Rice people

Dear diary, today I wore sun glasses! For just about the first time since I the start of this trip. The sun's been a bit elusive so far, but hopefully better weather is finally coming my way to Palawan islands. Hotter weather - well that's guaranteed! A sweltering 30-something degrees and sunlight had me scuttling for shade today. But hopefully tomorrow will be another such day, as I have booked an all-inclusive tour for snorkeling and island hopping in near-by Honda bay. Luxury, door to door, don't have to do a thing, but enjoy. A whole different way of traveling...

However, to take you back in time to more uncomfortable times - in fact to the day before yesterday. Then I was still in very much cooler climates in the mountains in central Northern Luzon - the "main" island of the Philippines I guess, since Manila is on Luzon.

The mission was to trek from the town of Banue to nearby Batad - a village acclaimed for its rice terraces. The tricycle (motor bike and side car) could only take us to the Batad junction from where it is a 9km up and down walk to the village, as a mud slide has wiped away bits of the road and cars or even bikes can't make it. Mind you, after the 45 minute tricycle ride to the junction, I was glad to get out and give my long-suffering back side a break! Potholes seem to be epidemic in these regions.
Batad sees few tourists. Two hours of up hill hiking each way effectively keeps tour groups out of the area. Which, obviously, is great, as the place is still unspoilt-ish. I should take a while to explain the use of "us" in the last chapter. No, it's not the imperial "we" as in the "we are not amused" of late great queen Victoria. It's me and Violene, a French girl from Barcelona, that I sat next to on the night bus from Manila to the mountains. We have been traveling together ever since, since we astonishingly had exactly the same agenda and time table. She even features in m previous blog entry as a big splash in the picture of the cave swimming. She's great company and it does make many things easier - and often cheaper - to travel with someone. So back to Batad:

Well, off we toddled and after wading through streams and slip'n sliding in all sorts of mud we got to our goal - a Unesco World Heritage site and one of the largest and oldest (estimated 2000 years of cultivation) rice terraces in the world. As some may remember, I had a wonderful time visiting the rice terraces in the Yunnan province. Well, for my money Yunnan was even more spectacular than Batad, but it has to be said; yes, Batad is brilliant too! So no comparisons - just a good long look at the view.

We will take the eventual scuttling back over mud and streams back to the junction as a given, and I will turn my gaze on the joys of hitting potholes - i.e. road travel. Here's the thing: it's like a non-stop movie. Along the roadside there are endless things to awe and entertain: a man carrying a spade and a live chicken in a wonderfully woven bird basket, little kids chewing sugar cane and waving at you through the open door of a dismal road side shack, and old old man gazing incuriously at the tourist being driven past, funny roadside signs, a young man riding a motorbike made out of wood, kids playing their favorite game at the side of the road (a form of petanque played on the road- except instead of balls they use their plastic flip flops - a wise choice, since the roads in the mountain region tend to be extremely steep and retrieving runaway balls could be quite a chore. But I still think the kids must lose a fair amount of flip flops every year down the side of the mountain, as usually the drop by the roadside is pretty steep).
So as you see, local travel is not all about sore bottoms and falling off the tops of jeepneys. It's a story that goes on and on.
However I can't go on and on without a bit of sleep. So it's off to bed for me and good night all!