Sagada Adventure: Manila-Banaue-Sagada Road Trip

DAY 0: ROAD TRAVEL

Around 7:30 in the evening on the 11th day of June, I left our home with my 2 heavy bags to make my way to SM North EDSA open parking where we will be meeting the rest of the Sagada tourist group. Ruel and I decided to meet there since he will be coming from Eastwood due to work.

TO WEAR

Cotton Shirt
Maong shorts
Sandugo Slippers

I was not able to push through with my plan to wear light pants and closed slip-on flats due to the hot weather in Manila. It wasn't such a bad decision.

TO BRING

1 heavy backpack
1 small backpack (for travelling around Sagada)
Pillows (for sleeping)
Jacket (it can get cold inside the van)

Riding the LRT and MRT was already a huge adventure but not really a fun one. Since it was the long weekend, people probably decided to go home to their homes so the human traffic was really bad.

Photo grabbed from Google Images

During the duration of my travel, I kept wishing that I brought my car instead of commuting. But I am very well aware that that would not be economically smart considering that I would be paying expensive overnight parking rates if I went to travel via my own vehicle. Plus, I was not sure if the road traffic would be bearable though every time I get a glimpse of EDSA, I can see the cars easily passing through a somewhat medium traffic.

I rode the MRT standing up with 2 heavy backpacks and had to squeeze myself in among the cramped female bodies. I was given the chance to sit down when we arrived in Cubao which was only a few more stops before North Avenue Station. So after about one and a half hours of travel, I finally arrived at the very last station.

Unfortunately, I still had to walk from the MRT station to the open parking for 15 minutes. As I dragged myself and my bags to the destination, I also frantically communicated with Ruel on his whereabouts since it was already past our expected meet up time of 9:00 PM.

Luckily, but still a bit unfortunate for this whole trip, our driver called me and informed me that they got caught up in traffic as well. So when Ruel finally arrived, we still had the chance to go the restroom and grab a quick dinner. But this delay caused for our whole trip to be delayed as well.

We were contacted again that it was time to leave at around 10:30 PM. We were the last ones to board the van so we ended up sitting on the most uncomfortable seats - the foldable ones. But we tried our best to make ourselves comfortable since it will be a loooong trip.

During the first few hours, Ruel and I just watched the remaining episodes of the Game of Thrones which he had not watched yet at that time. But eventually, we decided to call it a night and dozed off since we realized how tired we were and how much we needed sleep.

I was never the type who has the skill to sleep in vehicles unless I am very exhausted. Thankfully, I was able to get in some sleep during the travel since we needed to be rested for the activities.

We arrived in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya at around 5:45 AM for breakfast. When I checked the time, I felt so disappoint because I knew then that we were so behind schedule. Our van was part of a large group of vans with passengers travelling to Sagada as well.

All of us got dropped off in a Chowking there where the service was really slow and bad. There were too many people being served but too few staff! It took us more than an hour to order and then another 30 minutes to actually get our food. We were the last ones to have our breakfast!

Despite the unpleasant experience at that place, we still tried to be optimistic. I guess it did not really help that we haven't had much sleep yet due to the long road travel.

DAY 1: BANAUE STOPOVER

Finally. FINALLY. Our sleepy eyes got a glimpse of the "Welcome to Banaue" arch. I know, it's still a 2-hour travel to Sagada from there but at least, we're starting to see some views which was really what we paid for! And, we have moved on from the "Depart Manila" part of the itinerary!

There really was not much to see at that area so we did not stay long. Capturing the proof that you have made it to Banaue was fulfilling though.

The place welcomed us with their local dialect greeting "Maphod Ta Immali Ayu!" though there really wasn't any locals there to state these words.

Luckily, our group was also more excited to see the famous rice terraces. After taking some photos at the "Welcome to Banaue" sign, our driver eventually brought us to the Banaue Rice Terraces where the view is even more breathtaking.

To get to the usual spot for picture taking and just taking in the view, we needed to enter a spot wherein we needed to pay P10/each to enter. The cost is negligible though.

Once there, you can go ahead and maximize the time by taking lots and lots of pictures!

There was a path leading to a closer view of the rice terraces but it's a bit of "buwis buhay" to pass through it. We witnessed a lady falling off a bit from the stepping stones, on to the high grasses and ended up getting her shoes muddy which is not the worst thing that could happen to you. We did not push to go to that spot anymore!

I was not really the type who takes selfie but with my new Xiaomi Yi camera and the monopod I got to borrow from my mom, I just had to take selfies! Memories are best captured with camera! I truly had to master taking selfies since there's just the two of us and I want the both of us to be in the shots as much as possible.

Here is a photo of the sky with the sun!

After some time of enjoying the view of the Banaue Rice Terraces, we returned to our van so that we could make our way to our real destination: SAGADA. Thereafter, nothing exciting happened except that everyone went back to sleep to prepare for the major things to come!

I just have to say this: Our driver was amazing at navigating through the tricky road (that got me a bit dizzy) to the Mountain Province with those turns and inclines (I'm sorry I don't know the correct term for those)! He was also great at overtaking all those scary trucks going up as well. I am not sure I could do what he did. It was actually a teamwork among the van drivers as they communicated through a walkie talkie. They were informing each other when it was safe to overtake if there were obstacles on the road. Yes, they need to overtake those slow trucks if we want to get to our destination as soon as possible! They also use those army codes which I just learned about by listening to them, making them sound much cooler (like "Kilo" for "K" or "OK" and "Juliet" for "Jeep" because it starts with letter J? LOL!).

NOTE TO SELF: Need to be more diligent when it comes to taking photos and documenting for blogging purposes.

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