Anyway, the trail took about 45 minutes, all downhill, to get to Batad. A small village that appears to only be reached by trail. There were little shops and restaurants there. The terraces were gorgeous. After a short break, we started the hike through the terraces. We got to actually walk through them, which was very cool, though a little freaky at times. You would be walking along an edge that was only about a foot wide. Muddy rice patty on one side and a 20 foot drop off on the other side into another rice patty. The stairs were skinny and really tall. Let's just say there could have been twice as many stairs everywhere on this trail. So hard to take such huge steps.
We made it to an upper lookout where we then started going down a lot of steps eventually to a little hut. Sandra decided to stay there while we went farther to the waterfall. That turned out to not be the best idea. Super steep to get to it and we were already pretty tired and super sweaty by this time. Joe and I did go swimming, which felt amazing. Unfortunately, we were so hot and sweaty again by the time we got back to Sandra that it really negated the whole waterfall swim. It was still pretty neat though.
We were going to originally go through the village (you can see in the middle of the terraces near the bottom) but we asked the guide if we could just take the 'middle road' which would have the least amount of elevation change.
We ended up getting back to Banaue around 4pm. Our overnight bus was leaving at 7, so we paid for a shower (which we severely needed), had dinner then got on the bus.
The bus was awful. Since we were in the mountains, it was constantly going back and forth, which was annoying anyway, but then they were randomly picking people up until at least midnight. It got to the point where people were standing in the isle, which, when you're trying to sleep, is annoying. They keep bumping the seat, or are standing right next to you, which is sort of creepy. I had gotten maybe a few hours of sleep. Joe and Sandra got barely any though. We got to Manilla at around 5am. From there we eventually found a bus that would get us close to the airport. We hopped on that, where Joe managed to get another hour of sleep. We got off in Dau where we got a tricycle to a jeepney area. Then we took a jeepney to the airport. We were about three hours early, which wasn't too bad.
The flight was just under 4 hours, but we ended up having to circle for about 15 minutes because of too much air traffic. We finally landed, then got to immigration, where there was an insanely long line. Unfortunately, they had two lines (which is weird, inefficient, and kind of dumb) and of course we picked the wrong line... We ended up waiting in line for an hour and a half. We got our luggage, walked through customs, and caught a bus to Chinatown. We finally made it to the hostel in Kuala Lumpur at about 7pm. Yes, that means we traveled for 24 hours....
-Miranda
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Joe, Sandra and me in front of the Batand Rice Terraces. (Click to enlarge.)
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View of the terraces. (Click to enlarge.)
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Some of the stairs down. (Click to enlarge.)
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Waterfall at the end of the trail. (Click to enlarge.)
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The approximate path we took through the rice terraces. (Click to enlarge)
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Well, we made it to Kuala Lumpur today. We also had an amazing hike through the Batand Terraces yesterday. I'll have to write a separate blog for that and post photos of those terraces when I have time, but here are the slightly older photos I promised first. All photos were taken by Sandra (except the first one, because if she had taken it, that would have been an amazing trick.
)-Miranda
Joe and Sandra before going out scuba diving.
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The bus to Bantoc. Yes, those are geese on the roof. (Click to enlarge.)
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Rice terraces. (Click to enlarge.)
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More rice terraces. (Click to enlarge.)
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And yet more rice terraces. (Click to enlarge.)
Joe and me in front of the Banaue rice terraces.
An adorable puppy on the side of the road during our walk back to the hotel.
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A panorama of the area. (Click to enlarge.)
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We left the dive resort on Saturday and started our trek north towards the rice terraces. We caught a bus to Manilla, met Melissa (she has done a lot of work for Horse Isle) and spent some time with her at the Mall of Asia. From there we got on a cushy, overnight bus to Baguio. We arrived at 4:30am. From there we had to find the bus that went to Bantoc. Once we arrived at the bus station, we hopped on that bus, which was our first non-air-conditioned, uncomfy bus. There were even geese on the roof! This ride ended up being 5 hours long. We arrived in Bantoc, found lunch and then Joe wandered around looking for a place to stay while Sandra and I used internet at an internet cafe.
The day was mostly spent catching up on sleep and doing some wandering around town. The next morning, we packed up and caught the bus to Banaue. This ride was under 2 hours long, so not too bad. The views are stunning. There are rice terraces everywhere and we're high up in the mountains. Since we had the whole day, we found a hotel for the night and then went back up the hill to the look out for the terraces right next to the town. They are very neat. We've set up a 'tour' for tomorrow with a group of 4 people to help split the cost. We're going to see some other terraces, which includes an hour hike to a view, then another half hour to a waterfall. Hopefully it should be fun.
I don't have any of the photos uploaded to the computer yet. I'll get those posted once I can.
-Miranda
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Sandra wanted to go scuba diving, but would have to rent a boat and guide herself, so I decided to give scuba diving one more try (I had many problems clearing my ears, and losing vision while surfacing.. so was scared).
After about 5 minutes I managed to get my ears to properly clear, not by forcing it, but by just waiting for it to "happen". It was great. We went on 3 separate dives, one down to 55ft and saw some great coral, lionfish!! and some crazy fast swimming sea star. So now we will have to get Miranda certified in Malaysia in a week or so, so we can dive together in future. woo hoo! Thanks Sandra!!
-Joe
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After the whale shark adventure we decided to make our way to Legaspi (also spelled Legazpi) in a jeepney (a common way to get around here, though our butts hurt a lot after the hour plus ride) and stay there the night before heading farther north. The place we stayed was relatively cheap, but for a reason... Joe killed a cockroach running across the floor and there were ants everywhere... Oh well.
The next day we figured out how to get to Batanges, a place Sandra researched and found out there was some good diving there. We caught a 6:45pm bus. We had to get off in one town at around 4am, then catch a different bus. By this time, I was feeling terrible. My stomach was cramping and I had a headache. We caught the next bus and were only on it for about 45 minutes before people mentioned in was Batanges City, so we got off. Unfortunately, there was really nothing around. There was really nothing around, so we hopped into a jeepney and got down the road a bit farther. We jumped out again then tried to find our way to Anilao, which is more technically where the places we wanted to stay were. We found another jeepney that took us to another small town where we hopped out. By this time it was raining (which it had been on and off for the last couple days) but we found an open internet cafe (it was 8am by this point). Eventually we decided to splurge and stay at a dive resort. A bit pricier than normal for us, but after the cockroaches and mice of the last few places, plus the overnight buses, we decided we deserved it.
So, we took a tricycle (motorcycle with a sidecar) to the resort where we had to walk down an incredibly steep and relatively long driveway. Our room is very nice. The food is buffet style, so we do have a few options, fortunately. Before dinner Joe and Sandra had gone out snorkeling and said it was awesome. I didn't go though because by this time I was feeling pretty awful. I couldn't eat much, my stomach felt awful and my head hurt. I napped most of the day. It poured all evening and all night. The wind started to kick up in the evening also. For dinner they had sheets up to block the rain from coming in and right after we left, one of the sections blew off. The people there mentioned that a typhoon was coming in. We ended up just going back to the room and sleeping.
This morning I felt much better. So, it appears the lack of sleep and the super bumpy bus were the culprits and not some bug. Yay! Joe's got a bit of a sniffly nose now though. :p Hopefully that passes soon. He was hoping to try diving again with Sandra. She was willing to help him with clearing his ears, etc. They could do a dive right off the shore. While snorkeling he's been working on trying to clear his ears and was having some success. Unfortunately, now that he's stuffy, he's really having problems with it.
The snorkeling today was fun. We went out twice and saw lots of neat fish and the coral here is very different. All the photos posted below were taken by Sandra. We also compiled video clips that both of us took. We're planning on staying here another two nights.
-Miranda
Snorkeling in the Philippines (click for video)
The jeepney from Donsol to almost Legaspi.
Our room at the resort.
Neat coral or something.
Christmas trees. They disappear when you swish water over them (see video).
More fun feathery stuff.
Possibly a Crown of Thorns. I believe it's a type of sea star.
Star fish!
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