I arrived in Baguio at 4am on Feb. 6th.after 6 hours on a bus.The bus was surprinsingly comfy but also surprisingly expensive. 4am is not so much my favorite time of the day so walking to my hostel wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world, and when I got there, the place was definitely not the most pleasant thing in the world either ! Dirty sheets, dodgy people and toilets don't help you sell a place but a cheap price does. I was actually wondering if I was gonna stay the second night (already booked, of course) and I wasn't asleep from my first night yet.

When I woke up, I was still wondering if I was gonna stay or not and decided I would as I only had one day in Baguio and didn't wanna spend it looking for a place. Well, I should have. Not just because "Upstairs Bed and Bath" was the worth place i stayed in 5 months but also because Baguio is an awful city. It's located at about 1000m altitude (maybe a bit less) but in a sort of a hole that helps pollution to just stay there. So there's a permanent cloud of horrible smoke in the city. Also, there's nothing to do in Baguio. I went to a market that wasn't that bad, visited a place called Ta... Village and a meditation place, both praised by the Lonely Planet (Did I tell you that I hated this guide more every day ? Seriously, the authors have never been to the places they mentionned but also missed out on soooo many other nice ones !!!).Anyway, I followed the lonely planet that day and it was a mistake. Baguio should have never been on my list of places to see.Thank you Lonely Planet (Not !).

So it was with an obvious pleasure that I left Baguio and headed to Sagada. Reinhard, an austrian guy I met in Siquijor recommanded me the place and I had heard other good stuff about it.

Sagada is located 5h by bus from Baguio, (and a not very comfy one), followed by an hour ride on a jeepney. The scenery was stunning, going from one mountain to the other, above 1500m altitude. Every mountains were green and we could see my first rice terraces of the Philippines. But Sagada is not about the rice terraces. Sagada is about hanging coffins, very deep caves and stunning sceneries of the mountains.

After I found a place to stay (not thanks to the Lonely Planet but to Trip Advisor), I went for a walk. Not knowing where to go, I started following a bunch of people who seemed to know where they were going. I walked past a church, through a cemetery.Ok. Where was I heading to ? Well, I ended up overlooking the hanging coffins. Yep, there are such things as hanging coffins. They are really odd and creepy. Knowing people are actually in coffins hanging on some walls in the forest is odd and creepy. Yet fascinating ! I walked all the way down to see them from closer. They are indeed, waaaay down from the cemetery. And the walk back up seemed more like a climb than a walk ! That was my first day and already i had walked more than I thought I would.

When I went back up towards the village I met a guide who mentionned plenty of places to see with a guide. Place I had read about on Trip Advisor. So I went to the tourist information and looked them up. That's where I met Hanna. Hanna is from Wales and was travelling up north while waiting for a friend of hers to join here later in Manila. She was looking at joining tours and walks the way I was. We didn't wanna do all the same tours and walks but got to spend a lot of time together. Hanna wanted to do 'cave connections', a connection of 2 caves, and I only wanted to do the small one (only one cave). So we did our bookings and went for a drink to a great place called the Yogurt House. This was gonna be our HQ for the rest of our stay.

The next day, I woke up very early to join a group of 4 to visit the S.... CAVE. But because the group of 4 was from Manila, they were late (yep, this is something touristy places are used to. Filipinos don't like to get up early. They say 7, well, it most likely gonna be 8 or 8.30). But I did go. Caving is not so much my thing. I only saw amazing pictures that looked amazing and not feeling like doing the cave connection I thought I should at least do the small one. It was sort of an adventure, mostly because the only light we had was an oil one.Yes, one. For the group, not per person. And no back up ! Where's Health and Safety when we need them ?! :) So off we went. What stroke me when we entered the cave was the smell. The cave is inhabited by hundreds of bats. And bat poo smells very bad. Then it got cold. Then wet. Then a little dangerous ! And narrow. If the other 4 hadn't been so fun and nice, I wouldn't have gone though the narrow and more tricky places. But I did and I'm happy I did because the cave was truly amazing. The pics in the album will show better than any words. And I'm also happy I didn't do the Cave Connection...

We came out 2 hours after we went it.Under a beautiful sun. After the caves I joined Hanna who had done a tour with a guide around Sagada. We had lunch at a small cafe down the main road and met a guy from the Netherlands who was looking for people to go on walks with. He and Hanna ended up doing the Cave Connection together the next day while I had a nice breakfast and chilled.

The same afternoon, the 3 of us went to Bomod-Ok falls . It was only a 15 minutes drive to the departure point and from there, I had read it was a 2 to 3 hours walk to get to the falls. I tought it's be pleasant to go there. Well, it was interesting. Let's even say challenging. It was actually 1h15 minutes to go down. Far down, very far down. The walk took us through a small village and rice fields.The fall was nice and only Patrick went for a swim. It was pretty damn cold !!

The way back was the longest walk back I ever experienced. At least it felt like it ! 1h30 going up, mostly on stairs. I thought I had left a lung or both down at the falls.

The next day, (monday) because I probably thought I hadn't had enough, we walked to Marlboro field. Named like this because of the Marlboro ads of the 80's or 90's. It did look like in the ad. Nice open scenery towards other mountains. (The pics in the album will say more than my words) .It is said that wild horses have been spotted there before but our guide told us that if we didn't see them now is because locals killed most of them.

On tuesday Hannah left and I could never find Patrick but I had a chilled out day, did my laundry, read my book.

On Wednesday, I left beautiful Sagada to go to Banaue to see the beautiful rice terraces listed at the UNESCO.