It only took 30 minutes by jeepney and 2 hours by bus to get to Banaue.The town itself is not the nicest place in the Philippines.What people are here for, are the rice terraces listed at the UNESCO.

As usual, the first thing I did as I came out of the bus was looking for a place to stay. I met Lizzie at the tourist information. She was on the bus with me, from Bontok and was also looking for a place to stay. The first homestay we did was dodgy without window and expensive.Not for me, thank you. The second one seemed a bit better and much cheaper. Well, it ended up as dodgy but at least was cheap. We only stayed a night. It was called People's Lodge and was recommanded by the Lonely Planet but I only saw that afterwards, otherwise I would have avoided it ! Bloody useless guide !! A guy from People's Lodge started talking to us about the walks he organises to Batad, the different routes and everything.We went to the tourist information centre to compare and had another version of the story so we could only trust our guts when it came to chosing. At the tourist information we met those 2 girls, Berenice and Sixtine, who were also looking at walking around the rice terraces for a couple of day.

After many discussions and an afternoon by jeepney for Lizzie, Berenice and Sixtine only to go and get some cash an hour away from Banaue (you got to know there are no many ATM in the Philippines....), we decided to go through a guy Berenice and Sixtine met when they got back. It was the cheapest and we wouldn't have to walk more that 4 hours a day for 2 days and we'd get to spend the night in Batad.

So the next morning we left People's lodge and moved to Randy's, a place recommanded, and for good reasons, by Trip Advisor. People's lodge didn't have hot water in the common bathroom and the temperature was about 18 degrees at night. At 8.45 we were on the main place, ready to leave by tricycle. It took about an hour to get to the Saddle. The Saddle is located 45 minutes walk from Batad. We had to walk down, which is always easier on the lungs if not on the legs. That's another reason why I didn't wanna stay in Batad. I didn't see myself carry my big backpack all the way down for 45 minutes and then back up again for over an hour.

We arrived in beautiful Batad around 10.30am. There the most stunning scenery made of massive and gorgeous hundreds of rice terraces were just there, in front of us. Again, have a look at the pics.And still, it won't even look half as nice as it was for real. Before heading to the waterfalls, we checked in our place. I asked if we could stay at the Hillside Inn for my friend Hanna, that I met in Sagada, was staying there. We did and had about 2 hours before leaving so we had time to enjoy the scenery. We wondered how big were the terraces as we could only see small walls but had no idea how high they were. Once we spotted a few people we realised the walls between the terraces measured 2 to 3 metres. But we only realised it once we walked between the terraces.We felt sooo small. I had difficulties realised the size of the whole terraces.

The walk down to the waterfall was pretty steep and I was wondering how i could go back up without losing my hip (bloody tendonitis following me around) or a lung. We didn't even bother go all the way down to the water, only Berenice did. We still enjoyed the view towards it. After going back up, and it wasn't easy, Berenice and I still wanted to go even higher, all the way up, on the highest terraces we could see. Surely the view from there would be stunning. Our guide wasn't really keen. So we left our bags to Lizzie, Sixtine and our guide. But when Lizzie and Sixtine decided to go back to the homestay with another guide we'd been walking with, more or less, our guide thought he's only keep an eye on our bags. But we asked him to come up with us so we didn't have to go back down and up again to the homestay. He didn't seem keen and it was either because he was lazy to go up or because he didn't know his way around.I wasn't impressed by him anyway as he didn't know anything about anything !

Going up wasn't very easy but I'm glad I didn't have to go down the same way as it was very steep. Some places were very tricky if you weren't very careful of where you stepped. The view from up there (and it wasn't even all the way up !) was indeed stunning !! Seeing the rice terraces from so many different angles was just one of the most amazing experience I had in the Philippines. Again, the pictures will talk for me...

I think the 4 of us went to bed around 9pm. We were exhausted from our long day and it was also my day 4 out of 5 in the north when I had to walk a lot.

The next day, on friday 13th, we walked to Banga'an. It was fairly easy but lasted 4 hours. Once we arrived on the main road we were all starving.We were gonna go to Banga'an after lunch. However lunch took waaaay too long to arrive and by the time we were gonna walk down to the village Lizzie, Berenice and Sixtine decided they just wanted to go back to Banaue.Plus the guide told them it'd take 30 minutes to go down and 40 to go up. So I went alone with the guide. It actually took about 10 minutes to walk down and 15 to go back up...anyway, the terraces there are truly different from the ones in Batad. The land is flatter, wider. So some terraces and simply massive. The village is very cute. There I met Virginia. We got to talk how Filipinos produce what they need, don't waste food like we do in western countries, we talked about how she grows her own veggies (organic, of course) and how meat is only for celebration, that animals live a happy life, etc. She really wanted to dress me up with the traditionnal outfit. I refused and we kept talking. I asked her how old she was and she simply told me she didn't know. We guessed she was in her 60 as her children are between 21 and 42 years old.Her 9 children !! She almost made me cried when she told me she didn't know her age. She is such a nice lady !

It's funny because the same morning, at the homestay in Batad, I was gonna buy a pendant. I hesitated between a sun and a sign of good luck.I took the sun, thinking the good luck one wasn't appropriate. In Banga'an, Virginia was selling the same pendants. I decided to buy the good luck one from her. But she didn't wanna sell it to me, saying I was a different person, someone who listened to her, who exchanged with her, instead of just taking pictures and leaving like people usually do when they visit Banga'an. So she chose a pendant and gave it to me. She didn't want any money in return.

Virginia came back with us to Banaue as she had a meeting (yep, a meeting with people representing their village). We exchanged numbers (her children got her a cell phone which she founds very handy to communicate ! She was even texting people !) and will stay in touch for sure. When I went back to Randy's, my new homestay, I only had time for a quick shower before heading back towards the main place and say good bye to the girls. Hannah was there, so after Lizzie, Berenice and Sixtine left, we went for a drink with Patrick who happened to be in the street when Hanna and I were heading home for a shower. Patrick had disappeared for a few day. He was meant to go to Banaue too, a couple of days before but had some money issues, not being able to withdraw any as he didn't have a Visa or Mastercard...Anyway, that was the last time I saw him and have no idea what he did after this last diner.

On sunday, Hanna and I left Randy's at 5h45am to get the first Jeepney to Lagaue in order to get a bus to Manila. Because we waited for too long for a bus who never came, we arrived in Manila at 9h15pm after 11 hours on a bus instead of the 6 to 7 hours people had told us about. Not a very big deal as such but the thing is that I was meant to fly to Bali that night, at 8h50pm. I managed to change my flight while in the bus but it took 3 hours, 2 phone charging, 60 euros for the change and 10 euros for the night at the hostel the cab driver couldn't find. Luckily it was a great one ! I went straight to bed when I arrived, only wishing I had stayed on more night there and taken a later flight instead of spending 9 hours at the airport in Singapore.I'll know for next time.