In August 2016, I went to Banaue, Ifugao Province. It’s 371 kilometers north of where I departed in Quezon City.
371 km drive
Here are 28 of my favorite images from the trip that didn’t make it into the trip log albums below:
Click here to see more photos from the trip on Flickr.
Day 1: 26 August 2016
I got to Banaue around 5:15 A.M., so I was really groggy. The hostel I stayed in sent a tricycle to fetch me, and I went to sleep upon getting to my bed 5 minutes after. I stayed at a hostel called Banaue Homestay on the main road.
(click to zoom in)
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- Banaue Homestay
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- view of the rice terraces from Banaue Homestay
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- the hostel as seen from the road
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- my room
Parts of the ride were pretty horrible. The problem was not the bumpy roads, but the fact that it was zigzagging all over the place. One of my first purchases in town upon waking up was three tablets of carsickness medicine for the ride home.
I walked around a bit and grabbed a late lunch at the Las Vegas after waking up.
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- one of the 2-3 streets in downtown Banaue
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- Las Vegas Restaurant
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- Las Vegas Restaurant
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- Las Vegas Restaurant food
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- Las Vegas Restaurant ceiling
(click to zoom in)
Around 2:45 PM, I hired the hostel’s tricycle to take me on a tour of the different viewing stations set up for tourists to photograph the Banaue Rice Terraces.
The first spot was at the Hiwang Village. It involved a very mild hike of around ten to fifteen minutes. (5 photos)
The next viewing stations were at the:
a.) View Point (4 photos)
b.) the National Food Authority View Deck (where the sign proclaims that the view of the rice terraces printed on the 1,000 peso bill was taken here) (4 photos)
c.) and the Main View Point. The signs are all hand-painted. (8 photos)
That night, I had dinner at a cozy little lodge downtown called Sanafe. The place had a lot of old school photos and antiques.
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- Sanafe Lodge
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- Sanafe Lodge
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- Sanafe Lodge
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- Sanafe Lodge food
Day 2: 27 August 2016
Saturday is the town’s market day. People from surrounding villages gathered downtown to buy and sell hard goods, livestock (mostly poultry), fresh vegetables, seafood (probably captured elsewhere as Banaue is landlocked), shaved ice desserts, grilled fast food, etc. (13 photos in slideshow below)
13 second video clip of market day
I stayed for a couple of hours until it started raining around 1 PM, then I hightailed it back to Banaue Homestay.
I ventured back downtown late afternoon and hung out at the Uyami Green Lodge to have late lunch and read. I also had dinner there before heading back early evening.
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- view from the Uyami Green View Lodge
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- one of the 2-3 streets in downtown Banaue
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- Uyami Green View Lodge food
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- Uyami Green View Lodge food
Downtown is made up of two to three streets below the main road from the hostel I stayed in. You can access it via a road sloping down, or a narrow stairway.
Here are four photos of downtown at night.
Day 3: 28 August 2016
I hired the hostel’s tricycle to take me to Batad. It’s a town around an hour away from the hostel that also has rice terraces. There’s a half hour hike from the last bit of paved road where we had to park the tricycle to the ticket booth. Then another half an hour from the ticket booth to various spots where you can sit and catch your breath on rickety benches. You can opt to hike another hour or so more to reach a famous waterfall, but I abandoned that plan an hour after hiking downhill.
(8 photos in slideshow below)
The first ten minutes were on super rocky and muddy ground with a lot of gaps in between. I kept worrying I would fall down and never be heard from again. I don’t know how the locals seem to be able to hike it with just flip flops. It was quite slippery due to the rain.
I would pause every so often to catch my breath. Luckily, after the scary first ten minutes, there were paved stair steps to walk on.
You can opt to keep going down into the actual rice paddies and houses below, and then cross to the other side to the waterfalls I mentioned above.There is no way to reach this part of town via any motorized vehicle, just on foot. Not even a bicycle.
After Batad, the tricycle took me back to my hostel where I rested. Left Banaue around 6 PM and got back home before 3 AM.
