Terrace n Philip

Hopefully there are some Southpark fans out there that get the title.  As for the rest of you, how about "Terraces in the Philippines?"  Magandang tanghali (good day - used around noon).  Another simple, short webpage, to show photos of the rice terraces of Northern Luzon.

The original travel plan was for Rachel and I to meet in Palawan, go northward to El Nido (which we did), then take boats from El Nido (on the northern tip of Palawan) to Coron (Busuanga Island), and from Coron to San Jose, on the island of Mindoro.  This is a beautiful plan, and on paper (see the map) it is quite elegant.  In addition, our trusted Lonely Planet guidebook even speaks of a weekly ferry going from El Nido to Coron town on Saturdays and another going from Coron Town to San Jose on Tuesdays.  Perfect.  Notttttt.  What the book should have said, which is pretty much accurate for all of the Philippines, is:

Being that this is the Philippines, there may or may not be a boat to the next town.  If there is a boat it may or may
not come on any particular day, and it is purely impossible to predict what day, if any, it may or may not come.
But on whatever day it does or does not come it will be late for sure, leaving much later than the time it may
or may not have been scheduled to leave.  And it will obviously take longer than the time it was predicted to take.
You guessed it - me at a waterfall.
click to enlarge

We even called Negros Navigation and Atienza Shipping Company, the two shipping lines that cover these routes, and their response was, shall we say, less than inspiring.  I got on the phone with some guy who sounded about 106 years old, and in the most rusty, hoarse voice discernable he told me that the schedules in our book were completely outdated.  Plus, he admitted that in reality there is no schedule... the boat goes when it goes.  We spoke to a few other tourists that had actually been to Busuanga, and they said that even if you could get there it is extremely hard to get away, particularly to Mindoro.  We called Seaair but their flights were booked well into March.  Given that Rachel had limited time here we aborted on going to Coron (too bad cuz there are lots of wreck dives) and we retraced our steps to Puerto Princesa and flew to Manila.  Back in Manila, I found it much less "amusing" than I did the first time and we spent just a few hours there while waiting for an overnight bus to northern Luzon, in search of rice terraces.  We found some.  See photos below.

Click on photos to enlarge, then "back" to return

The rice terraces of Banaue are world famous, and some say are one of the "Seven Natural Wonders of the World."
Theoretically, somewhere in northern Luzon there are some indiginous tribes still living a traditional lifestyle.  This guy stands around the best viewing point of the terraces hoping to make some money from photos.  I don't know if this is how he always dresses or if it is just a costume show.
For two nights we went to the beautiful mountain village of Batad.  It is near Banaue, but there is no road to it.  You must hike at least an hour or two to get there, which eliminates may tourists.  Lodging there is quite basic and was only two bucks per person per night.
Batad had really nice terraces, constructed thousands of years ago using stones.  There were even staircases at all the right places, made by using long stones that stick out in perfect step heights.  You can see two of them at the top of the photo (click to enlarge it).  It was nice walking all along the tops of these.


Unfortunately it was just the start of the planting season.  If I was taking these photos a month or two later then all the terraces would be a beautiful green color.
Low morning light is always good for photos.
Most of the terraces are flooded and you can see the speckled patterns of rice seedlings.  When viewed at the right angle you get nice shots of the clouds as well.
The mud in different terraces were all different colors, but I have no idea why.

I am a bit slow putting these together, and judging by the text here, I am getting a bit lazy.  Actually I am in the airport right now on my way back to LA.  I need, though, to do one more webpage (hopefully in the next week) as I have many conclusions to draw about the Philippines, a suggested reading list, and more closing thoughts.

Till then,
Ed