Batad My home away from home from home

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  Batad, Banaue, Ifugao, Philippines
Wednesday, September 14, 2005

About one month ago, I went to this wonderful place called Batad, with the Aussie friend co-site-r. Once we arrived it was fabulous. This location is extremely recommended for anyone traveling to the Philippines, but is a bit hard to get to. There is no transportation directly there. You can get dropped off by a jeepney at the junction about a 2 hour hike up and over the mountain or it could drop you off at the top of the mountain (much fewer trips) and you could then hike down to the village, about forty-five minutes. That is what makes it so beautiful. Another reason getting there via Banaue is a pain in the butt, is that in Banaue all white people are treated as tourists. This means you are expected to be rich and are asked to pay rediculous fare to locations where the locals pay one-fourth of the price you are told to pay. Sometimes this even happens after you were already quoted a resonable fare. I was travelling to the view point in Banaue, and my Filipino host family was quoted sixty pesos for the whole group. When the driver saw that I was going to pay he said, 'No the fare is eighty pesos'. I was so mad, getting ripped off and not knowing it is one thing but getting ripped off when it is known and stated one price first is totally different and unacceptable. For this reason and hearing other similar stories I would not recommend going there to any foriegner. One our way to Batad a similar instance happened and we were told the fare was much more than it was. We refused to pay it and moved on a bit frightened that we would not have a ride back the next day. Luckly we soon learned there were many different drivers on this route and we were probably safe. Anyway Batad can be reached via the bus that goes from Lagawe to Mayoyao.
No electricity or sound of tricycles, drunk people singing videoke, etc... It gives the same relaxing feel as being upnorth in Michigan. We stayed in a hotel called Rita's with a spectacular view of the terraces below and the nicest people I have met thus far. The Aussie attempted to 'guide' us down to the farming village below, but once we were officially lost we decided to pay a local boy to walk us there. The kid made out, but I felt bad for his brothers standing there with a jealous look in their eyes. I'm glad we didn't ruin any of the terraces this trip because we had the guide and the terraces walls are perfectly formed with cut rock and mud support. The last trip I allowed the Aussie to navigate we got lost admist the terraces and had to walk along the top of the vertical mud structure with the fear of destroying them all with our huge american/australian weight. We managed with only one spill into the terrace, none for me though.
While chillin' at the hotel watching the farmers below and contimplating the meaning of life, a group of two foriegners and a Filipino woman arrived sweat, t-shirts, hiking pack and all. These people make me sad to see, because they arrive at a beautiful place like this and hike in for one hour then stand there for ten minutes take their picture to prove they were there and hike out. They never get to experience the culture or understand anything about the people who live here. I also feel its a bit degrading to the people who do live here. Even worse though is the old couple in Banaue who wear the native g-string and sit in the tourist shops waiting for their picture to be taken to charge the unknowing tourist a small fee. Their original livilihood is diminishing as the watershed changes, due to slash and burn practices, el nino triggered droughts, and giant earth worms. What are they to do? The area must evolve with the times and possibly change the crop they grow in this cool highland where they are only currently getting a maximum of two harvestings per year as is and in the lowlands they get three or more. The growing tourism in the area is also threatening the terraces watershed because current practices of cutting trees to create the beautiful native wood carvings. Another influence to the degrading terraces is that the young people are becoming more educated and getting jobs elsewhere meaning soon there will less people to maintain them.
Batad is less influenced than Banaue in terms of tourism because it is enough off the beaten track so to speak. There has been some talk of building a road to the town, which some feel will only degrade their lives. It doesn't need the tourism to survive as banaue has developed a passion for, it does exist yet it is unnessassary. It is because it is less touched that it is so beautiful.

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