Banaue is Awesome! Dec 20

Sorry, this post accidentally posted before I was finished.

I am at the People's Hotel here. Looks pretty ordinary right?



Then I went to the balcony on the back of the main floor and OMG! The back was eight floors above a beautiful valley. I could see rice terraces from there. The main floor looks pretty good.

My room turned out to be down a steep flight of stairs. OK, it was reasonably clean looking. The bed has one thin blanket and the top sheet was not even close to dry. It is cool here so I took back the wet sheet. Turns out they are all wet and folded in the cupboard. I settled for an extra blanket instead.

Later I sprayed the room with bug spray because it helps with the tiny little bugs which nip in the night. Turns out it is good for cockroaches also. I looked at other places and I don't know that they would be any different so I opted for one more night with the roaches and tomorrow I'm outa here.



Another view from the balcony last night.
It was rainy today too and hard to get pictures but at least I saw some good rice terraces.

This is the main town centre. Halfway down the street on the right is my hotel.

I decided to take a tricycle taxi and see some rice terraces. Here I am inside the cab that is attached to a small motorbike.

This is the windshield of my sidecar. I could see plenty out the side which had no door.

We headed off to Bangaan Village which is part of a series of UNICEF Heritage sites in the terraces.

The road was rough and muddy with mud slides in places and water running over the road in others. My arm was hurting from hanging on so tightly on the way out because I was afraid to find out how much worse it could get. Ha! Face a fear and do it anyway. My driver was careful but the trip out took one and a half hours. I did relax a bit more on the way back.

I could have walked all the way down to the town but it had been raining and I was not wearing good shoes.

It is hard to believe they chopped out the rocks by hand to form these but they seem to be perfect for the job. They can easily control the water in each one. I am so glad I got to come here and see them. I missed the really big site though because it is a two hour trek in to it from the road and the dirt trail would be terrible with the rain. Also, the weather is not good for visability either.

I stopped here to take pictures and was inside this road-side store which is also their home. It is pretty bare.

Back in town and looking for a money changer. There are no ATM's here either. Fortunately I had some US money left so I can now afford to get out of town.

Here is my hotel from the back. The main floor is second from the top and I am on the floor below.

This is a view of the hotel dinning room.

Tomorrow I catch the bus at 7am for the three-hour ride to the junction. Then I get out and stand on the side of the road and literally flag down another bus going to Tuguegarao. Apparently there is a bus along every 15 minuets so if my flagging technique doesn't work I will get another chance. I expect the second bus will be standing room only and not looking forward to that.