When we got to Banaue, I quickly made a travel buddy of the not-so-elderly English lady. We took a tricycle to the People’s Inn where we freshened up and had a simple lunch. I got to know the English lady a little bit more, she was on a two week tour of the Philippines and is now on her Northern Luzon leg. For someone who is not so young anymore, she does seem to be very sturdy and is obviously reasonably fit. After all, if you just came from Sagada, you probably have a reasonable amount of fitness to be able to explore the environs of Sagada.
At the People’s Inn, we met this guide named Jordan who offered his services to tour the Banaue Rice Terraces on his tricycle. He obviously deals with a lot of foreigners and is very comfortable with them. His English although not perfect, is good. He has a lot of practice. We have to consider it over lunch since we are very hungry. My bus back to Manila leaves at five in the afternoon so I have a lot of time in my hands right now, and I wouldn’t mind a tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Banaue Rice Terraces, since I didn’t get to do it properly the first time around.
Jordan was the chatty type and quickly got on the good side of the English lady, he asked me if I would consider the offer, I really didn’t mind, besides I wanted someone to share the tour fee with. So after lunch we hopped into his waiting tricycle. There were other guides outside, including one which was hounding us ever since we entered People’s In. Well, too bad for him, Jordan knows more public relations.
The consists of three stop along the road along the ridge overlooking the rice terraces. It was a steep climb even for the tricycle which was to exert quite a bit of effort to pull us up. Jordan brought us to the first viewpoint. He was describing how different the different parts of the Banaue Rice Terraces were. In this viewpoint he pointed out how this portion has rice terraces which are more pyramid or triangular in shape. It is true. The contour of the mountain in this part is triangular, the builders of the rice terraces usually follow the contour of the land and in this case ended up with a pyramid-shaped rice terraces.
Upon closer inspection you can see that there are steps on the terraces themselves, I assume this is for tourists who want to explore the terraces up close. It is really daunting to see how long the stairs can go, fortunately, I don’t need to do that anymore since I have tricycle with me. Incidentally, there were no fellow tourists with us at the first viewpoint. I’m glad that I do not need to jostle for position since the terraces are so massive that there is room for everyone.
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