Now that you know how hard it is to get IN the city of Banaue, let me tell you about our adventure to get OUT of Banaue. Our goal was to reach Vigan, famous for being the only remaining city dating back to the Spanish time (the rest had been bombarded during WWII), as soon as possible. I love Asia but I was so trilled at the idea of catching a glimpse of Spanish taste, architecture, atmosphere and possibly food (probably not) in the middle of Asia, after all these months spent in uber colorful countries. I imagine Vigan to be all tones of grey, brown and red with cobblestones and old houses.
So first step, we took a fully packed jeepney from Banaue to the main road. Darn it, a landslide which occurred the same morning was blocking the road. Everybody had to get out and walk over it. Yes, that means people including small children and merchandise such as chicken, bottles of water, chips, chairs, etc. There were boxes and boxes everywhere, waiting to be hand transported to the other side. A lady told us it was scary since landslides usually happen after a heavy rain. But this one just happened without reason.
After climbing over it, we took another jeepney to Lagawe (45min). From there, another jeepney to Solano (3 hours). Then a minivan all the way to Baguio (5 hours).
If you calculate that the same morning, we have walked 1 hour uphill + 45 min downhill + 1 hour hitchhiking and that we left from Batad at 8h30am, it means we arrived in Baguio pretty late and that we were dead tired.
After a few attempts in dodgy lodges (including a place with 5 cockroaches in the entrance. The guy just stepped on them and left them there. Hasn't he heard about cockroaches eating each other?), we finally found a place in the middle of action, clean, spacious, with a window, a private bathroom, hot shower, a TV (that's like luxury) and double-OMG some 80 channels. The guys at the reception are really nice and there's an Internet shop in the same building for hummmm 30 cents per hour. So we like Baguio and decided to stay for 2 nights.
Heading to Vigan today. Hopefully the trip to get there won't be as tiring as our latest experiences.
So first step, we took a fully packed jeepney from Banaue to the main road. Darn it, a landslide which occurred the same morning was blocking the road. Everybody had to get out and walk over it. Yes, that means people including small children and merchandise such as chicken, bottles of water, chips, chairs, etc. There were boxes and boxes everywhere, waiting to be hand transported to the other side. A lady told us it was scary since landslides usually happen after a heavy rain. But this one just happened without reason.
After climbing over it, we took another jeepney to Lagawe (45min). From there, another jeepney to Solano (3 hours). Then a minivan all the way to Baguio (5 hours).
If you calculate that the same morning, we have walked 1 hour uphill + 45 min downhill + 1 hour hitchhiking and that we left from Batad at 8h30am, it means we arrived in Baguio pretty late and that we were dead tired.
After a few attempts in dodgy lodges (including a place with 5 cockroaches in the entrance. The guy just stepped on them and left them there. Hasn't he heard about cockroaches eating each other?), we finally found a place in the middle of action, clean, spacious, with a window, a private bathroom, hot shower, a TV (that's like luxury) and double-OMG some 80 channels. The guys at the reception are really nice and there's an Internet shop in the same building for hummmm 30 cents per hour. So we like Baguio and decided to stay for 2 nights.
Heading to Vigan today. Hopefully the trip to get there won't be as tiring as our latest experiences.
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