When you think about the Philippines, most people can't imagine that there is mountain terrain so difficult to navigate that a 150 mile journey takes over 8 hours in a bus! This area is the mountain corridor of Luzon Island and the hip backpacker village of Sagada, here in Mountain Province, is a chilled out stop over with loads of coffee shops and healthy food restaurants. The scenery from my bus window matches that of a Jurassic Park film, which I believe was shot in Hawaii. So it’s like Hawaii, just with way less infrastructure. The roads really do suck and willing your bus driver to go any faster to save time is not an option.

A unique tradition to this area is the hanging coffins in the Echo Valley and other nearby areas. The dead were literally "lifted toward heaven" and hung off the side of mountain cliffs. This region also provides an opportunity to see some amazing UNESCO World Heritage rice terraces.

The small community of Banaue is my next destination. That’s the access point to the Rice Terraces of Batad; an amphitheater shaped village where the rice terraces have been in use for over 2000 years. It’s a backpacker mecca and one of The Philippines most hidden gems. Sagada is nice but I think it gets even better…