I ♥ Halsema Highway - Baguio-Bontoc Road 01/20-22/12


 Enjoy arriving at the destination, but, by all means, enjoy the journey.


Fresh from a long ride from Manila to Baguio we headed to Dangwa Bus Terminal to reserve a seat going to Sagada. It was around 9am and the place were already packed with a large number of tourists. After waiting for almost 2 hours for the next bus, we finally able to board and start our Sagada 
Adventure. A fare to Sagad is 220 pesos and the ride is such a fun experience.  


We are going to take the Halsema Highway which is the highest highway in the Philippines and is one of the most scenic drives one can experience in the Philippines. I is also considered one of the most dangerous highways in the world. Everyday, commuters, transporters, tourists, and residents coming from Baguio or Mt. Province take this route without a safety guard rail.  The road Was opened in 1930 as led by Engineer Euseibus Julius Halsema of whom this highway was named after. He was also Baguio city's mayor during that time. 
It  is approximately 150 miles long and takes about 10 hours to get from Baguio city to Sagada on a nice day due to sharp bends & bumpy roads. It is known for rock slides, mud slides and buses driving dangerously fast on its narrow passage. 

 It was my first time to experience a bus ride were the bus constantly twist and turns from left to right for 6 hours. The road was smooth and paved with a little bump on some of the road still being constructed. 

 After 2 hours of twist and turns we took a stop in the Atok the highhest point of Halsema. It was such a nice break from two hours of hell drive my family ate some fresh apples and I just took a leak preparing for the next 4 hours of hell ride. After 20 minutes stop in Atok we were back in the road again.

 Almost everyone in the bus fell off sleep but I don't want to miss the beauty of Halselma so I stayed awake even though I only had a few hours of sleep from Manila road trip. Then suddenly after 2 hours of quite time there was some commotion happening inside the bus. It was my mom asking the driver if he could stop so she can have a restroom break. I was so worried that the bus wont let her leak because I feel that we are out of schedule.
 Thankfully the driver stop and my mom was able to take a leak. She told me that because she can't find a good spot, she just unzipped her pants and went back of the bus and take a leak there but naked in any passerbys. It was such a classic moment and I was relieved that she was able to take a leak. I know you've been in the same position where you wanted to take a restroom break but you cannot because of the situation. The funny thing is that after 30 minutes we finally reach the second stop in town of Baguias.
 After 20 minutes were back in the road again. We were puzzled when the bus suddenly stop in the middle of he road. I was very worried that the bus broke something we waited for 30 minutes and relieved that we were able to continue the journey.  

 I still enjoyed the scenic view of Halselma highway and after 6 hours of hell ride we finally reached Sagada at 2pm. When we were going back to Manila we also ride the Dangwas Bus and this time we experience some reality TV contestant from Amazing Race France. They are really annoying because they keep asking the driver to drive faster. In the first place they just hitched a ride and didn't even pay a single penny for the three of them. Thankfully they went off in Baguias and the ride went on silence again. To sum it up, I was really happy that we were able to finnish our journey without any accidents or mishaps.
 Although its a scary ride,  It offers very beautiful landscape and one of the prettiest journey i had. One must not sleep to see how beautiful Cordillera region is. I would suggest people to take this route when its sunny because its one the dangerous roads in the world.
Location: Bontoc, Pilipinas

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