Sagada

I caught a bus to Baguio and then found a bus going to Sagada. The guidebook talked about the bus ride between Baguio and Sagada being a bit hair raising due to the narrow sharp turns on the mountain road. For the first few hours I did not understand what the book was talking about but then the road got a lot worse and even though I did not find it hair raising I sort of understood what the book was talking about. The road was probably the worst road I had been on since taking a bus on what is known as the Tibetan highway in China.

The views from the bus were really good though and I found the landscape and the terraces that were used for growing vegetables really beautiful.

The bus had a flat just after it started to turn dark and with all the traveling by bus I have done this is the first time that the bus has had a problem which is a real surprise when I think about it now. The changing on the tire did not take long and we were on our way again. I do not really like arriving in a new place after dark. I was uneasy when we finally got to Sagada but found a hotel and something to eat. I later saw a sign that said there was a 9PM curfew and not sure if I would have problems if the bus would have been later than 9 but was luck enough to not find out.

I spent my time in Sagada just walking around and looking at the countryside or at coffins. There is a burial cave with coffins and also coffins that they hang from the walls of cliffs. I walked right past the path to the Lumlang Cave but found the path when going back up the hill to the town. There are a huge number of coffins just inside the entrance of this cave.

I found this one where you could see inside, sort of gruesome.

I also walked around and saw a number of the hanging coffins that are in the echo valley area.

In the afternoon I walked to a place called the Kiltepan Tower that is suppose to have a good view. The guidebook talked about it being about a 40 minute walk from the town. I wonder if the people that write these books have ever done some of the things that it talks about or it is a misprint or they just forget how long it took. It took me at least 30 minutes to walk from the main road to the lookout point and this did not include the time to walk from the town to the turnoff that had to have been at least 40 minutes to an hour. I did finally find the viewing spot that the book talked about and it was a good view of rice terraces but not really sure it was worth the hike.