“If you’re unsure of where the trails lead, you’re on the right path.”

Here in a country where kindness is the norm, there was an added degree of ease and serenity, something I could instantly feel when I walked through the villages. The Banaue rice terraces are made up of 5 terraces listed as UNESCO Heritage Sites. The “Stairway to Heaven” Batad, the most beautiful of them all.

Hiking about 4 hours a day, Ernesto, my guide, led me down pathways with their banks scattered with wildflowers and villages perched on stilts offering magnificent views of the emerald, green carpet below. And the further we hiked the more I lost the day, the year, the very age in which we live. The air became clearer, sharper, and any outside noise faded replaced by the quiet.

Ernesto, an outgoing guy with chestnut brown skin and bright animated brown eyes explains to me as we hike that farming here is carried out the same way it has been for hundreds of years. When I ask him why he doesn’t work the fields he tells me he volunteers sometimes but he loves being a guide. He came from the island of Mindanao in the South and knew when he arrived this was the place for him. It’s a simple life, he tells me and boldly adds, he’s proud to show tourists his beautiful mountain home.

Midway through our day we reach the next village and Ernesto suggests we stop for lunch. Its a sparsely furnished restaurant where food is served on a solid wooden picnic table next to floor to ceiling glassless windows looking out over the rice terraces. My nose instantly starts to twitch with aromas coming from the kitchen. Many of the flavors are foreign to me while others so familiar they could have come from Mom’s kitchen back home. We sit across from each other eating a bowl of rice sharply spiced with chili peppers.

After lunch we hike a couple more hours before the sun gradually starts to set. Its here I really begin to appreciate the challenges of the remote location as I see young villagers carrying boxes of supplies on their shoulders as they traverse the pathways steep inclines and declines to the village. At the end of the day when I have that long awaited cold beer it takes on a whole new appreciation. And still, it was only 70PHP, about $1.50Cad.

My accommodation for the night is a simple homestay with a cot made of bamboo with a basket weave mattress support nestled in a corner of a small room. A light sheet to pull over me and a worn pillow were the extent of the amenities. There was no room service, or rooms for that matter, but what it lacked in 1st world comforts it more than made up in beauty of the land and connection with the people. And so, as I lay my weary body down, my first night in the Ifugao village ended as it begun; in surrender.

Good to Know  

Recommended local guide – Banaue Rice Terraces Tour Guide – Find them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/BanaueRiceTerracesTourGuide

Getting to Banaue or Batad from Manila – the most reasonable way is to take the bus from Manila. There are several buses to and from Banaue with a bus ride taking around 10hrs and all being night buses costing approx. $15.00.

Another option is to fly from Manila to Cauayan Airport (CYZ) and arrange a private transfer for the 4hr drive from the airport. 

I choose to fly from Manila to Cauayan and the guide I arranged to hike the rice terraces also arranged the private transfer for me. The driver was waiting for me when I arrived and dropped me at my accommodation in Banaue town for the first night before my hike started. On the return, I took the night bus from Banaue to Manila arriving in Manila around 3am. From there I took a taxi to the airport for an early morning flight to Palawan.

Local geography

Banaue is the municipality where the rice terraces are located within the province of Ifugao. Cordillera Region is an administrative region that includes 6 provinces with Ifugao being one of them. The Batad Rice Terraces and Banaue are 2 separate rice terraces both located in Banaue.