Extreme Northern Luzon Mountain Adventure

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earthdome
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Extreme Northern Luzon Mountain Adventure - Day 1
 
First day the goal was to get to Tabuk in Kalinga province from Baguio. Here is the route Google Maps recommended.
 
http://goo.gl/maps/E1RxK
 

 
My neighbor uses the mountain road from Baguio towards Tabuk to get to his family home in the province. He told me he had driven that mountain road a week earlier and it was in very bad condition. During the typhoon season heavy rains in the mountain regions of norther Luzon result in many land slides which can make some of the roads nearly impassable at times. He strongly recommended that I not take that route through the mountains. Instead he recommended I drive south to San Jose City then north to Tabuk. A much longer route but with good roads:
 
http://goo.gl/maps/y7axb
 
I drove 10 hours that first day and didn't quite make it to Tabuk.
 
The drive was on very good roads. The drive started by driving down out of the mountains on the Marcos Hwy. Excellent road. The route I took south is the same route buses take when going south towards Manila from Baguio. Little traffic on this part of the drive in the morning. I hit more traffic once I got out of the mountains on the way to San Jose City.
 
From San Jose City the drive north towards Tabuk was very pleasant. Little traffic and much of the drive was very scenic through some mountains (nothing like the mountain driving to come later).
 
We ended up staying in Roxas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxas,_Isabela at the Forrest Hotel and Restaurant, a luxury hotel located along National Highway in Brgy Bantug. I wouldn't call it a luxury hotel but it was nice by filipino standards. 900 pesos for a small room with a "queen" bed. The restaurant was nice and they did have a nice coffee bar with espresso based coffee drinks. I would stay there again.
 
Overall it was an easy drive. This was the first time I have done any driving in the Philippines so it gave me a chance to ease my way in and get comfortable driving here and with driving the SUV.
 
I only took a few pictures the first day. Nothing noteworthy enough to upload.

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Tukaram (Tim)
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Sounds like quite an adventure so far.  Can't wait to hear how it turned out

 

 

Spoiler alert - you live through it (good thing, too)    :tiphat:

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Papa Carl
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Excellent! Thanks for the adventure, looking forward to doing myself one day, to the rice fields, Ellie has always wanted to go there.

 

 

Again, thanks for sharing.

 

 

Papa Carl

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OnMyWay
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Thanks for the great trip report!  I hope to make it up to the rice terraces sometime.

 

We will be in Baguio this week, Wed-Sat.  I think we have a full schedule with the family, but if time allows maybe we can grab a beer.

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jon1
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Great documentation!

 

I too have this on my bucket list. It seems that whenever I am in country it's rainy season, typhoon or whatever that prevents me from going to Baguio and beyond. 

 

I am wanting to do a north loop thru the mountains and back down the west coast or vice versa. A friend of mine did it at a leisurely pace and took 3 weeks. I may have enough time to do it this coming January/February (crossing my fingers)...

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Jake
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Extreme Northern Luzon Mountain Adventure - Day 4

 

Day 4 we left early from Balbalan to make the trip to the Banaue rice terraces. We drove out with just the SUV. Two siblings came along with shovels to help just in case we got stuck in the mud. The trip out went fine with no problems. The siblings got off and waited for a jeepney to take them back home.

 

Here is the google map route we took. We were advised that the mountain road from Tabuk to Bontoc was almost impassable so we went the long route around. Still we got to the hotel in Banaue before 4PM.

 

http://goo.gl/maps/RPX1h

 

Before I left I noticed the right rear tire was kind of low so they found a hand pump and inflated the tire before I left. I had to get the air in the tires checked several times during the trip when one or more tires looked slightly low on air pressure.

 

For this trip I used my Samsung Galaxy SIII mini phone with GPS and an unlimited data plan to navigate using google maps. This works great except for when you can't get a data connection. Back in Balbalan there was not data connection so the GPS and google maps was useless. If you plan on driving in any remote areas I recommend you get a real GPS unit where you can load the map data you need in advance. I also looked a bit but not that hard to see if I could get any good road maps for the Philippines. Couldn't find any.

 

The smart phone with GPS did help out a great deal to make sure I stayed on the correct routes.

 

We stayed the night at the Banaue Hotel and Youth Hostel: http://www.nativevillageinn.com/banauehotel.html

 

The hotel was a bit pricey at 3000 pesos per night for a deluxe room with no TV but included a good breakfast in the morning! The room we had was in the older wing was ok and had a great view. The restaurant was good.

I would like to remind our good members that posts like this with all kinds of photos of typical daily expat

life, is what the Boss loves to see.  This case, a daily blog of Earthdome's travel adventure was extremely

interesting with lessons learned.  For example, the use of GPS has it's limitations due to lost of cellphone

signal but I would hope that signals directly from GPS satellites would be more reliable using a separate

handheld or vehicle navigation device.  

 

Perhaps a follow on discussion about what to bring on your next road trip.  I would suspect that GPS images

will show to turn right at a certain road.  Unless you have a local guide, most mountain roads are not labelled

to side roads or very hard to see.  Besides medical kit and tools, what would be included in your emergency

road kit?  I think right off the bat, I would bring a rechargeable spot light, spare batteries, compass and a tow

harness.  Here's another item if you want to play in the mud:

 

 http://www.amazon.com/Car-Unstuck-Traction-Mats-Plates/dp/B004IROQH4 (traction mats, shovels)

 

I would love to hear more suggestions, especially dealing with remote areas of the Philippines.

 

Thank you Earthdome for sharing your wonderful adventure.  Respectfully -- Jake

Edited by Jake
road check
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