The Rice Terraces

Sunrise over the Cordilleras
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Surprisingly the bus trip wasn't that bad because we slept for a large chunk of it in relative comfort... i.e. better than an airplane. It would be far less comfortable if you didn't know the person that you were drooling on. An incredible sunrise greeted us as we headed down the Cordilleras into Banaue. The town isn't a sprawling metropolis and definitely has that Filipino feel to it.

We caught a tricycle to some accommodation (Banaue View Inn, P500) and only one pack fell off the back of it, which meant that it was a successful ride up the hill. The inn had a good view over the town and rice terraces but the toilet was a "manual" flush i.e. you had to pour in a bucket of water after using it. We found that Banaue is definitely cooler than Manila and a lot more comfortable for us gringos. It probably helps being 1300 m above sea level.

The trike to our inn
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Quickly dumping our stuff and thinking, "God, we need sleep", we headed to the tourist information to see what we could do. Pretty soon we had hooked up a 3 hour "trek" around the rice terraces, ironically with our tricycle driver for P800. We blatted up a hill on another tricycle to the main viewpoint and start of the trail. Adrienne scored a cool bag for P130 to help share the burden of Sean "The Trip Mule" Smart. The bag was handmade by the locals using traditional fabric that was also weaved there.

View from the Banaue View Inn
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The terraces were created 2000 years ago and are a UNESCO world heritage site. It looked awesome - not what you'd see in NZ! We were told that it didn't look quite it's best because the fields were still being planted, so they weren't all green but nearby Batad (we didn't visit) was meant to be heaps greener.

Steep slopes typified the first and last parts of the walk, with the majority of it following the top of the terrace walls. Often the walls were about 100 mm wide; on one side a waterway and the other a scary looking fall. We didn't want to become fertiliser but it wasn't too difficult to negotiate those bits. Although the rice isn't a typical bit of flora in NZ, there were a lot of similarities with the plants around the mountains. The ferns were really similar to NZ and there were pines, except that the ones here are native and aren't logged.

Adrienne at breakfast, looking over the terraces
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John (our guide) filled us in on the history of the place and did a great job of showing us about. He was very patient with Adrienne while she clambered up muddy slopes and crossed the narrow walls. We emailed him a few of our photos for his upcoming website. Watch this space...

The walk was a great experience and we would recommend it to anyone else who heads there. If we were there for another day, then we'd do the walk to Batad because we heard that it was awesome, from people who did it. We thought that we'd finish off the day with a couple of beers, talking to some other travellers but it turns out that Banaue is a very quiet town. Instead, we headed off to bed after dinner, serenaded by the caterwauling called "videoke" and bucketloads of rain.