as i was saying, after enslaving myself for three days, i decided to reward myself. the morning i got back from the office, i packed my bags and kissed my miserable room goodbye.
my first stop... banaue! i seriously didn't know what to do when i got there. but luckily, tour guides were waiting at the drop off point in front of banaue hotel. anyways, i found myself a guide named darwin, hopped on his motorcycle and started exploring this sweet part of mountain province...
he took me to a lovely restaurant where i had breakfast, met rebekah who was also touring banaue and sagada with her friends that day, then headed out to poitan village which is one of the remaining traditional villages in the area.
next stop was several view points of the famous banaue rice terraces. it was bad timing though... it was drizzling and the fog really got in the way of my camera and the wonderful sight.
so i decided to move on with my life and go to bontoc. unfortunately, i had to wait for the blasted bus for 2 hours. not to mention that the trip took 2 hours on the roughest road you can imagine. one thing is for sure, bontoc had to be left out. it was a good thing we had a stop over to take some pictures of bontoc's version of rice terraces. instead of mud used in banaue, this part of the province used stones.
the trip from bontoc to banaue took another hour. it was raining and i still had to register at the municipal hall. the backpacking couple i was with went on with their way and vitaly, another backpacker i met going to sagada, and i went off to hunt for my hostel.
after check in, i just had to have my late lunch. i have been craving butter chicken for the longest time and according to my research, alfredo's serve them. it was good but it wasn't all i was hoping for. they cook it with ketchup and of course, lots of loathsome butter. still, it was better than any fried chicken i would normally have in manila.
according to my trusty map, sagada is a cute little place you can walk around... my schedule for the day is to go to some village but i decided to change it since echo valley seemed closer to where i was standing, which was outside alfredo's, so i decided to get myself lost.
portion of echo valley i saw when i got lost in the middle of sagada's parallel universe. the cow is somewhere there... there...and lost i was... how should i know left from right??? i found myself standing on a vast expanse of greenness with a water buffalo eating away for like 20 minutes... had the wrong choice of footwear so my slippers got sucked by mud and so i had to walk barefoot... and totally freaked out by the possibility of death by snakes. i went back and spent the entire afternoon sitting in front of the church trying hard to get artistic shots with my blasted point-and-shoot camera.
because sagada enjoys an 8:30 pm to 4am curfew, i had to quickly drag myself back to the hostel to freshen up and go out again to have dinner... drink beer... alone... blech! on my way home, i saw vitaly who was just about to have his dinner. i got myself dragged to a quaint bar and had more beer. this time, i had someone to talk to... yey!
well, since the title suggested it... yes, before i ended the first night, i got to have what sagada is known for... coolness right? er, maybe not, but what else is there in this twisted world? at least i'm going green...
***to be continued... hehe!***
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