Fun things to do in Province of Batanes

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The Bahay ni Dakay (House of Dakay) is said to be the oldest house in the Batan island of Batanes, which was built in the 1870's. This is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site. The house is made of corals (before i thought that the walls are made of adobe) and the roof is made of cogos grass (they said that the roof of the ivatan house should be changed every 25-30 years....for a price of Php 25,000.00) wow that's a lot of money...:). The house is also one of the five structures that withstanded the earthquake on September 13,1918 which totally destroyed the whole town of Ivana.

The original owner of the house is Luisa Estrella who gave the house to her favotite nephew Jose Dakay Estrella and then Jose Dakay Estrella gave the house to Florestida Estrella (Lola Ida for short......who presently owned the house). Did you know that Lola Ida grew in the Visayas not in Batanes. Only in 1939 that she set her foot to the island of Batanes at the age of seven.

See the house of Dakay.........and meet the most pictured woman they say in the whole island of Batanes................:)

During my trip.......she was sick...so there was no woman posing on the front door..:)
that is why i did the posing for her......not bad at all yeah.....:)

I think this is one important post......i just dont know if it is appropriate here in "Things To Do"
well going back to the tip..............

i paid 14, 500 (330 US dollars) for the ticket..........(crap..i didnot find any promos then i booked last part of December and the promo became available on January.......:)
Then I paid 6000 (or 140 US Dollars) (4D 3N) for the hotel accommodation, food and tour.......
Then another 1000 (25 US Dollars) for some souvernirs
Then another 500 or (12 US Dollars)for my transpo from home to airport and vice versa

now you know more or less how much you will prepare........

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I did this......and its great...the whole hill is your's to conquer.......You can see cows and horses everywhere....free.....eating the grass.....The view is great...but be careful if you do the cartwheels......you might accidentally land on their fecals.....:)

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If Ilocos has this world heritage strip of old houses in Vigan.......
Batanes......has this strip of old houses too.......made of lime,stones,corals, and cogon grass
Its like the Hobbits Village in the movie Lord of the Rings
Some of the old houses still have preserved their facade but majority of the houses are in bad condition
Calling the architecture students.........this is a good thesis........:)
I hope that the Batanes Government will come up on the idea of preservation, renovation and protection of this
Historical houses..........

This is again a wonderful experience.........
From Ivana port........
Riding a boat to Sabtang early in the morning....
Another great experience.......
I think the boat ride is 45-60 minutes............

When i was there..........the boat is up to 2:00 pm only.......
and there were these pasaway tourist.......(usually photographers....for they take many hours...for a picture and doing their set up)......
We are in th emiddle of the journey...when they call the boatmen.........
so what the boatmen did was to go back gain to the sabtang port...and wait for thirty more minutes....for the others to come,,,,,,,,crap.......

But the best part of it was that....they said sorry to all the tourist in the boat.......for the delays and everything...................

Alls well.......thats ends well......................
But still.............................IT IS A GREAT EXPERIENCE...........................;)

While most of Europe is having this gaga thing on the use of bikes instead of car during their tours.....this can also be done in Basco, Batanes.......remember the Dawn Zulueta commercial on PH care.........it is very nice to do this activity in Basco.......although there is no bicycle lane...it is still safe......than biking in Manila.......

I have done this..........first i rented a bike in AMBOY shop....about Php 20.00 per hour.......you can choose any bike you want..there are a dozen to choose from..........

The feeling.....of being free....of taking the opportunity to see more of Basco......of savoring this once in a lifetime...experience.........crap....like to go back there again hahahhahahaaa

As a bike shop in Barcelona said......See more..........less effort........more fun...:)

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Be extra extra FRIENDLY.............especially when you are travelling alone hhahahahahahaha
like i did ...............security...... there's no problem...Batanes is the safest place here in the Philippines...

I traveled on my own here in Batanes.....but the problelm here is that unlike when you have a companion.....there will always be someone who will take your pictures.........
i befriended other tourist especially the tourist guides...kuya Nards and Em Em they take all my pics in Batanes.....
thank you .................

To all the people i met during my stay in Batanes....
thank you....hope we can bump with with each other in our future travels..........:)

Don't miss to wear the traditional working clothes of the Ivatans
Both for men and women
I found out about these when we went to see the oldest man in Batanes
His daughter who owns a souvenir shop told us these traditional working clothes
For the male Ivatan farmer - they use the salakot and the one placed at the shoulders like a jacket (dun no the exact term for this)
For the female Ivatan farmer - they use the vakul........plus the traditional footwear
Now I have learned new things again