trip report by site editor Rick McCharles
You know you’re on an ADVENTURE when you find yourself in a dangerous vehicle, surrounded by Israelis. Israelis love ADVENTURE.
Here we are unloading at the Batad Saddle.
No road leads to the village. From here it’s a 40min trek.
Like most other visitors, I stayed at one of several “hotels” overlooking the town, the Hillside Inn.
I chose the Hillside based on a Travel-Philippines.com recommendation. But from what I heard from other visitors, they’re all about the same. Spartan. Clean. Cold showers with shared toilet. Dirt cheap. ($5/night). Electricity came to Batad in 2005 and the lights are bright enough for reading. Restaurants all have a blaring TV.
This is why we’re here — Batad is one of the best locations to hike the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, UNESCO World Heritage listed in 1995.
Fantastic.
For 2000 years rice farming on these steep slopes has been virtually unchanged.
Having arrived late afternoon, everyone took a quick look around, then settled down to enjoy the vista until dark.
Those are coffins, by the way.
… In a special kind of paradise like this, I’d expect to be elated and excited for the next day. Yet I was irked.
Every local man and boy pesters to “guide” you to the Tappiyh Waterfalls (PHOTO), an easy 40min walk. The standard program is to arise early, eat breakfast, do the Falls guided. And rush back to the only regularly scheduled transport out at 9am.
I disliked everything about the standard program. 😦
Compounding the annoyance of so many self-appointed guides is a fight between the “offical” guides of Batad and the “official” guides of another town, Banaue.
I resolved to hike independently, taking off in the opposite direction of everyone else.
… tomorrow I’ll post day 2 of my Batad rice terraces hike.
besthike.com 