#philippines

The Philippine Immigration is infamous for offloading Filipino passengers for various reasons. I can't really blame them, however, they have offloaded legit travelers for trying to prevent illegal activities. First of all, some Filipinos have been notorious in traveling to look for work illegally abroad. Second, human trafficking is still prevalent

A lot of people has been asking me how I got a multiple entry tourist visa to the US. For someone like me with no strong ties to the Philippines, I was worried I'd get denied. To my surprise, I got a multiple entry visa valid for 10 years!I travel a lot and have no intentions to overstay in any country. I want a clean passport record but these we

Apo Whang-Od is one of the Philippines’ national treasures. Her skills and talent made Buscalan famous for the Kalinga tribe tattoo. I was starstruck to see a living legend, however, disappointed by what tourism has done to an icon. I usually write informative travel blogs but this is one of my critical write ups. Weed or Tattoo? They say there are

I am not a local of Banaue but I stayed there for almost a month that I learned a lot of useful information that I’d like to share to my readers. This place is popular for the Banaue rice terraces, however, it seems most travelers just do a stop over at the rice terraces viewpoint and then head over to other more popular places like Sagada. Pobla

Note: I did not intend to post this here as this is my letter to the Banaue mayor. However, I made some mistakes today which resulted to a duplicate post of House of Ekolife. So as not to make my blog look worse, I will just re-publish this blog here. I stayed for a week in Batad to rest and just be away from any distractions. There is no network

Banaue was my home base for my last month in the Philippines and I was able to live like a local somehow. I didn’t travel much in the Banaue area like at the Happao rice terraces, except for the Batad rice terraces which I have blogged about extensively. However, I did eat a lot and tried the restaurants and carinderia (afforfdable local eatery) he

I have just started out my digital nomad journey and long term travel. That meant that I have the option to travel slowly. I was like most tourists previously when I had my 9 to 5 job. I would take time off for a few days and get to as many locations fast. I think travel is personal, it differs how each one travels. I used to enjoy that hyper k

Table of contents While in Batad, I stayed in a solo room at Batad View Inn & Restaurant as this was my most practical option. This lodging is under the same management as Mang Ramon’s Homestay who owns traditional nipa huts. It got me curious so I decided to upgrade for one night and sleep like a native Ifugao inside a nipa hut. Nipa huts ar

Preserving the Ifugao Ethnic Tradition Ramon Binalit, owner of Mang Ramon’s Homestay, is known in the Philippines for all the work he does to preserve Batad and its tradition. He has been featured in several articles and documentaries. We can call him a legend not only for showcasing their Ifugao tribe culture, but also for fighting to keep it inta

If you have been to Ifugao or other places in the Cordilleras, you may have seen signs that say “No Spitting of Moma”. Some visitors would have no idea what a moma is, and why in the world would you spit your mom?…errrr uhmm… to be clear, we’re talking about a different moma here. Despite the signs not to spit moma, you would see reddish canals ar

I am no mountaineer nor have any warm up prior my trip to Batad. My only preparation was a morning run around Banaue, a day hike to Tappiyah waterfalls and a solo walk to Batad village with four guide dogs. I was hesitant until the last minute because it rained the night before and in the early morning. I heard that the trails that can be very slip

I went to Tappiyah falls the day before with a local guide. Surprisingly, one of the dogs named Blackie from Ramon’s Homestay joined us. Despite 2 guides – a human and a dog, I was scared to death walking through the narrow pilapil (ricefield dikes). I did survive that and you can read through my post about Tappiyah falls here. I wanted to go to th