Escapism...

BANAUE..HERE WE COME!

no concrete plans..no IT..no food preparations..no preclimb meetings... just four people who had a need to escape the hustle and bustle of city life.. and just be somewhere beautiful and quiet..

BATAD was the answer to the need... first there was a plan to go to pangasinan.. then there was the great possibility of going to the beach.. but when za suggested batad i perked up... hmmmm another adventure.. another section of the map of the philippines that i haven't been to..

we weren't even sure if we could get tickets for the bus since it was already full.. so for days we were contemplating on our contingency plan.. thursday afternoon i heard the good news from za that there is going to be another bus.. a special trip! i let out a whoop and went to buy tickets for us all.. then proceeded to buy groceries, cook dinner for us, took a bath and packed.. by 9pm we were ready to go.. typhoon or no typhoon.. we were determined to be in batad..

at the bus station, we met several AMCI people.. TB, carla and some others.. then we met four women jet, cynthia, cathy and haya also from AMCI who planned to go to batad as well.. oh goody, this was getting fun! plus they seemed to know a lot about batad (with printed-out researched stuff about the place) whereas za and i just read about it in the internet.. and nette had no clue whatsoever about the place.. suffice it to say that we just wanted to have fun and be surprised!...


we reached banaue early in the morning after an uneventful bus ride.. then it was tricycle towards the banaue town proper.. we chose a restaurant with a very nice view and even from there we knew that we would be seeing more breath taking places.. nette and james followed za and i inside the restaurant, and to my surprise nette already had an NFF (newfound friend) in tow!.. ahh this girl..she can work really fast! hahaha it turned out that axel was travelling alone and had plans to trek all over batad and that he happens to be the officemate of jhoana.. wow, small world.. so after breakfast and after we got to know a little more about nette's NFF, we all decided to ride with jet's jeep since it would be cheaper..not to mention the fact that we would be brought directly to the saddle and the 2hour trek to batad will be cut down to 45mins..

so off we went to ride the jeep that jet and her friends had commandered.. the driver was very much entertaining and was quite a tourist guide.. though half of the time i could not understand what he was saying since it was too noisy and i was still sleepy.. after an hour, he stopped at this "view deck" and was nice enough to tell us to get our photos taken.. we obliged him by taking several shots of the place


so off we went again towards an increasingly bumpy ride which the driver called his special offer.. the deep tissue massage.. it felt more as if i was carelessly massaged by a giant with heavy hands not only massaging tissue but cracking bones as well! you could hear us say ouch and ohhhh nice view alternately..

after reaching the saddle, we went our separate ways... we took the stone steps going down while the four women took the road.. we arranged to meet at simon's place where nette's NFF was staying as well.. ;) 45minutes of racing down the mountain and seeing stalls with native carvings along the trail, we finally reached the registration area... and WOW was the first word that came out of my mouth (yeah, pretty expressive hehe) but i think za said it clearer though.. like WOWWWWWW!!!!!!! i think not enough words could describe it...

BATAD..OUR HOME AWAY FROM HOME..

simon's place was at the end of the trail.. the place was clean and what more it offered us the best view.. it was also very cheap.. a hundred bucks a night per person.. not bad!!



first order of the day was to go to tappiya falls.. it was cold but i wanted to take a dip in the pool.. so after changing and settling things in our rooms, we went down to the valley and darn, those stone steps were really hard on the knees... i still run but i have never done ramps again nor may's warm-up and cool down regimen.. my muscles were a bit stiff..

on our way we saw women weaving their famous table runners... and one very old lady preparing to chew on betel nut.. i wanted to take photos but they emphatically denied me the pleasure! i don't blame them though.. what they are doing is novel for me but to them, it is their way of life.. i would've resented it if i were in their shoes..




after and hour and half, we finally reached the falls... at that time the water was a bit brown since it was raining day before we came.. nevertheless we still appreciated it's beauty and took a dip into the freezing but otherwise pleasant water.. axel was the first to go in and we just followed his lead.. (i wanted to see how deep it goes since i didn't want to be taken by surprise)there were no sudden downslopes however so i went and swam until chest deep..



going back up was a bitch! lunging from one stone step to the other losing count of how many steps it was already, we finally made it back to simon's place.. bath and dinner was the first order.. taking a bath with frigid water was of no consequence already after dipping in the pool..

we ordered dinner and whoa! one rice serving is enough for three..yeah yeah..i am living on top of rice terraces..it goes to follow that rice is pretty abundant.. but seeing their serving for the first time made me feel bloated! i cannot believe the amount of rice they alot for one person... james ended up "sweeping" our food.. made me wonder where he put all those extra carbs.. i mean seriously, the guy CAN eat!