In 2019, I visited an unique rice terrace on high mountain called Batad, in central Luzon, northern Philippines. It is a world Unesco Heritage.
Going to Batad from central Manila will need an approximately 12 hours. I took an overnight bus that left at 10pm and reached Banaue, a small rice terrace town at around 5am.
The tourism office did not give a good impression about their welcoming service, as the officers refused to share their public transportation information. Instead, travelers were encouraged to take the private tricycle or car available. Then I hired a tricycle to bring me to Batad, an hour away after a morning breakfast.
Batad is a mountainous village, where the houses are built on the slopes, surrounded by layers of mountainous rice terraces, built over 2000 years of legacy. Upon reaching Batad, I started my trek down the hilly slope to my homestay guesthouse right at the bottom of the valley. The stairs are winding and the route is through village houses and paddy fields. It is a mesmerizing view, seeing the houses and paddy fields below as I trekked down. It seems near yet so far, as I took an hour to reach the bottom from the top, despite a signboard claiming 10 mins.
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| Beautiful mist greeted me in the morning |
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| Stairs connecting the village |
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| View along the trek down to guesthouse |
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| Walkway to guesthouse right at the bottom of the valley |
Imagine, sitting at the porch of the guesthouse, viewing the paddy field right in front with a hilly backdrop. A true heaven in nature.
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| View from guesthouse |
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| Tranquil village life |
Later on the day, I explored Tappiya waterfalls by trekking up and down to the falls. Sitting half way on the journey in a porch, overlooking the majestic rice terraces on the slopes just took my breath away...
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| Tappiya Falls |
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| View from the top on the way to the waterfalls |
The next day, the exploration continued with more trekking up and down the surrounding rice terraces. Sitting at a simple hut, chilling on a bottle of beer with the awesome mountainous rice terrace view was a great blessing. Human ingenuity was established even 2000 years ago with the ability to carve the terraces for paddy without any modern technology back then, yet still lasting until now.
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| Stairway to heaven |
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| View from the top |
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| Exploring the terraces |
One of the relaxing activities is to have Swedish massage back in the guesthouse, besides just doing nothing but enjoying the scenery. Surprisingly, massage in Philippines is cheaper than in Thailand, especially with the increasing value of Thai currency. One hour of painful Swedish massage was less than USD10, compared to Malaysian currency as of 2019.
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| Can you see the guesthouse? |
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| Traditional village hut with stairs |
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| View from below the hut |
On the last day, I sadly waved goodbye to this peaceful village. Trekking up the slopes took another 1 hour before I managed to get a public jeepney (their local bus) back to Batad. The best experience was to ride on top of the jeepney, with 360 degree view of mountains and valleys along the winding mountainous road. The same happened on the jeepney ride from Batad to Sagada, another unique region in central Luzon. This rooftop jeepney ride is only available in this region. I was truly blessed...
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| Rooftop ride from Batad to Banaue |
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| Another rooftop ride from Banaue to Sagada |
