Angeles City

Back at Angeles city! I was so tired, I slept all the way till 11+AM.... 

Sagada --> Baguio --> Dau (Angeles)

We left early in the morning to catch the 8AM public bus (GL/Lizardo Trans) from Sagada to Baguio. There are a few buses daily from Sagada to Baguio at 6AM, 7AM, 8AM, 9AM, 10AM, 11AM & 1PM. It was a 4-5hours bus ride and the fare was 220Peso (SGD$6). The bus stopped at the main public bus terminal and we had to take a taxi (about 30peso) to the Victory Liner Bus terminal to catch the bus back to Dau (Angeles). The Victory Liner bus fare was 306Peso (SGD$9) and took about 5-6 hours. 

Banaue -> Bontoc --> Sagada

Sadly, we had to leave Banaue after 2 nights of stay. Some photo-taking for the last glimpse of Banaue!

Merla and I with Vie, the proprietress

We took the morning jeep from Banaue to Bontoc at 8AM. This jeep is available every morning, parked at the city centre (just in front of the wet market) and leaves once it is full. They charge a fee of 50Peso (SGD$1.50) and the ride is about half an hour. We arrived at Bontoc and changed to a public jeepney to get to Sagada. Just look for the public jeepney at the jeepney terminal, and take the jeepney that indicates ‘Bontoc . Sagada’. Fare is 50Peso (SGD$1.50) and takes about another half an hour.

Sagada has a very small town centre, even small than that at Banaue. We were able to locate St Joseph’s Inn, again as recommended in Blogger recommendations. It is located upon a hill and we had to climb up some steps. We paid 250Peso (SGD$7) per pax for a non-aircon dormintory room (4-beds), with shared bathroom.

Entrance to St Joseph's Inn

Dormitory room at St Joseph's Inn

Common Area at St Joseph's Inn

Hallway at St Joseph's Inn

We grabbed some lunch before that at Francis' Restaurant, and we had the Francis Rice at 100Peso (SGD$3). We met the big doggie Ruffie (or Scruffie? I can’t quite remember). He seemed to have a liking for Bon Bon. You will realize that the stray dogs at Sagada tend to have be big and furry.

Francis' Cafe & Restaurant

Menu at Francis' Restaurant

Scruffie! He is actually more gentle than he looks

Francis Rice

We checked in at the tourist centre and I was impressed to find a very consolidated list of accommodation places, prices & capacity as available in Sagada. We decided to take the tour that includes spelunking at Sumaging Cave, and the Sugong Hanging coffin viewpoint at 400Peso (4 visitors or less) plus 350Peso for additional transport. You have the choice of taking the transport at additional cost or take a 30minutes walk from the city centre to the cave. The tour guide will guide you in the walk. I would recommend you to take the scenic walk and its really not that far from the city centre. We decided to take the car transport because of our dear Aunty Merla. Be prepared to pay an environmental fee of 20peso (SGD$0.70) per pax. 

Tourist Information Centre

Cave Adventure Package 1

Cave Adventure Package 2

The Sumaging Cave was awesome... Our tour guide, Boston has 5 years of experience. And he was really fast in the cave, with a kerosene lamp balanced on his head and a backpack that he had to ensure that stayed dry. We started the walk with our flip flops on some really slipper rocks, because of the algae. Then we came to the inner part of the cave, where we removed our flip flops and it was time to get wet! The rocks formation looked different by then due to the water flowing down. Pressure from the water had smoothened the rocks and it was a smoother texture in light brown, moulded according to the shape of the flowing water. There was a point when we had to squeeze ourselves through a very small hole and Boston made me climb a wall that was almost 2 metres high. This guy can fly man! We got to a part of the cave where the water level was at chest-high and the temperature in the cave was probably about 10 Degrees Celcius. We saw some fossil fuels on the walls of the cave, this goes to show that the water source was from the ocean. I was thinking, this was probably how Tom Hanks lived in the film ‘Cast Away’. 

Banaue, Ifugao

Our tricycle driver, YenYen was our tour guide for today. For a trek up the mountain, and visit to Tamad Village, it was 700Peso (SGD$20) for 2 pax. My favourite part was the trek up the mountain. It was a little difficult at the start, due to the intimidating number of STEEP steps and thin air due to high altitude. But we soon got the hang of it. YenYen was always way... ahead of us, walking as if he was walking on flat ground. I guess the locals are really used to climbing up and down such steps.

We met some really interesting people along the way up. My favourite was the Ifugao native man who was digging the stones at the waterfalls. He was trying to clear the path for the river to flow downstream. I was amazed at how the locals have such initiative to make sure that the environment is well-maintained. We offered him some SkyFlakes for his hard work ;) When I asked him through the guide how old he is, he says he doesn’t know! I guess for the local natives, they had little education and age is of little significance. They live life as simple and essential as it can get. It was a joy to just sit there, looking at him at work, listening to the falls, water flowing across the pebbles.

Banaue Mountain Trek Trail

Wooden Handicrafts

View from top of mountain

Hidden waterfall

Ifugao native clearing rocks

Bon Bon's 5-seconds pose

Terrace at top of mountain

Tired from our trek, we went back to the homestay to have our lunch before continuing our walk to Tamad Village. We had a beautiful lunch at the patio, overlooking the rice terraces on a sunny afternoon! Vie laid the table, and cutlery at the patio and it was a really nice lunch!

Lunch at Patio

We took a 5 minutes walk to Tam-an Village and visited a house where he showed us the skeletons of his Grandfather. The Banaue natives have a way of burying the dead by mummifying them. Apparently his father is still being mummified and it takes 60 years for a corpse to be fully mummified. Before he took out the weaved bag to show us the skeletons, he informed us that we would have to make a donation as he had to kill a native chicken to pray to the Gods for displaying the skeletons.

Stsrt of trek to Tam-an Village

Ifugao Native House

Ifugao native mummy-skeleton

Rice at Tam-an Rice Terrace

Baguio --> Banaue

Arrived at cold Baguio!!!! Did I mention that it was COLD!!! I had my scarf wrapped around my neck, and windbreaker on. Yet, it was still cold. I was practically shivering. I guess it was the fact that it was early in the morning at 5AM. Bon Bon checked out how we could get to the other bus terminal to take the bus to Banaue, while I got us some hot coffee (without sugar & cream). LOL. They scolded me for not adding sugar and cream, but I thought they liked it strong because I drink it without cream & sugar!

We had to walk to the other bus terminal, about 15 minutes walk from Victory Liner bus termainal. I’m not too sure about the name of the other bus terminal, but its just beside a Chow King outlet and a petrol station. The first bus out was at 9AM, and the ticket booth wasn’t even open yet at 7+AM. So we took a breakfast break at Chow King, while waiting for the ticket booth to open.

Baguio Tourism Centre & Park

View from outside Chow King

We found a few small 12-seater van parked in front of Chow King. They would usually be there everyday, to drive passengers from Baguio to Banaue. They were charging the same price (330Peso or $10SGD) as the Florida Trans bus. So we decided to go with the private van. We left Baguio at about 8AM with a van full of about 12 passengers. The driver was GOOD at driving.... It felt like a roller coaster ride! We started the drive up the mountains of Baguio, and I could feel the cold & refreshing wind! It reminded me of Canada all over again....

The ride up to Banaue took about 5-6 hours. It was a long.... ride. We passed Kayapa, Vizcaya, Solano, Balgabag, Lagawey and finally, Banaue! It was a really nice scenic ride up to Banaue. I was pretty amazed to be see the surrounding view.

We arrived at Banaue after what seemed like a ride that lasted forever. A local lady in the same car as us was very helpful in directing us to our homestay. I found a homestay place (Banaue Homestay) from some blogger recommendations. She got us a tricycle driver to driver us up to Banaue Homestay. Its actually not too far from the town centre, about 5 minutes walk up the hill. I love the place the moment I saw it! It was very airy, clean and it had a fantastic view of the rice terraces from the patio! The propietress, Vie is a nice Filipino lady. Aunty Merla was able to connect with her instantly and started chatting away with her. We chose a room and bargained for 500Peso (SGD$15) a night for 3pax. It was good for me to able to find a local Filipino who could hold a decent conversation with me in English! I really recommend this place to anyone who is visit Banaue. And she cooks really well too, International & Filipino cuisines. The homestay includes an in-house restaurant for visitors to enjoy a good meal at the patio or inside the cosy house. You can contact her at beatrizbandao@rocketmail.com or 09202787328. You can check out their website at http://www.banauehomestay.weebly.com/.

Banaue Homestay Signage

Stairway at Banaue Homestay

Tricycle

Banaue Homestay Room

We took the time in the rest of the afternoon to take a tricycle ride up to Banaue viewpoint at 300peso ($9SGD) for a return trip. We met some local Ifugao natives who offered to take some pictures with us for a nominal donation fee. You will realize this word ‘donation’ will pop up very often in Banaue.

Ifugao Natives

My model for the day!

Banaue is famous for their wooden handicrafts & work. They are really skilled in creating anything and everything out of wood including a manual scooter!

Spot the wooden scooter

 I had to take this picture of the rooster... It looks so surreal and regal with the background of the grand rice terraces!

Rooster standing tall and proud



Angeles City --> Baguio

Bon Bon arrived at Angeles this afternoon. And we decided to leave for Ifugao that night. Note that the bus terminal from Angeles City is called Dau Malabacat Terminal. We were told by the Victory Liner guy that we had to take the bus to Tuguegarao, and change a bus to Banaue. We did so, and tried to catch the last bus to Tuguegarao at 11pm. Lo and behold, we found out that we could only board the bus if it was not full, because it was arriving from Manila. It was obviously full, and we had to find another way to get to Banaue that night. We decided to take a Victory Liner to Baguio, and change a bus from there. We took the bus to Baguio at around 12 midnight, and arrived in Baguio at about 5am. It was freakishly cold in the bus, but all of us knocked out the moment we were seated on the bus. Don't be surprised to see a conductor punching tickets away at lightning speed!