A new favorite place in the world.

This morning I arrived in Manila for my last full day in the Philippines. The past week I was traveling in Banaue and Sagada, and I must say: it was the most amazing five days. I honestly cannot imagine ending my seven month Southeast Asia trip in a better way. I have a new favorite place in the world– Sa Pa has been pushed to number three, and I don't know if Banaue or Sagada is first or second, perhaps they can share spot number one. Literally, the most beautiful and jaw dropping views I have ever seen. Besides the sights, I had the best experience traveling and met two other girls traveling solo, and we all joined up to explore together.

Shall I start in Banaue? I took a night bus from Manila to Banaue on Saturday night. The night bus claimed to take nine hours to reach Banaue. That was false advertising for sure. It also wasn't really a "night bus"– it was a regular bus that ran at night. Actually, now that I have written that I realize that I was imagining a sleeper bus because it was at night. But nowhere did I read sleeper bus. Note to all, (mainly me) night bus does not equal sleeper bus. It didn't help that I was in the very last row, the bench that stretches across the entire width of the bus to fit five people. And the guy next to me, well he had no problem sleeping on the bus– probably because my shoulder was incredibly comfortable and he enjoyed the extra leg room he gained by invading "my space." Yes, even though the bus ride was almost a week ago, I'm still ranting about it. That was how miserable I felt stepping off the bus. But then, I saw this:

and all frustration melted away. Welcome to Banaue. I found a cheap hostel, met a cool tour guide, planned out my next two days, haggled a bit over prices, and then I boarded a tricycle and spent the next hour and half going up and over beautiful mountains on bumpy dirt roads that had me bouncing all over the seat. When the tricycle came to a complete stop I knew we had reached Hapao, home to stone walled rice terraces created in 650 AD. Holy smokes, they are old. I can't even explain how incredible it was to trek through these terraces for a couple hours. My guide explained a lot about the terraces, how rice is grown, and the culture surrounding the rice fields. He said that Hapao is his personal favorite in the whole region. It was a bit unfortunate that when I was there it was raining, overcast, and the fog was pretty thick, but it was still incredible. Here are some fun facts about the rice terraces:
1) Usually a family will maintain and harvest about two layers of rice terraces.
2) Most workers start at the age of seven and retire from the terraces at... wait for it... the age of eighty. Oh my gosh, talk about a lifetime of hard work.
3) The bushy, red flowers that are seen in the terraces are called dongla and they are used to scare off birds and animals but also to mark the boundaries of different family's plots.
4) Farmers put tilapia, small fish, in the rice terraces and when they harvest the rice they will also harvest the fish. They aren't only reaping in the carbs from the rice fields, but the omega 3 as well!
5) There are two types of snails that are in the terraces. The apple snail is bad and eats the rice and the other snail... lets just call it the good snail, is good (hence the name) and eats bugs. Also, these snails are supposedly pretty tasty.

The trek through the fields led us to a natural hot springs where I took a quick dip. Of course, this meant that I walked around for the rest of the day looking like I had peed my pants, but I think it was worth it.

In the house! Check out all the carvings.

The last stop was at an Ifugao house. The Ifugao are the indigenous people of the Banaue region. Their houses are one room dwellings. What is really cool though is there is no foundation, the houses are on stilts and can be picked up and moved to a new location. It is sweet. The room is used for sleeping and eating, whereas all other activities take place underneath the house. Ifugaos are famous for their wood carvings, and the houses were full of them. Every time I turned around I would notice a new one. And one last fun fact about Ifugao houses: the one I visited had skulls of Japanese soldiers on the outside of the house which was pretty creepy.