Cuzin gel and dot.cuzin rick make a Manila appearance @ 6 a.m. via the PAL SF to MNL route. I was a little late in picking them up... i got a little later when i went to the wrong bulok airport. Finally i get to the new airport whose environmental graphics is only for people with super vision. So, we leave airport, head home (Antipolo). Cuzin Gel was here about two years ago but before that had not been back to the motherland for more than 15 years. “Traffic...?” “What traffic?” Oh God!

The next day (Friday) we left for Banaue, Ifugao. The Dangwa Bus from Cubao leaves on time everyday @ 8 a.m. The trip takes a nice 10 hours. For some reason, the bus driver chooses to stop in places with the dirtiest bathrooms when I know for a fact that clean banyos can be found across the entire stretch of the journey. After six hours, the magic bus stops in a shell station with clean bathrooms and flush toilets but herds the passengers in and out in less time than it takes to smoke a whole Marlboro light. Oh, and the scenery that was showing outside my bus window was the bestest movie I’ve seen in years and was looking forward to the next 4 hour scene. (See map of all the major towns we drove past.)

Wonderful road trip. The terraces of rice are really nice. And it must have been the time of year (March) but people from other countries were the majority of passengers in the bus, most of European origin. SO its about 6pm and were in Banaue. Its nice. We take a one-minute tricycle ride from the center of town to the Banaue hotel. The room rates are exponentially higher than the inns and pensions you can find in town but believe me, its worth it. All the rooms have great views, hot water, and room service. What more can you ask for? (thanks dot.cuzin raffy). Hot showers then dinner at the People’s Cafe where we had three kinds of pork (porkchops, sweet & sour pork, Pork adobo), one kind of chicken, and a couple cold beers each.

Curfew @ 10pm for the locals (nonresidents can walk around as they please), this means everything closes so if you're the type who gets hungry in the middle of the night, buy some junk or some fresh frooch while stores are open. Even in our Banaue Hotel, the kitchen closes @ 10 which we thought was strange (you’ll discover a lot of strange and illogical things the longer your stay).

Amazing! Herbal contents of peace pipe is delivered right to the lobby of hotel. Hey, who needs Pizza if you've got this kind of service here. Many tequila shots and other things later, we doze off making sure to wake up to view the sunrise @ 6:08. All rooms of the hotel have their own balconies and face the east so the sunrise is deluxe.

Up @ 6 a little dizzy from last night. Wow. the sunrise. Buffet breakfast, yummy, dot.cuzin really woofs the food down. Front desk. Time to hire a vehicle to get us to Batad junction. We’re quoted P800 for the roundtrip. Cuzin gel divides by 40. Coolness. We fail to bring the nifty flashlights happygel brought from SF... We will dearly regret not doing so later while were walking in the darkness only a few steps away from precarious cliffs.

The hike provides breathtaking vistas throughout as the trails are carved-out from the mountain side. You can actually absorb the beauty of it all as your trying to catch your breath. After four hours hiking the ancient mountain trail (steep and a major workout, man): The view of the 2,000 year old Batad Rice Terraces is wonderful and awesome.

While there, our guide Manuel, whose family has lived in Batad for hundreds of years, convinces us to walk the terraces and take the trail to Batad Falls. This takes us another two hours. The waterfall is great plus you can feel a certain power that's different from the rest of the place. Nice, nice, incredible water. The place feels mystical or maybe I was too high (in the mountains that is). Now the walk back. Yikes, its a tough one-foot-past-the-other and cuzin GELs old knee injury from a ski accident is acting up. Oh no, the rain decides to drench this beautiful place with tons and tons of water from the sky. Its nice but its delaying our long walk back.

Walking, walking, climbing, walking. We get caught in the dangerous part of the mountain trail in the dark. Scary shit. Absolute darkness plus its muddy and slippery. Can’t see a god damned thing, can’t turn back coz its just as dark. After walking in complete darkness for 4 hours not knowing if the next step would lead into a cliff hundreds of meter deep (death), I reach Batad junction ahead and request the dude who runs the store there to run and save cuzingel with a flashlight.. what a savior, I didn’t even get his name. If only we brought our flashlights, it would have been just as magical to walk the trails (read: trials) at night. (Next time its best just to sleep there na lang).

The vehicle that was hired to wait forever if need be for us had left already. Its about a 45 minute ride back to Banaue in killer rough roads... Batad junction is one of the darkest places on Earth and is in the middle of nowhere. We end up hiring another jeep from someone who lives 2 km away by foot for P800 one way...) Oh well, we make it back to the hotel tired, wet, hurting, and hungry. We give the front desk hell concerning the vehicle leaving. It’s past ten so the kitchen is closed... I was so hungry that I threatened to barge into the hotel’s locked kitchen and do the cooking myself (how hard can that be: I tell the concierge). We give them more hell and finally the bartender whips-up some chicken sandwiches, chips, and cokes... yummy. Drank more tequila before sleeping. What a day!

Morning. Time to go to Sagada. Initial plan was to take a jeep there but cuzingel decides to hire our own vehicle for 2,000 bucks. We’re off about elevenish...