Banaue

Clutching the verdant ridges of the Cordillera highlands in the wild lands north of Manila, Banaue is a wondrous sight to behold. Its haphazard, multi-storey homes with overhanging balconies and moss-clad corrugated roofs tower disconcertingly above the valleys below, coalescing like some barrio atop the mountains. In fact, the town itself cascades down the mountainsides here much like the famous Ifugao Rice Terraces that are the region’s major draw, great valleys of which can be found encompassing Banaue on all sides. These wonderful, UNESCO-attested mud walled creations are thought to be millennia old relics that were built by Chinese agriculturalists sometime in the first centuries AD; today they stand as one of the most fascinating Cultural Landscapes in the world. Be sure to enlist the help of a Banaue tour guide and head out to explore the rice paddies that range from Bangaan to Batad in the surrounding countryside. Along the way, don’t miss the Museum of Cordilleran Sculpture, where the haunting effigies of timber Bululs – guardian icons thought to protect rice crops – can be seen in all their mysterious glory.