Sunday, April 26, 2009

Crosscountry Biking: (Day 5) Sadaga-Besao

When we woke up the next day, again the place was surrounded by clouds. It wasn't raining at all in Sagada but it was colder there. When I asked Steve about this, he said that Sagada has a higher altitude. The water way colder compared to that in Mayoyao, Batad, and Bangaan. That didn't stop me from taking a bath last night haha.


We both cleaned our bikes first and Vei had to do some tweaking coz he's still having a bit of a problem with his brakes and derailler. Vei's friend, John (if I'm not mistaken) whose family owns the Dapdapanan Lodge, was kind enough to serve us free breakfast. We had hotdogs, omelet, Cauliflower dipped in vinegar (binuro sa suka), chopseuy, fried rice, coffee and milk all for free. Yummy!


We still had 5 kms. of biking to do since Dapadapanan is 5kms. away from Sagada town proper. The 40L of Bag was really a burden so we just reserved our strengths by not mashing the pedals. We took our time. We had a flexi IT anyweiz. 


When we reached the town proper, we had to get some more oil (for sewing). WD40 kept of the dirt but its not a good lubricant. Vei was still tweaking his bike when noon caught up on us. Another biker we met, Duds, was using Steve's bike. He mentioned that he was from Baguio, failed to bring his bike, but Steve insisted that he bike around and allowed him to borrow his bike. He biked to Besao that day with Joey.


Vei was having a hard time with the derailler, and I'm not that good a mechanic either so I persuaded him to go again to Joey and have it checked. Nahihiya na talga kami (trans: we're so embarass for having you guys attend to our troubles), but we had no other choice. Again Steve and Joey thanks! Had a chance to take each of their pics, Jenny was kind enough to pose for me too, thanks guys! We owe you a lot!

Steve was busy with his rafting business he was starting up. If you wanna try rafting up Sagada give me a heads up and I'll refer you to Steve ;) Twas already high noon when Joey finished fixin' Vei's bike. 

Yoghurt house was where we had lunch. Again I had Yoghurt! Then I heard the thing that I dreaded to hear the most. Vei was already asking me if its OK to cut the trip short. I asked why, then he said that his niece was rushed to the hospital because of dengue. I had to agree. As much as I still want to ride for 3 more days, family still comes first for us. I respect his decision. So we stayed at the Green House Inn (just like last time we were in Sagada last June).


Since I was so bitin (trans: wants more), I asked Vei if its ok for him if we ride to Besao instead. He agreed. We left our things and brought basic bike stuff. Before starting we bumped into Steve again and invited him if he wanted to ride. He said he was busy with the rafting thing and were just waiting for some people visiting the caves. He told us that Besao is 8kms from Sagada, 4kms going uphill and 4 kms. dowhill and vice versa.

I enjoyed it very much, it was a rock garden mostly going to Besao. There were few portions of cemented road though. Now I know why Joey and Steve loves going there. Once you've paid your dues (4kms. uphill), you can rest since the next will be downhill. When going back its the same thing, uphill then downhill. I love it! 





We cleaned ourselves up and bought some pasalubongs. I again went back to the Yoghurt house to have some Veggie sandwich and Strawberry Yoghurt! I was suppose to bike to Besao the next day but got too lazy to get up. 

The next day (Dec. 31, '08) we had our pictures taken with the owners of the Green House Inn. From Sagada we rode a bus going to Baguio then a bus going to Manila. We had lunch at Morning Star which was halfway to Baguio. We got to Baguio around 430PM, just had lugaw & tokwa for a while then we left at 530PM. I was in Manila by 10PM, 2 hours before New Year fireworks and smoke invade the city. This was Day 5. I already miss the Mountain Province.

No comments: