The beauty and wonder of the Rice Terraces, in Ifugao Province, have always enchanted me as a child. I knew it existed, I mean how could I not, being born and bred in the Philippines? The Rice Terraces is featured in every grade school text book, taught in every social studies class, printed in every one thousand peso banknote, and televised in the local channels every so often. There are just no excuses of not knowing its existence. I knew it is spectacular but it took such a long time before it hit me to finally visit this monumental human endeavor. Not until just very recently.
I am going to talk more about the unparalleled beauty of the Rice Terraces hopefully in the next post.
TEASER!
If you’re familiar with Philippine geography, you will understand why it doesn’t always appear so easy to visit this clever Philippine wonder. The 2000 years old Rice Terraces is located in the Northern (most) and mountainous region of the country, which is heaps of miles away where I’m from. Separating me and the Ifugao Province is a 1 and a half hour bus ride from my small village to the city airport, a 2ish hour flight from my province to Manila, and a harrowing 10-hour bus ride from the capital to the Cordillera region. Now tell me that is an easy road.
My cousin and I decided to embark on this journey together. At the outset, we already met a number of drawbacks. The limited flight availability is one (Bohol – Manila route). We ended up arriving in Manila in the morning and had to wait until evening for the nightly bus schedule, apparently there wasn’t much of a selection. Good thing, we were being temporarily adopted by our friends in Manila whose hospitality was tremendous. By noon, we decided to search for the location of the bus company following the advice from friends who had gone there before. To our great dismay, we found out that the same bus liner had stopped catering for Ifugao-bound passengers anymore. For a second, my heart sank. My cousin and I did not put to much effort in researching for any options as we were pretty much relying from the accounts of our friends. So I was caught empty-handed. I was revived when the security guard told us that there was in fact another bus liner nearby that operates trips to our desired destination! Thank goodness! We had a fair bit of a walk in getting to Ohayami Bus Terminal, which sounded weird and in fact for a second there I thought the security guard tripped on us. We proceeded for the search though. We were determined to walk past through smoke-belching vehicles while ignoring the unforgiving sun if this were what it takes to getting started with our mission. If not weren’t of our friends who helped our way around, we couldn’t accomplish such feat. They were incredible hosts! Reaching the terminal and having secured our tickets for the 9:30pm schedule was a great sigh of relief.
Just when we thought everything was well laid, a thunderstorm welcomed the first hour of the night without warning. The sudden weather outburst made us weak on the knees and fell uncertain to brave the then anticipated but now dreaded road trip. One has to be nuts enough to be driving in the middle of the night, in an ink-blank road, under a terrifying and heavy downpour! I could easily wish to curl up in bed instead. But no, this was no time to get chicken-hearted. It was our trip to conquer, come hell or high water. The bus was huge, nice, and comfy-looking, one that is totally built for a lengthy trip. It was tidy and spacious and I was happy with my soft and flexi niche.It had somehow assuaged the fear of unforeseen danger whatsoever. We had a slow start at the get-go as the city traffic was unimaginable. Add to it the knee-level floodwater blocking the road and making it hard for the bus to get through. When we had successfully exited the city my eyes had gotten tired and weary and I immediately gave in. It was not really my typical bedtime yet and I could have perhaps done one of these two things, 1) look out the window and delight my eyes with a possible evening spectacle. But it was too dark to identify anything apart from the lighted houses and street lamps or 2) enjoy the action flick that was played inside the bus telly. But I was unfortunately seated at the rear and the monitor and I were about 10 or more rows apart. I could hardly hear nor see anything at all. So, instead of boring myself up by doing nothing, I reckon it was better to dream the ride away.
our top carrier
Banaue bound
The next thing I know, the bus halted, engine died, and lights turned off. As I tried to peep through the glass window, there was a massive smog in all direction. My vision was limited to anything within 2-3 meters radius. It could have been a different atmosphere had it been on a daylight. At night time and with a misty weather condition, it surely sent chills down the spine. The passengers in the front rows got off the bus and I followed suit. I thought it was hardwork to say a word. I was very sleepy, knackered, starving, and cold. To satisfy my curiosity, I just had to ask where on earth we were at 2 in the freakin morning. The place is Nueva Vizcaya. I heard and read about this Province plenty of times in history books, the kind of place I hoped I could visit someday but I know I couldn’t. Shame, I couldn’t see anything beyond the 3-meter parameter. So my cousin and I decided to get a cup of coffee to warm our bodies up and some sweets to munch on from a grocery shop nearby. I was half asleep (or half awake) and couldn’t really remember what else went on. But I remember so well that the shop had a clean and pretty WC at the backside of it that’s worthy of my 5-peso usage fee.
I was kind of thankful to have felt completely knackered on that night otherwise it could’ve have been a serious struggle to get some sleep and I might have ended up bearing the discomfort and boredom of the eternal bus ride.
So finally I was back in consciousness at 7am the following morning and I was happy to get some good amount of sleep. From the bus looking out, the panoramic view of the mountains and plains were breathtaking. It was a real candy to my eyes. The road was too narrow that the houses on the edges seemed to be within just an arm’s reach. I started to feel the air pressure in my ear as the temperature changed. We were definitely going uphill.
The view that welcomed us.
We safely arrived few minutes after 8am. Apparently my cousin did have a better sleep than me and probably was much more tired than I was as she was oblivious of the disembarking announcement. I had to wake her up. And the good bit of our journey was just about to start.
Heaven on Earth 