Adventures in Asia: Manila to Banaue, Philippines

Yesterday I left Manila and made the long, complicated journey north and inland to Banaue, home of the famous Ifugao rice terraces.  The trip turned out to be far more challenging than I even expected.

Rather than try to work out Manila public transit again, I took a taxi from my hostel to the Florida bus station, arriving in time (I hoped) to catch the 6:00 bus.

There was no bus at the station.  I tried to buy a ticket at the ticket counter, but I was made to understand that I would buy the ticket on the bus.  So, I waited.

7:00 came and went, and still no bus; 8:00 came and went, still no bus.  Finally at 8:30 the bus arrived.  I boarded, only to be told the bus would not leave until 10:00.  Somehow the once-an-hour bus was seeming like more of a once-a-day bus, but I did not have much choice, so I took a seat.

We left at 9:45, not 10:00, so that was confusing, but obviously I did not complain.  My itinerary was such that I had to reach a place called Solano by 15:00, in order to transfer to a jeepney to Banaue.  If I missed that, I could still take a jeepney from Solano to Lagawe, and then Lagawe to Banaue, but the latest I could leave Solano then was 16:00.  I had been told the Manila-Solano bus takes 5-6 hours, so as we pulled out of Manila I assumed my schedule was still in good shape, although certainly not as good as if I had left Manila at 6:00 as I hoped!

The bus trip was interesting but fairly non-eventful.  I found the urban, suburban, and rural scenery all interesting, although difficult to photograph, of course, through the windows.

The bus stopped in every town, it seemed, and eventually tiny plastic chairs were passed out for people to sit in the aisle.  The stops, traffic, construction, and so on made progress feel inconsistent, and I began running through alternative scenarios in case I did not reach Solano in time.  I really had not prepared for this at all, but I assumed I could stay in Solano for a night and make my way to Banaue in the morning--far from ideal, but certainly not the end of the world, either.

We reached Solano at pretty much exactly 16:00, so I still had hope that I could make the connections.  Unfortunately, where the bus let me off did not seem to also be the spot to catch the jeepney, so I asked a police officer.  He pointed in the direction I had to go and suggested I take a tricycle--the three-wheeled motorcycle with a side car transit options that seem to be ubiquitous in the Philippines.

I asked the first tricycle driver I encountered, but it seems English is less prevalent than it was in Manila, because I do not think either of us understood the other, so I kept walking.

I walked for quite awhile, hoping I could figure it out with some intuition and by watching traffic patterns.  Solano is not a big place, so it seemed like the location of transit hubs should be fairly obvious.  In the end, I proved myself wrong.

I now desperately needed water (it was a 30 degree day), so stopped in a 7-11 and asked the young guys behind the counter (whose English was excellent).  They did not seem to know where I should go (which surprised me), but again suggested I take a tricycle.

This time I found a tricycle driver (they really are EVERYWHERE, so finding a tricycle is easy) who seemed to understand me, and took me for a quick drive to what seemed to be a random intersection.  Quickly I realized that this location was still wrong!

I took another tricycle--luckily these are very cheap (12 pesos, or about 30 cents)--with a driver who seemed much more confident, and this time, success--the jeepney station for jeepneys going to Banaue and Lagawe.  It was now 17:00.

There was a jeepney there that said "Banaue," so I got in.  Jeepneys are in essence jeep-like fronts with extended, covered-but-more-or-less-open-air backs with two long benches.  All told, the jeepney can probably fit 20 people relatively comfortably (okay, really no one is comfortable), and maybe another dozen if people are motivated!

I asked some other passengers if this jeepney was going to Banaue and one person asked another who asked another who asked the driver.  He looked back and sort of shrugged and nodded and someone down the line told me he said he would take me there.  I gathered that he had not in fact been planning to go all the way to Banaue, but at this point I was going to take what I could get.

At 18:30 we reached Lagawe and by now the jeepney was empty except for me and the driver.  He pointed to where the Banaue jeepneys apparently queue and indicated they were done running for the night (I had been told the last Banaue jeepney left Lagawe at 17:00, so this was what I expected).  He let me know he was willing to to take me to Banaue for 1500 pesos (just under $40) and we haggled and haggled and eventually I agreed to pay him 1000 pesos, plus the 70 pesos I owed him for the trip from Solano to Lagawe.  I think the Lagawe-Banaue route fare is supposed to be 50 pesos, so I suppose I had just chartered the whole jeepney!

It was nearly 20:00 by the time we reached Banaue, so over 14 hours after I had left my hostel in Manila (the driving distance between Manila and Banaue is only 389 kilometres, by the way!).

I checked in at my guesthouse, then went down the street for some dinner.  It was pitch black in Banaue, so I could see nothing, but it was calm and cool, and it felt good to be there after such a long day.