North Luzon Ride 2016 ( Part 1 )

nikhuzlan

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2011
Bikes
GSA, NC700D, KLX450R
I had always wanted to ride the Philippines but couldn't get the right bikes to rent. Taking our own bikes there would be suicidal as the paperwork to temporarily import our bikes would be nearly impossible.

There were BMWs for rent from some fancy setup but I did not want to pay fancy prices, nor was I really interested in riding GSs in jeepney/Tricycle infested roads when crossing the urban areas.

When i found out there are CRF250Ls available for rent at an agreeable price I wasted no time getting Robert and Aki on board. Not much persuasion required for the two to join in.

We flew in 14th May, jumped on a Hiace from the airport to Angeles city ( 3 1/2 hours to cover 85km !!!! ) and picked up our CRF the next day. We wired up our GPS and headed North.
The first 200 kms to Laoag was not fun, continuous stream of towns and villages, with jeepneys and tricycles all over the road, speeds seldom exceeding 70km/h.

We stayed the first night at Vigan, a UNESCO Heritage Town, ooozing of Spain, complete with cobblestone streets and horse drawn calesas.

More story later.

Here's a video of the trip.

 
Here are some random pictures i shot around Banaue and the Helsema Highway.
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Vegetable plots replacing the Hill Padi.

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Lots of little hamlets on top of individual peaks.

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Red House in the sea of Green.

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Rice Terraces

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Nice report and impressive scenery !

(I cant open the attachments for Vigan though...?)

I lived in Palawan for 5 years during the 1990's but never got up to Vigan or Banaue.
Great to see that decent bikes at reasonable prices are available for hire from AC. Would be good to fly into AC/Clark and avoid Manila altogether.
 
Hi, I lived in Palawan for 5 years during the 2000's but never got up to Vigan or Banaue.
 
Wow!
Thanks for sharing those spectacular pics Nikhuzian (and thanks Debroah for mending).
I want to live here ......

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Keep them coming!!
 
Some pretty spetacular scenes there. Almost the same as parts of Vietnam. Looks like you had a great time. Thanks for the video.
 
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