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Thursday October 23, 2008
The most important thing to do this day is to ensure that everything you need to bring are all ready and set to go.
After a final check on my what-to-bring list, I left the house eventually around 8:30pm, as the AutoBus overnight express to Banaue I earlier booked was scheduled to leave by 10:00pm. I arrived just in time to catch the bus parking at their terminal in Sampaloc.
While waiting, I noticed a convenience store across the terminal and thought that, lucky me, I still had time to do some last-minute shopping. So off I went and bought me two 1.5-liter bottles of soda and three 1-liter bottles of mineral water. They were a bit heavy and inconvenient to lug along, but I thought, hey I’m going somewhere remote they might not have much of these there, and if they did, they must cost a fortune.
Which turned out to be wrong, as I found out when I got there. Although Banaue is still fairly rural, they have lots of mini-stores scattered around town selling most basic items at almost the same prices as in Manila.
Anyway, you should bring enough water to at least last the entire trip. The bus will be making two stopovers, and you don’t want to be drinking strange water in a strange land.
I also had some time to take a quick snack just before boarding, but just a reminder, try not to eat so much as the trip takes about 9 hours, and you don’t want any unpleasant thing to happen to your stomach along the way, right. 
Also, this is a good time to get your jacket ready, if you haven’t done so already. The trip will be very cold, especially when traveling between September to February. You don’t want to be unpacking your entire luggage on the bus to get to your sweater tucked well under your suitcase.
Soon we were leaving the terminal, a few minutes after 10:00pm. Nothing much to do except try and get some much needed sleep. You don’t want to spoil your well-planned itinerary by sleeping when you get to Banaue. I have a problem sleeping seated down, so I just forced myself to at least get some rest, with eyes closed.
About two and a half hours later (about 0:30am), we had our first stopover at Saboytik Restaurant in San Miguel, Bulacan.
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| 12:32am. First stopover: San Miguel, Bulacan |
Shortly thereafter, we were back on the road, this time for a longer stretch. It took about another four hours before we had our final stopover at Jasmin Restaurant in Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya.
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| 4:19am. Final Stopover: Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya |
By the time we left the diner (about 4:30am), we were only about two and a half hours from Banaue, and maybe too tired from the long ride, I was able to take a short nap.
I woke up around 6:00am, the sun had just barely risen, and felt relieved that we were just about an hour away.
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| 5:59am. On the final stretch to Banaue. |
About twenty minutes later, though, we passed by another AutoBus bound for Kiangan which run into some engine trouble. So it took a while to transfer and fit the passengers and cargo to our bus. I was bored and getting grouchy, so I just shot the daybreak from my window seat.
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| 6:23am. Daybreak somewhere on the road to Kiangan. |
After about twenty minutes of delay, we finally moved on, only to stop again a half hour later in Lagawe, the provincial capital of Ifugao, to unload the excess passengers and cargo, which took about another fifteen minutes or so.
Finally, at just a little after 8:00am, we arrived at the AutoBus terminal in Banaue.
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| 8:07am. Arrival in Banaue. |
The terminal is a short ride from the town proper. Depending on your destination, trikes are available from ₱8 up.
In my case, I saw a mini van waiting for passengers outside the terminal. Since I was eager to get to know a local who can guide me as soon as I got here, I thought maybe I’d ask him if the van is available in case I would be needing a vehicle. And rightly so, he said yes, he’ll take me to the town first and we’ll talk.
We waited for more passengers to share the ride, met this seemingly nice-looking Filipino couple in their late-20s (who I learned on the way were also interested in hiring a van), and then off we went to the town proper. Our driver, who we shall be calling Brutus, charged us only ₱10 for each passenger.
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