After a day and a half in Sagada, I caught the morning bus from Sagada directly to Baguio. The route takes 6 or so hours and traverses the scenic Halsema Hwy, including passing over the highest point on any road in the Philippines. I tried, unsuccessfully, to take some pictures/video out the window of the bus. I also scoped out where my stop would be the next day to make my start on Mt. Timbak.
When the bus arrived in Baguio, I managed to make my way to my hotel. The room was small and musty, but I only needed it for about 36 hours. I arranged to sleep there one night and leave for my 2 am bus the following evening. I took the time to buy my bus ticket and buy a few snacks for the next day. Knowing that I’d be getting up early the next day, I tried to sleep and ignore the mustiness and occasional cockroach in my room.
Early the next day, I set out for the bust station to catch the 6 am bus back toward Sagada. The ride took almost two hours and I nervously watched out the window for my stop, worried that I’d miss it and end up going farther than I wanted. When I asked the bus driver a few times about my stop, he reassured me “not yet!” Eventually we stopped and I was the lone person to get off the bus.
Following the rather steep road up and up, it eventually changed from a paved road to a dirt path. I followed the path past houses and farms, calling out to and wishing a good morning to all that I passed. Nervous that I may not be in the correct place, I asked several women out working in their gardens the way. Each time, they gestured me along the way I was going.
After a while, the path turned into some of the gardens and across the stone and dirt ledges of the terraces. As I climbed, I gained a small entourage of young boys and a couple dogs. They asked me where I was going (in true Pinoy fashion) and tagged along for a while. After a while, I came out on the top of the hill and I could see my destination in the distance. The remainder of the way involved bushwhacking through some tall grass across a ridge to the peak of the mountain. At the top, in addition to an antenna, there was a shrine and three crosses in the Calvary style. I paused here for lunch and some photos before making my descent.
I was a bit worried about making my bus back to Baguio, I knew that the buses didn’t run very late into the afternoon and I had no desire to get stranded in the Benguet countryside with my things in my Baguio hotel room and a ticket for a bus that evening. My fears were completely unnecessary, since I’d gotten such an early start on the day I was back at the road around noon and back in Baguio before 3 pm.
After braving the shower in my hotel, I ventured to a local vegetarian restaurant much beloved by PCVs for a late afternoon meal and continued to wander around downtown Baguio. Failing miserably at napping in my stuffy hotel room, I packed my things and failed miserably at using Jedi-mind-trick to persuade a couple of cockroaches to “go out the way they came.” Eventually, I decided it was fruitless to wait around in my room; I checked out and made my way to the bus station to wait for my early morning bus back to Manila for the last leg of my time in the Philippines.
Tags: benguet, hiking, mt timbak, philippines, solo, Southeast Asia