The Banaue Rice Terraces Experience

     The Banaue rice terraces is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the northern mountain provinces of the Philippines next to Baguio city.  I have heard alot of cool stuffs about it and seen amazing photos of it since when I was a kid.  I've always wanted to visit the place and hike from one rice terrace to another and meet the indigenous people there.  I had always told my self as a traveler, I would go to see the amazing place.
     The Banaue rice terraces has always been famous and it was even made popular by the movie 'Infinity war'   when it was featured in one of the movie clips with Thanos in it.  Watching the movie gave me the eagerness to go  and explore the famous rice terraces and I did.  A good old travel buddy came and tagged along.

     The Banaue rice terraces as we all known were curved into Cordillera mountains of Ifugao in the northern Philippines by ancestors of indigenous tribe.  Some would prefer to them as the "eight wonder of the world."
     It is said that they are 2000 years old according to a historian, Otley Beyer.  They were believed to be curved with bare hands with minimal tools and they have a very systematized form of irrigation from the rain forest above the terraces.

     The Rice terraces of Banaue were inscribed on UNESCO world heritage list in 1995, the first ever property to be included in the cultural landscape category as the world heritage.

     They are located in Nueva Vizcaya-Ifugao-Mountain province rd. Ifugao.   It was a 9 hour travel from Manila and if you're from Baguio city, it's  a 5 hour travel.  I considered this to be as one of the longest travels by land so far.

     We arrived there around 1:30AM.  There's  alot of Hotels and transient houses to consider but if you are looking for an ideal luxurious place to stay, The Banaue Hotel and youth Hostel is highly recommended.  They offer a reasonable rates of Php 2,300 / day.  That's were we stayed.

     Though  I was tired from long hours of travel, I managed to take a peek of the terraces by the hotel's balcony but all I saw were dismal and dark gloomy figures of tall mountains  with ghastly sound of the wind and chirping insects that gave an eerie feeling during the night.  The next morning,  I went out again by the balcony and to my surprise, the rice terraces gave a stunning view that were truly more than meets the eye.  I woke up my friend from deep slumber for him to witness the outstanding site.

View of the Batad rice terraces from the Banaue hotel

     As was planned, we decided to go out and trek the terraces but we had doubt if we could explore them all in just one day.  Aside from the Banaue rice terraces, there were other terraces as well and each one of them was enormous. There is the Batad rice terraces, the Mayoyao rice terraces,  Happao rice terraces of Hugduan,  Kiangan rice terraces, Cambulo village rice terraces and the Pula village rice terraces.  It is recommended  to have at least three days of vacation to explore these humongous terraces.

The Happao rice terraces of Hugduan

     The nearest was the Happao rice terraces of Hugduan municipality.  That's where we proceeded first.   The municipality requires registration for daily record purposes with an environmental fee of Php 50.00. They also require you to have a tour guide for direction and safety purposes with a fee of php 500.  Exploring the vast terraces of Happao is very obscured and remote and some of the paths are the actual  rice embankments that are too narrow and highly elevated so having a tour guide is appropriate.

Narrow path towards the Happao rice terraces
"That's our friendly tour guide".

     As we explored the happao rice terraces,  we were mesmerized by the rice terraces' pristine beauty.  The green rice fields and the golden grains of rice were truly nature's wonders.  All you could see were green and golden brown colors in a very wide area  where ever you look around that ascended up to the mountains.

      Another amazing feature was the irrigation comming from the water stream of the rain forest above.  It was hard to believe that the ancient tribes created routes of channel for the water to be distributed evenly to all the rice terraces considering it was vast.

Stone walls as rice embankments

     Happao rice terraces were unique compared to the rest of the rice terraces. They're  the only one that have embankments that are made of stone walls while the rest are made of clay.

      Because they are thousands of years old,  some of the terraces suffer a great damage  brought about by erotion.   These damages are very apparent and repair comes in a great cost but the local government  units are carrying a great mitigating measures to avoid occurrences of possible greater damages.

     It took us two hours of treking just to explore only 1/3 of the Happao rice terraces.  We could not explore the other rice terraces due to lack of time.

The Viewpoint 

With a Native of Banaue

     The viewpoint was our next destination. It was a 20 minute travel by tricycle from Hugduan municipality. The were four view spots to consider but the Main view point is the most perfect on top of a plateau to see the Banaue rice terraces in a much larger and deeper magnitude.  The indigenous people in their colorful native attires makes an additional attraction to the viewpoint area.

     Aside from the wonderful rice terraces, there are other places of interest to enjoy.  You can go to Banaue museum,  Hiwang native village view deck,  Poitan village, Guihab natural pool,  Bangaan village,  Cambulo village and the Banaue ethnic village and Pine resort.

     Well,  it wasn't a complete experience that I had at the Banaue rice terraces.  We were not able to explore  other terraces and other places  of interest.  I will surely go back to explore more. Even so,  I had a wonderful time of my life and truly worth it.

      To go to Banaue, you can take bus at Sampaloc and cubao  terminals. Schedule of departures is every 8:00PM with a fare ranges  from Php 480.00 to Php 530.00.

Sources:

www.budgettravel.com
www.britannica.com
www.tripadvisor.com
www.banaueterraces.com
whc.unesco.org


Reservation Office: 

-Manila-
Marketing and Sales Dep't
7/F TIEZA bldg.,  142
Amorsolo st.,  Legazpi
Village, Makati City
Tel no 02 5513945

-Banaue-
Banaue Hotel and Youth Hostel
Banaue,  Ifugao
Email: pta_banauehotel@yahoo.com