please!).

#Afraidyaguillar

In town proper, we did visit some old Ifugao houses where the tradition of woodcarving is still practice. Saw this rice bowl with some engravings on it. Curious as i was, i take a look on this thing and I found out that it was made sometimes in 1960's pa! Cool!

No wonder I can't master my Bikram yoga, I'm totally clumsy when it comes to balancing! I almost fell on the ricefield when we walked on these single lined paddies. Yikes!

Thank God I didn't fell, embarassing much if I did!
 LoL

The challenging part of the trek is the return to the Inn part. We took a different path which leads us to really climb the mountain slope while the other group opt to walked on a steeped stairs. 

It was fun since climbing is my expertise. Naks! Though climbing with a slr on your back is quite challenging.

Me, Madame Patel, Edz, Tina and her bf made it in the climbing part. Whew! We we're really relieved when we finally made it on the top.

And of course my fabulous friends won't give up as well. Alex and Mica followed soon after.

Triumph!!!

Edz still smiling even when the hike is rough and hard!

Cool!

More to follow...

Banawe! Banawe!!

Nope, it's not Banawe, Quezon City where you can buy cheap car accessories (and sometimes if you're a victim of car thief, the stolen parts ends here) but the famous Banawe of North Luzon what 'm talking about. Let me give you a glimpse of the 4 day-3 night stint which happened over Holy Thursday-Easter Sunday and spent on our wonderful trip in the mountains of Northern Luzon.

Just a little background, I wasn't planning any trip for the Holy Week actually but when I heard Dong and JC talking about the trip to Masbate for the Holy week I invited myself to their trip. I've never been to Masbate before and surely my cowboy hat (which I bought in Iran 5 years ago!!) would certainly be fit there (yes, they are called the marlboro country of the phils.)

Then plans change, from Masbate the trip was diverted to Kalinga!! But the problem was how to get the ticket to Kalinga =(. So, before the Holy week i made rounds of calls to bus stations inquiring for available booking for the trip. Alas, all trip going to Ilocos, Abra, Tabuk and Banawe are already fully booked! As the hope dims Dong told me to check out Ohayami bus in Espana. And as if my lucky star is upon me, i get a chance to secure a booking for the Banawe trip! And come Palm Sunday, as me and my college friends are having lunch at Sonya's garden I invited them to the trip. After they said yes I ask Dong's permission to have them on the trip.

Come Wednesday night, off we go to Banawe: me, dong, olive and rose (my college buddies) and floro. The trip was actually not comfortable because the space in our seats are small. "Hirap talagang maging long-legged" LoL!

Then morning came we find ourselves in Banawe already. It was drizzling when we got off the bus and it was cold and foggy which I truly loved!! After the meet-up we headed to the "name of resto" to get some breakfast. The view from the resto is awesome! See....

Floro having his coffee by the window

The fog slowly rising from the rice terraces

Slowly...

Slowly...

And gone =)

After eating breakfast, photo-shoot here and there and charging our cellphones, we managed to get a van that will bring us to Bontoc, Mountain Province. Luckily Dong is very familiar with Banawe and he managed to ask the driver to stop at the viewpoint sections of Banawe for much-needed profile picture for Facebook (c'mon admit it, you like to update your facebook profile pic given a chance =P )

Olive and her crazy peep-thru-the-window pose

Oh-lalala Banawe Rice terraces!!

More of Rice Terraces!

What's with the arm spread thingy pose?! LoL!

Shopping! Shopping! Shopping!!!

As we headed to Bontoc, Mountain Province, we did pass some landslide affected roads leading to Bontoc. My first thought was we're lucky there's only one landslide affected road and it's easy to navigate the road. Little did I know this is just a "patikim" of the more "rugged-death-defying-holding-on-to-your-dear-life" trip from Bontoc to Tinglayan. I'll share you that experience on my next blog post. 

We did pass another viewpoint and we just have to ask the driver to stop. Luckily he obliged.

The communities are on the side of the mountain, it was awesome! And down below is their river (that I assume will pass thru Banawe as well).



A lot of awesome scenery can be scene on our way to Bontoc. But unfortunately we can't ask the driver to stop because we have other people riding in the van going to Bontoc. So we just settled ourselves with taking pictures while the van is moving, hence the blurred and not-so-great photos of the mountains and rice terraces.

Here are some shots while the van is in motion (thanks to Rose for the other pics below jejeje. Ikaw na naka-galaxy tab sa bundok!)










The best experience is yet to come....ABANGAN!!!