After a nice lunch at the inn in Bangaan, we again set off hiking. I didn’t have any idea where we were going since I was just following my friend. We were supposed to go back to Banaue since we need to catch the bus going back to Manila that night. At this point it was already raining quite hard but we needed to make haste or we might not catch the bus.
After about an hour of hiking in the rain, we reached the junction. The same junction where we first got off going to Batad. If I knew Bangaan was that close we could have just taken the way back. Then again, we would have missed the wonderful mountain vistas which we saw on the way to Bangaan village. Anyway, there were a couple of tricycles at the junction waiting for passengers on the way to Banaue.
We quickly got ourselves a tricycle and headed off to Banaue. It was going to be a little difficult since it just rained and the roads might be a little slippery due to the mud. I still got to sit inside the cab of the tricycles missing all the wonderful scenery outside, but I was too tired to care anymore. We basically had the same bumpy ride but this time going the other direction.
We soon arrived back at the town of Banaue, the tricycle driver dropped us at the People’s Inn where it all started. Again, we refreshed ourselves at the People’s Inn while we contemplated our next move. Our bus leaves quite late in the afternoon, we still have a few hours to go before it leaves. Since we haven’t seen the Banaue Rice Terraces yet, we decided to give it a go.
It was drizzling when the tricycle driver brought us to the main viewpoint of the Banaue Rice Terraces. This is certainly an awesome scene. Compared to the terraces I saw in Batad and Bangaan, these terraces are much larger in size. The slices of mountain are much thicker and thus much higher than the ones I had seen. Also, the terraces cover several mountainsides covering the valley below with majestic rice terraces.
At the viewpoint, which was pretty high up, we got the classic postcard view of the Banaue Rice Terraces. However, there was also a lot of clouds obstructing the view. The rain wasn’t making it any easier though. At the viewpoint, there were some old men and women dressed in traditional Ifugao attire. As expected, they were in it for the money, since they as for a small sum to have their picture taken with the rice terraces. I’m sure you already have seen these old men in costume in postcards.
Awesome the view was from the viewpoint, I noticed that obviously there are houses in the fringes of the Banaue Rice Terraces, it sorts of ruins the view. Fortunately, the rice terraces are massive enough to make the houses insignificant. I just hope that the government will work to keep these houses from encroaching on such a wonderful sight.
This is a wonderful way to end our adventure here in Ifugao province in the Philippines. No wonder these rice terraces have been incribed into the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Filipinos have dubbed it the Eight Wonder of the World, and that might not be an exaggeration. Alas, we do not have time to explore the Banaue Rice Terraces themselves but maybe some other time, I’m sure I won’t mind coming back here.
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