A Walk to Remember (Part 2) – Living an Ifugao’s Life

Our journey up North has begun. We embarked the bus going to Banaue and rode it for 9 hours. We had stopovers along the way tho. But we weren’t a quarter of our trip when the bus broke down. At first, nobody paid attention to the heat inside the bus, then, my friend Ryan just bursted “ang init! (it’s hot!)” that’s when we realized that the air condition is broke and so, the bus made a quick stop on a gas station and made a quick fix and thankfully, it’s cool again!

On our way to Batad!

But it wasn’t a long drive when the air condition broke again. So this time, we needed to stop for a while in another gas station (I don’t know where). Since it’s getting hot inside the bus and my butt’s aching due to pro-longed sitting, Jennie and I went down and watched the mechanical hands of the driver and his assistant.

So, again, bus fixed and we went on again. I slept on the way and woke up on the 2nd and last stop-over. Washed up, had a few chat with the gang, and ate some noodles then head back to the bus and sleep again and waited for our landing in Batad

A photo bomber on our back!

AT LAST!!! We arrived in Banaue to register and had some breakfast. While there, we had a small talk with our tour guide, Irene (Mang Ramon’s niece; Mang Ramon is the owner of Ramon Homestay and he’s supposed to greet us but he had some errands to do) about the rates of the jeepney going to Saddle Point. Thing is, we are to transfer from Banaue to Saddle Point then from Saddle Point, we will walk all the way to Batad. And instead of Irene being our tour guide, she referred us to Eric (her cousin).

Jen, Eva and Me

Jen, Eva, Karen, Sheena and Ryan

So after our energizing our bodies with lots of carbs, we are now ready to embark the jeepney to get us to Saddle Point and from there we needed to walk going to Batad. It’s no joke for us who are accustomed to city where long walks are not always required as we have taxi, tricycle, jeep, all kinds of transport vehicles.

We stopped somewhere for a group pic!

 It took us about an hour walk and imagine the burden we have to carry! We have heavy bags and other extra bags! (Next time, I’m gonna buy those mountaineering backpacks).

• We stayed at Mang Ramon’s homestay which has 4 native Ifugao huts. We took two huts. One hut for the lovers, and one for the four ladies.
• It was hard for us who grew up in the city to adjust without electricity or even a light. Luckily, we have a flourescent light in our hut, as for Ryan and Sheena’s, they have to use a candle – romantic di ba?
• During dinner, we didn’t talk much because we are ssoooooo tired from our long walk. We just ate, plan for next day and had a vodka shot! yey! Vodka courtesy of one of the guests – whom, I cant remember the name :p
• In the morning, we had a chance to try the native’s costume. Jennie, Ryan and Sheena had the chance to try “mag-bayo” or pounding the rice grains
• Sad, because the food are very pricey  

Trying the native Ifugao costume for ladies

 Wait for the continuation of our journey in Batad!