Banaue Rice Terraces has been one of the popular places that the Philippines, is proud of. During my primary and secondary years, it has always been mentioned, hence my growing curiosity about the place never ceased, until I was able to visit the place last April 2, 2008 (after our trip from Sagada).
We stayed at the New Wonder Lodge for P200 per day. Though there were other hotels we could go to, but we chose it since it’s the cheapest and it’s relatively clean. The Poblacion was a small bustling place with accommodating people. We saw that there are a couple of foreigners as well, which I’m sure are going or have already gone to Batad- a place where they say rice terraces sight seeing is really magnificent.
So we chartered a rickshaw (P225 per head) from the Poblacion to Batad junction, which is usually the case of visitors wanting to go to Batad. From the junction, one has the option to hire a jeep going to Batad, which we didn’t take. Instead we took a 2.5 hour hike going to the place which was more rewarding than taking a jeep. Though it was humid but I enjoyed the tranquility I got from the hike as well as the therapeutic green scenery along the way.
It seemed like there’s something mystical about the community of Batad; it’s somehow isolated from the other communities and yet they happily live within the bounds of the mountains that enclosed them from the rest of the world. These mountains however are not just mountains. The beauty of these rice terraces transcends to the people living in the area, thus making Batad mystical to the tourists.
We did some explorations around the area, thus giving us good photos of farmers planting rice and even chatted with some.
I found it amazing that locals were so affable towards us, speaking fluently in English; hence I didn’t have difficulty translating for Dave to understand. (Well of course later did I know that the missionaries’ occupation in the area a long time ago was the reason for that; I couldn’t remember that part during my history lesson.. I probably dozed off…oh dear)
