Banaue

The last hurray of my Philippines trip was to the “Eighth Wonder of the World” – the famous rice steppes in Banaue.

The story goes that the people living in the Ifugao villages wanted to plant rice, but the rugged mountains in the province made it very difficult to do so. Thus, people got to work making these spectacular terraces right in the side of the mountains that provided flat steppes, each with its own little mud pool in which to plant the rice stalks. This was over 2,000 years ago and the people here are still planting rice in the mountains today!

Mud-walled rice terraces in Banaue, a grueling 10 hour bus ride from the capital city of Manila

The largest Philippine currency is the 1000 peso bill. On the back of it...

...is a picture of this very location where I am standing!

Mandatory jumping pic

A sweat inducing hike to the small village of Batad provided retardedly sweet views. Batad's amphitheater-like rice terraces are stone-walled and looked even more impressive than the ones in Banaue. The walk up and down hundreds of stone steps and rocky terrain was no joke though…

Woulda went by a lot quicker with some heavy sedatives and large velcro pad attaching me to someone's back...

Not sure if I was just deliriously exhausted or if this was indeed the best meal of my life. Awesome fried chicken in the middle of nowhere. Fresh garlic rice harvested from terraces nearby.

These people just look out their windows everyday and get see this view. What a life.

Back to Saigon now. Gotta catch up on work!