Banaue World's most famous rice Terraces

Caught the 8AM bus from Baguio which wound it's way for five hours through the mountain ranges before reaching a plain where we turned North and passed by the towns of Bambang and Bagabag until finally reaching Banaue at 3PM.

This is typical of the scenery of the mountains. The road was never straight and we were continually climbing or descending. Although it was the wet season, this day was all sunshine.
Most of the hotels in Banaue take advantage of the view of the rice terraces across the valley.

This is the view from my hotel restaurant window. I stayed at the Uyami Greenview for 900 pesos a night (AUD$22, 660 Baht).
The next day I hired a trike which is the local motorcycle/sidecar arrangement for 200 Pesos ($5, 150Baht) and was taken to the 'viewpoints' to see the terraces.

Up here in the highlands, the cooler climate means the farmers only get one crop a year compared to the coastal fields where three crops is common.

The crops are planted in January/February and harvested in June/July. The rest of the year the paddis lie fallow. So, what do the farmers do with all that down time? The souvenir shops are full of wooden carvings so that would take up some time. But if you only get one annual crop, the best solution to avoid running out of rice is to create more rice fields.

This crop is almost ready to harvest. When harvested the stalks of rice must be left to dry.

Then the stalks are de-husked and the grain is spread out on a flat surface to dry. The lack of flat surfaces often means that the road is used and traffic weaves around the drying grain.