misstinapie

We are provided one guide to take us for the rest of the day. I can say that 500 is enough for 4 people who are only up for a day in Sagada. First stop was Sugong Hanging Coffins Viewpoint : Our tour only allows us the view and if you squint a little, yes you can see a few hanging coffins there. Second stop was the Lumiang Burial Caves : For Cave Connections, they start here and end up at Sumaguing. Since we're not on that track, we simply gazed at it for a while so we need to retrace our steps back to Sumaguing. The trek going here is strenuous for sedentary people like me and my sister and going to and fro is an extreme effort.  Third stop was Sumaguing Cave We haven't recovered that much from the earlier trek and yet we are here again on another trekking activity. Don't let your eyes deceive you with this stairs as you won't have any of this once you're in the cave. It looks like it's our tour guide's fir...

As you can see on the map, from Bontoc, Sagada is quite near already. While we cruised around mountains, cold air hitting our face, we anticipate our very destination. It's unfortunate that we haven't explored Bontoc (they have hotsprings and treks too!) so for now I kept the brochures Bontoc guys gave me. It looks like next time I have to prepare a longer time to stay there too!  The first thing any tourist should do is visit the community center. It's hard to miss as almost everyone's car is pointed there. There are two things that are I didn't like upon arriving Sagada: the morning sun is just too hot and the traffic nightmare of Vigan looks like this only steeper :-(.  Tip If you can plan on your trip, plan it before summer. The streets aren't as full, and the weather would be nicer  When we got there, we learned that each visitor needs to pay (20 per person) for environmental fees. I think they use it to pay up people who cleans the tre...

The ride from Banaue to Bontoc is a long exhausting drive especially if you're the driver. For 2 hours you'd be subjected to numerous curves and long trails of solace. The stretch and remoteness of the drive adds to the very reason why most take this road in mornings. With that in mind, if you drive on your own you can imagine for a long time be the only person left on earth. Kinda scary. We didn't bother getting any breakfast at Banaue because we were in a hurry. If you're following the episodes of this road trip you will even notice how I don't have a photo of the iconic 1000 peso bill Banaue Rice Terraces. We saw it alright but we chose to commit it into memory for now :-D The first restaurant we saw didn't offer rice so we went to Mountain Hotel & Restaurant. It is near a community center where you can ask for directions and maps, next to it is a gas station. We had 500 php worth of gas which my father estimates to get us to and fro Sagada THEN b...

Like I've said, there's a trick to to this Banaue View Points. If I remember correctly there are 4 view points wherein each view can give you a different perspective of the Rice Terraces. I can't help but use tilt shift effect, it's so cute!  If you're blown away by the first one you'd see, imagine your grin when you see the last of the view points. Your old 1000 peso bill and the iconic view is such an amazing experience I don't think that I will stop holding my breath each time I will get a chance to see it.

When we planned our trip I never imagined we would need somewhere to stay in Banaue. I did inquire for Sagada hotels, and this is quite misleading because Banaue is a bit far from Sagada proper so if it's your first time going up to Sagada, make yourself a favor and reserve a room in Banaue if you're going to visit Banaue and vice versa. There's only a handful of inns in Banaue and primarily because tourists are much more concentrated in Sagada. Most of the time, inns here cater to travellers who just needed somewhere to spend for the night. Perhaps one of the rare things you could ever find here up in the mountains is parking. There are few cheaper inns but we chose to stay in Spring Village Inn because they have ample parking that will make us comfortably sleeping in the night :-D The room they gave us have two beds and a hot shower. We even have a balcony that overlooks the Cordilleras. The price of the room (2k) makes up for the earlier inn we went to (pri...

From the Banaue Museum, we asked if there is anywhere we can go that is within range. You see, what most bloggers don't tell you is that Banaue is filled with places to go: hotsprings and treks and old villages that I hate it that I didn't know earlier or we would have set the roadtrip earlier so we would have gone. Anyway, the curator said that Banaue Hotel is just around the corner and we can have our dinner there. So we did and sure enough this is the only hotel in the area that has much space for cars to park, and enough space for more rooms than other inns. The reason why we didn't booked here is well, you guessed it, it's because of the price. It's just too much for a stop over. Before dinner, we went around, which is okay even if you're not a guest and were able to spot their souvenir shop. We didn't get to see their so called village, we only saw one Igorot house and that was it. I was able to buy myself a bag from the shop as souvenir ...

Note: This post is like a year late. I hope I was able to recall my impressions on this hotel :-D I may not have stayed in so many hotels but in all sureness, the room Mariott has given me made me feel like a boss for the day. The suite has that classy style to it that a man of trade could never construct an insult. Just look at that bed. It's so comfy and firm and all the pillows to cover all corners of the bed. And look how immaculate that is. How white. Wouldn't it be awful if someone's menstruation get into it? :-P ** The bath is amazing, I can imagine a loving husband watching on the other side and teasing his wife on the bathtub which is right next to the bed. Yeap you read it right. Only a piece of see through glass separates you from anyone bathing. YOu can have privacy of course by having the blinds roll down (there's a switch somewhere near the bath's door). However I think I remembered how the entire bath have no locks in it.* But either w...