The road to Banaue Rice Terraces, one of the Wonders of the World.

Wonders of the world are named such for a reason, their absolute magnificence and engineering when man made is at times beyond mental comprehension. It has always been a dream to see the Rice Terraces in the Philippines and I was determined to again make another amazing dream come true in this country of splendor.

I found myself in Manila with my girl, we would be conducing personal affairs and we discovered we had four days to spare before our next appointment, so what to do?

I would browse the internet and commented how I would love to see the Rice Terraces, she would reply "yes it is a dream of mine since I was a child, we need to go see them"

So I did some reading, discovered the bus ride was eight hours and we could catch one first thing in the morning, my girl was ecstatic and I was excited, another dream come true.

The following morning we would pack up and hit the bus station, first class accommodations as my woman booked our seats with first class accommodations for a mind blowing 15 dollars for both of us.
First class in the Philippines is truly that, you get a nice clean restroom, snacks and even a water bottle to start off the trip. Along with stewardess if you will to make sure your trip is comfortable.


The road is Amazing, the bus modern, and the Philippines despite being a developing country has some amazingly well kept roads and bridges


We would arrive in six hours rather than eight in Baguio, we had a bit of a walk to the hotel, there was a fellow ADV rider motorcycle parked and I loved his panniers.







The hotel was amazing on the outside,and had a first class resturaunt but the rooms were old, worn and not worth the 75 dollars a night.

Baguio is a very clean city, which is shocking after coming from Manila which is how people visualise cities in the Philippines, beggars everywhere, shanty's mixed in with Sky Scrapers and dirty. None of which were to be seen anywhere in Baguio.

The only Homeless people I saw where these two, the one actually was whistling while pushing all his valued possessions in his shopping cart.


I was very excited to be here, and upon checking in I would ask the counter girl where the Terraces where "Sir they are Eight hours away in Banaue."

I was shocked, I looked at my girl who had a blank look on her face, her dream of "seeing the Rice Terraces" had for her entire life only been visualized with the wrong city in her mind. Of course being a woman it was my fault as I was doing the homework the previous night and I should have known better.

IT was cold here a wopping 48 degrees, now before you comment understand that while the Philippines was undergoing a record cold spell, it by no means was unusual for this area where light winter jackets are sold.
Baguio also has Pine Tress mixed in with Palm trees, absolutely Mind blowing to say the least.


We would buy my girl a Jacket for the cold as she was complaining about her cheeks and hands "hurting" this was her first experience in anything below 78 degrees so I suppose that yes, she was indeed freezing.
The following morning we would rent a cab for one of the scariest rides of my life to the proper city where the terraces lay.


Until then.......