banaue rice terraces

upon meeting the tricycle driver who will be bringing us to the different viewing sites, i immediately asked if doing a topload ride on his tricycle is possible. a straight yes made me jumped over the tricycle. i grew up just looking at the world famous Banaue Rice Terraces on books and on the one thousand peso bill. always in awe of seeing it there and to discover it myself why it's still considered by the Filipinos as the eight great wonder of the world. we arrived at the town center about an hour and went around to look for an inn for the group, though i was already going back to Manila that night. after the siesta, we took two tricycle to go to the viewpoints of rice terraces of Banaue.

unlike the rice terraces of Batad, Banaue's rice terraces are located just beside the highway that goes to Bontoc and Sagada. so it has several view points along the highway thus naming the area Viewpoint.one can also notice that the rice terraces of Banaue has slanted walls compared to the ones in Batad which has vertical walls of piled stones. yet both are majestic and picturesque. one that i recommend every Filipino should see.

the fogs that cover the topmost part of the terraces made me realize why most travel books would sometimes described it as the stairway to heaven.

and yes don't be surprised when you see a free running vehicle coming along the highway. it's a wooden bicycle that is quite popular in Ifugao. i had my chance to ride one too, and maybe someday i'll bring home one.

the culture, the people, the climate, the place, definitely made our Banaue trip one my best trip in 2009. special thanks to ironwulf, lagalog and erick for this tandem trip. photo above was taken by ironwulf.