In 8 days, Ryan and I covered well over 1,800km of northern Philippines on motorbike. I say “Ryan and I” but I did zero driving. I can drive a motor scooter but I have no idea how to handle a semi-automatic bike. My role was to wear my big backpack filled with our stuff, and keep the two of us awake. For the most part it was as easy as it sounds, but on our longer 7-10 hour ride days my booty was sore and I got wiggly. “Butt” that’s to be expected for someone who has barely ridden on the back of a motorbike, not to mention for several hours at a time on consecutive days. No matter the booty ache, this was probably the coolest mode of transportation I’ve ever taken and one of the most memorable weeks of my life. It’s been almost 2 months since that week and the smell of the crisp, mountain air and visual of winding through the Kalinga province mountains is still clear.
…And that’s significant, because my memory is pretty terrible, especially with an overwhelming amount of input from new travel experiences.
I could say SO MUCH about this trip, but I’ll give you the highlight real and show you the rest in photos. In order of cities, let’s go…
Taguig – We left around 1am and rode through the night. It was hard to stay awake.
San Narciso, Zambales – Brought a tent with us and camped at “Agoho Kampsite.” Beautiful place. Swam in the ocean. Visited the small town.
Bolinao – Stopped here to see the lighthouse
Hundred Islands – Tried to visit the islands but we arrived after the ferry closed to we pushed forward instead.
*got stopped by police at a checkpoint but he let us pass. Later learned Ryan’s ID was expired (oops) and we were supposed to be wearing reflective vests (double oops). We are super lucky he didn’t fine us. Also barely avoided an unlit crane that was hanging out in the road; sheer luck we didn’t lose our heads (triple oops).
La Union – Stayed with Ryan’s extended family outside of the city next to rice fields. I was useless in helping with their pigs. But I was great at hanging out with the cousins.
Vigan city – Stayed with more of Ryan’s extended family. Saw the water fountain light show. Unusual lyrical/international music selection to accompany the water and lights…pop/hip-hop vibes, Taki Taki by Selina Gomez was one…but it made us laugh.
Peep the green and yellow painted rocks in this next video!
We also visited Baluarte, a zoo that is free to the public. And although I’m smiling in this next picture with the baby goat, what I witnessed that day was some serious animal cruelty. It’s so upsetting to see such large cats in small cages, alligators in mucky ponds…I just left with a twisted feeling in my stomach and the thought that if they just had less animals and spent more money taking care of the few they had, it’d be a MUCH better experience for everyone involved.
Pagudpud – got lucky and a small restaurant with 1 open-air cottage let us set up our tent for cheap. Everything else was pretty pricey. We moved some rock slabs to make the ground flatter and chilled out camping by the beach. The moon and clouds and ocean were magnetic. Saw a significant eroded rock on the way to Pagudpud.
Lubuagan –
We left Pagudpud with the intention of driving all the way to Buscalan before night. But it was a long all day drive, like 10 hours, and we made stops that put us back on time and we ended up driving into the mountains as the sun was going down. With another 1 or 2 hours of mountain roads ahead, we stopped for gas and advice. This just so happened to be the last town for a long while. We drove through town, Lubuagan, talked to one guesthouse that was full, and started to continue on when we got the urge that we should stay. So we turned back and talked to another guesthouse, JBL, which happened to be the last guesthouse open that night and they had just 1 room available. We were so lucky that everything lined up for us, and before it got too late. Seeing the roads in the morning, it would’ve been a risky ride if we’d continued at night. We ate and chilled a the guesthouse, that was actually the night Ryan found out his lola passed away (you can read more about that here). And in the morning we had coffee from the region and sat on the balcony where there was a view of the mountains and rice terraces. After breakfast, and feeding leftover dried, salted, fish to the dogs, we got on the bike and drove until Buscalan.
Buscalan –
We chose to pass through Buscalan so that we could hike to Apo Whang Od’s village, see the legendary tattoo artist, and receive traditional tattoos. When we arrived we were told we needed to hire a guide to take us on the hike to see her (it’s part of the tourist fees that are now built in to cultural experiences that have become exceedingly popular…maybe I’ll write more about that another time). So we talked to another group of Filipinos with bikes and they let us chip in and join their group. We hiked about 40 minutes, and by hiked this was a clear dirt path, heel to heel with people, but it was steep and the dust was slippery so it was a bit of a trek. We didn’t plan ahead so there was no food or water, but we bumped my music and smiled with the people passing by, bonding over Rebelution and mutual excitement. Some Filinos stopped and showed us their new tattoos. This added energy and motivation to the trek, and quickly, we reached the village at the top.
There we saw Apo Whang Od, who is 103 years old and often referred to as “the last living Mambabatok,” she is the oldest living Kalinga tattoo artist doing traditional batok tattoos. She was tattooing someone and a crowd as sanding around. Turns out there were 100 people waiting for her signature 3 dots. She took lunch and quit for the day while we were there. While visiting, I picked out a design and one of Apo Whang Od’s relatives, I believe a grandniece, gave me a sun and moon tattoo in their batok technique. They use the thorn of a citrus fruit (suha) attached to the end of a stick, draw the design in charcoal and tap the needle in to ink the pattern into your skin.
Sagada/Bontoc –
I’m surprised I don’t have any pictures here!! But it was this beautiful little mountain town, like summer vacation vibes. A good place to beat the Manila heat. Bontoc was 30 minutes from Sagada, down at the base of the mountain. We couldn’t find a place to stay in Sagada because it was a 3 day, holiday weekend and literally everything was booked out. Not even a place to pitch our tent. Exhausted of options, and just exhausted, we drove to back to Bontoc and found a place that had space for us and our new friends from Buscalan. Finally we relaxed and ate and chatted and had a great evening together.
The next day we stopped through Banaue for bike repairs. Also this is where the “eighth wonder of the world” is located, the incredible Banaue rice terraces. But we didn’t stop to take a picture (!!) so that one lives on only in my memory. At this point we said goodbye to hour friends and Ryan and I chilled for something like 3 or 4 hours while the bike spokes were replaced.
This guy asked if I could take a picture of him 👍🏽
Urdaneta –
We stopped here for the night at Ryan’s extended family’s house, and had a delicious fresh chicken dinner. And then the next day, an incredible fish feast!
Taguig –
We drove back through the night. On the way, like 2 hours out from Taguig, the accelerator broke. Like the wire inside the handle snapped and we couldn’t get speed. So Ryan unscrewed the handlebar and cut the wire and pulled the chord, like a rein for a horse, and the engine revved and so we rode horseback home hahah.
Batangas –
After we got home we retired the bike and rode in the car with the family to Batangas for Ryan’s lola’s funeral. Even at time like this, Ryan was a clown. I think this was the goofiest and most memorable week in my travels.
Bridge Over Distance 
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