I thought the drive to Bontoc would be the worst part, boy was I wrong. Bontoc is disgusting. The entire town smells of urine. There are signs all over saying NO SPITTING. The locals chew betel nut which gives them a mild high and stimulates their saliva glands making them need to spit. Bontoc is covered in red splotches because of this.
sign seen everywhere in Bontoc (this one was in Sagada)
Our hotel was just as bad. The first room had a broken window so we couldn't safely lock our things inside. The second room could lock, but was so dirty and falling apart. The bathroom situation was no good either. Luckily, our hotel had decent food because anywhere else we tried to eat caused us to gag. I don't think I'll be able to eat rice again after this trip.
Filipinos love karaoke, so we thought we should go give it a look and drown out Bontoc with beer. Everyone just sang from their seats in this sad little room.
We went to bed in our freezing room with just a single blanket each. The beds sinking so low I'm surprised we didn't hit the floor. At 3am, we woke to roosters that obviously forgot what the sun looked like. Then at 5am, the church bell started ringing with no pattern whatsoever for almost a half hour. This place sucks!
Monday morning we caught a van to Banaue to see the rice terraces and our afternoon was spent trying to figure out how to get out of Bontoc. There are no bus stations, no terminals of any kind. People just seem to sit around and when a van or jeepney comes by they see where they're headed and get in. We had already payed for a second night at our hotel, but we had to leave. After many different stories of how to get to Sagada, I finally talked to a woman that seemed to actually know what she was talking about. My mom and I rushed upstairs to pack our bags and made it just in time to a nearly full jeepney parked on what appeared to be a random street corner. Sagada here we come!
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