Hey guys! It's March but I forgot to post this even if it's late, I'd still share this though, better late than never!
So, on the 24th, my husband and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. It's just amazing how fast time went but on that day, I found Google Photos giving me a throwback to when we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. I haven't shared this here, though; these photos were all from my phone.
Well, being young and full of energy and time, what we always wanted was to have a memorable one and so after our Summer Capital of the Philippines trips the previous year, we decided to go up north again and this time to see the "Hagdan Hagdang Palayan" or the rice terraces in Banaue. After a little research, I found the best one to visit would be Batad.
Before heading to the Mountain Province, we stopped by the San Juan Flying V Arena to watch some UAAP volleyball matches. It was an opportunity that I didn't miss being a fan of volleyball. I am a fan of the Ateneo Lady Eagles but unfortunately, Valdez was not anymore part of the team, anyhow, I saw Morado and the triple towers play so I was all good.
Aside from that, I also saw the De Lasalle players. I am also a fan of the team! I remember shouting and just clapping all the time that we were in the arena! It was our first time to see them play live in person so it was memorable.
I am not anymore into watching the UAAP nowadays because of other things going on in my life but I am still a fan of volleyball. In fact, on our 8th anniversary, when I opened the TV, there was a match live stream and we watched it too!
After the game, we headed to SM nearby, we took a Grab car for that and then waited for the bus which was en route to Banaue. I can't remember specific details on which bus terminals and the fare we paid for the trip but I could remember how I was so sleepy the entire trip that I didn't mind going down on stopovers!
I also recall seeing mostly foreigners riding the bus. I could only spot a few Filipinos including the driver! I could tell how these tourists were interested in the rice terraces too! The bus was fully packed and even the center aisle was taken! I am glad that we had booked our tickets online and so we were given a seat instead of having the center aisle.
We arrived at Banaue after eight hours. Wow, that's like a whole shift but I felt recharged as I saw the sun rising from our bus window! We went down the bus and signed the tourist information then we had breakfast at this restaurant with a view of the mountains!
After breakfast, we hailed a tricycle and the driver was a Cebuano so he was so nice to drive us to Bangaan first, he said this is one of the clusters and is also pretty. We appreciated the gesture and indeed, this looked beautiful, he said Batad is bigger though but I was really amazed at how the small community fits in this area, there's a school, church, and some government office in here!
We only took a few minutes here and then headed to Batad Saddle point. At that time, there was still some construction going on - the local government was constructing a shortcut cemented road to make the route going to the Batad community easier.
It was an amazing trek but we were already aware of what we were to face going to Batad. We saw a lot of other tourists too walking into the community and even locals as well with some of them carrying boxes of soda and canned goods. I believe they were selling them there.
Finally we reached Batad's welcome sign. It's 1,100 meters in elevation and is tagged as a Unesco Heritage Site, the location of the amphitheater Rice Terraces! That brought about excitement! It was the time of the year when the locals were prepping their rice fields for planting so we understand that the rice beds were still bare but still, there was beauty in it.
We reached Ramon Homestay in Batad after getting lost in the community. This is a hilly kind of community so to find the place, we have to seek some help from the locals.
A boy of around eleven years old helped us out and so I also asked if he could tour us around later that afternoon, thankfully, he understood Tagalog so after having lunch, he walked us around bad!
We were really grateful for this view! Having lunch while seeing the beauty of the rice terraces was truly one that I thought would not happen in my life but praise God for this wonderful experience!
We had a nap and then by around three in the afternoon, we headed out for a walk towards the viewing point! Our tour guide was this kid who helped us find the homestay!
Oh boy, we had about more than an hour of walking. We were also accompanied by the homestay's dog, Rambo. And as I am typing this, I recalled the name of our tour guide was Charlie.
Unfortunately, Charlie didn't inform us that there's a better route going to the viewing deck. So we had to climb the almost 90-degree staircase going up to the viewing point while on our way home, we figured, if we took the other route, we would be at the viewpoint in less than 15 minutes without sweating!
Anyway, I won't forget how beautiful and amazing this amphitheater view of the Batad Rice Terraces.
There's natural water irrigation at the center of the terraces, and the rice beds had walls made of rock and stones. Unlike the rice terraces in Banaue, this one in Batad is sturdy. It was built hundreds of years ago and so it's amazing how the ancestors were able to construct this without any machinery! Imagine them carrying the rocks and stones up to the top of the hill! This is definitely work done with sweat and blood! I can't imagine how long the ancestors had spent building this.
I learned while sitting at the view deck that each rice bed is owned by certain families in the community. There were some of them which were not anymore being planted and that is because the family members had already moved to different provinces, their children had already found jobs in the city and so they had somehow abandoned their life here.
While there were houses built with bricks and tin roofs, there were still a lot of fale or the traditional houses of the mountain provinces visible in different parts of the community.
Our homestay had one and they allowed us to check the interior of the house. We saw the heads of carabaos and other animals. We also saw some rice grains being stored inside the house. The generation today uses the fale only to store their harvests and not anymore as a house although they have kept one of them for those who want to experience sleeping in one. They have an accommodation prepared for such tourists.
My husband got really tired and so after having dinner after a few of the tourists had enjoyed the night with singing and a campfire, my husband requested for a massage. There was a home service so the masseuse went to our room for the massage. According to my husband, it was really good that he slept well that night.
We only stayed for a night and we had to catch the morning trips going to Sagada. We driver who dropped us at Saddle point had also picked us up at around eight in the morning. There's no cellular signal at the homestay so we were glad that the driver waited for us!
We had breakfast at the same place and then we found a van barking for those who want to go to Sagada. We took that chance but we had to take a jeep from a terminal that took us to Sagada. The trip was really one adventure! There was a bridge too that was damaged and so we had to stop and drop our things and walk instead as vehicles were not allowed to pass by so we took another vehicle from there. I can't remember every detail though.
But nonetheless, we reached Sagada, we stayed at an inn which was just at the center of the town. The tourist information office was just a few steps away. We toured Sagada that day and then we also rented a motorcycle to tour around the town. This is actually a small town and if you check the maps, the tourist spots are just nearby, you can even just walk around.
We explored the hanging coffins, and the Sagada weaving, and then we also got lost looking for Danum Lake, it was an adventure! We got soaked in the rain too and had eaten really good ice cream at the lake!
While being lost, we took that opportunity to take photos of ourselves in the middle of the pine trees! I love hot chocolate weather locations such as Baguio, Sagada, Bukidnon, etc! I just like cold weathers!
We ended our day at Gaia where we had muffins and tea! The cafe also sells art materials and I bought my first Alunsina journal notebook over there!
Before that day ended and before we returned the rented motorcycle, we booked a tour to watch the sea of clouds which at that time was very well known because of a certain Filipino movie. The tourism office told us that there's a little chance because it rained but we still gave it a go. So as early as around 4 AM, we were already at that location!
You should guess it that there was no sea of clouds indeed but just sea of heads! There were so many people around and if you take photos, you won't get a clear shot, just heads of people! But anyway, it was still okay. We don't get what we want all the time!
Before our trip back to Manila, we dined at Sagada Lemon Pie House, this is a famous cafe restaurant in Sagada and they are actually known for their lemon pie! They bake only a few everyday and so they are always sold out that's why we tried going there early. There was only a few slices left for us but we bought it as pasalubong, I ate only one slice though and then we headed to another cafe that offers lemon pie too but the decision of eating one made my life miserable while on our way back to Manila! I am not really sure though if that was because of the lemon pie or the meal that we had there which was baby back ribs and fries!
James was spared though but I had an upset stomach the entire 12 hours of traveling. At every bus stop, I'd be the first to go down and the last to go back to the bus! I was truly miserable, I regret eating more lemon pie I swear I won't eat lemon pie ever again!
But by the grace of God, I survived without pooping on my undies! It was surely an adventure, what a way to celebrate our second wedding anniversary! But now that we have Matti, our anniversaries will be spent in chill resorts, we are now at the point in our lives where we want to be in a place that is not crowded, with good internet service, a pool, and good food!
So, we had our 8th wedding anniversary celebration at La Casa Di Beatrice! It was very intimate, only two other rooms were occupied so it felt really nice and quiet. We had the pool to ourselves when we went swimming. We laughed, we played, we ate good food, and just enjoyed each other's company.
Matti is of course the number one that we have to consider, he loves the water and so we decided to book one that has a kiddie pool. He was really happy that he could reach the floor! Matti and I also had time together for an afternoon snack while they also had their moment as father and son!
This is now our typical adventure - just enjoying each other! I love that this was realized at this homey resort! I will share more about La Casa Di Beatrice and our room too! Since we only spent one night here, we had to check out the next day and we also had a good time dining at Cafe Anlio which offers good food! They got a resort too and we are already planning on checking there soon as well!
Anyway, that's it for today! Thank you so much for reading!
