I Died Trekking
6:01 AM
This is the farthest non-family vacation I went to. The others were Batangas and Tagaytay, but like a real travel vacation where I have to pay for the expenses myself, this is the first one.
I was invited by a couple of people in the office to go to a north Luzon road trip. The original plan was to go to Buscalan then Batad, but as the travel dates grow nearer and a lot of people are more involved the plans got more complex.
Almost the whole office was part of the North Luzon road trip and the participants were divided into two groups. The "I'm going to get a tattoo from Whang-Od Buscalan" group and the "I'm not going to get a tattoo Sagada group."
Since the Buscalan group was overflowing with passengers and I'm not going to get a tatt (because 2 weeks later we have a Puerto Galera team building trip and I would like to go swimming and not have an infection), I joined the Sagada team which wasn't that bad since I haven't been to Sagada and I think there are more activities for me to enjoy rather than to sit around and watch other people get tatted by Whang-Od.
To say I was excited about this trip was an understatement. Since the farthest I've went to in the mountain province area was Atok, Benguet, I did what I do best...research. I didn't know what to expect, weather-wise which will affect my outfit choices. I didn't want to be under-prepared and die in the cold. So, I watched vlogs and read blogs which I think was very helpful in terms of knowing what to bring and what to wear.
According to Google weather, it was going to rain during those days that we're about to visit. But when I look back at it, it only rained on our way back to Manila. So, some of my outfits were too bundled up rather than normal weather attire.
Our van only consisted of 8 people which was pretty spacious for a van, it was so spacious that we were rolling over each other when we slept. We watched some netflix shows and movies on the way over. We watched Jo Koy, A Dog's Purpose, and Gone Girl.
We had breakfast at Hiwang Village which was something unique as it wasn't a restaurant. It was just a native area where people can randomly dine in (perks of being a travel agency I guess).
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| Cup noodles for breakfast. |
After breakfast, we headed to the tourist center of the Hungduan Village. This was to be registered as a tourist and to get a mandatory tourist guide for the Hapao terraces trek.
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| We had Tatay Jimmy as our guide. |
The trek through Hapao was great. We were literally walking through the terraces which is such a memorable experience. I've only seen these terraces in textbooks and now I'm walking through them! The trek level of difficulty was 2/5 because worst things are yet to come.
At the end of the Hapao trek was Bogyah Hot Springs. It's also my first time to take a dip in a hot spring and as I did it I felt my muscles relax. It's exactly what you need after a tiring trek. Beside the hot springs was a river. In contrast to the warm waters of the springs was the icy cold gush of water in the river.
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| The hot spring |
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| Areana sleeping on a rock. |
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| Me finding a heart-shaped rock in the springs. |
After lunch was our long drive to Batad. We had joy in our eyes once we landed, but it will soon be replaced with dread and weariness.
The trek wasn't that bad going down to the homestay. It had a difficulty of 4/5. It was borderline dying, but you got there before you even get to die.
We got to the homestay luckily in one functioning piece.
Ramon's Homestay had one of the best views of the Batad terraces.
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| Catching our breath. |
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| Hut 6 is one of the best huts daw Ramon himself said. |
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| The view from lying down in my bed. |
There wasn't any light in the nipa house, just a candle and when you don't position the candle in the right areas it can cause that area to blacken and if not stopped it can cause a fire. But it's a good thing I'm a girl scout!! I brought a flashlight which illuminated our whole hut for the night.
Ramon himself also taught us how to lock our door from the inside and to take our footwear upstairs so that his dogs can't drag it away.
Hut 6 was the most recommended hut in his homestay because it had an unobstructed view of the terraces.
As the night fell, the Buscalan group (remember them?) arrived at the homestay as well with their fresh Kalinga ink! Their stories varied from it was the most hurtful experience to it was soothing.
Almost all of them got tatted (originally just 2 of them). I applaud their spontaneity.
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| Spot her tatt |
Kuya Paul also made us dinner, when I say us I mean FOR ALL THE GUESTS IN THE HOMESTAY!
The Sagada group actually went to bed after dinner because we were all so tired and had an early day ahead of us. We went to bed at like 10PM while the Buscalan group had beers and a bonfire (with roasted marshmallows?!?). It was fine because they had a free day the day after while we had an exciting Sagada trip waiting.
Much love,
Sophia
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