[ARTICLE WRITTEN FOR THE COMPANY NEWSMAGAZINE]

Recharging at pristine Sagada

Where’s the best way to take a break and recharge from the hustle and bustle of working for [name of company]? Most of the time, the answer by default is a beach (we’re not 7,000-plus islands for nothing). But one big combined Philippines and Nijmegen group recently took advantage of a long weekend by going to pristine Sagada.

Fresh air, sparkling waters, native living, delicious vegetables, spelunking paradise… Sagada is one of the towns of Mountain Province, nestled in the middle of Northern Philippines. It’s a 10-hour travel from Manila via Baguio or Banaue, but the long trip just pass fleetingly along the breathtaking views of Benguet or Ifugao provinces. The ride is by bus then jeepney, until the road opens to a serene town, seemingly straight out of a Paul Theroux travelogue: buy one map then get overwhelmed by the number of places within the town that begs to be put in the agenda. Among others, there are big and small waterfalls, underground river, limestone “crystal caves” with running waters, fresh lakes, and rice terraces, which [a colleague] admired: “unbelievable how they could build them thousands of years ago.”

Indeed, Sagada has “better” rice terraces than the more tourism-exploited, crumbling ones in Banaue. The terraces of Banaue seems to be there just for pure tourism now; not anymore for it’s original purpose of agriculture for food. And the people seems to have forgotten the technique to make to right clay material to maintain the paddies. The knowledge on materials seems to not have been duly passed on (an analogy for a situation that should be prevented in a company's own handling of materials development).

“Every place we came, the people were friendly. Strange that this kind of nice places are not found if you go to Travel Agencies in Europe, because it’s really worthwhile to go [to Sagada],” [said a colleague].

The interesting places in the town made the group forget the load, focus, click of film camera yore. With film, you would like to choose the perfect picture composition before clicking, because every picture will cost. But digital offers point and shoot, then the option to print only the ones you want to keep in a “physical” album. As a result “an awful lot of digital pictures have been made. When I take a look again, I immediately want to come back to the Philippines.” said Rik. “We have a whole evening at my house [just] to share all pictures,” added [name of a dutch colleague].

The usual extended weekend (read: 3 days) is not enough to visit the whole of Sagada. Interesting places range from as “tame” as the many ideal picnic places—especially apt during the months of April and May when the summer sun is pleasant and the blackberries are ripe for picking—to the “for the adventurous” caves which have two route choices--one “easy” and another for the truly daring, called “cave connections.” Many sites are guaranteed breathtaking, figuratively and literally. It’s quite an exercise to reach the big falls, for example, and there are also amazing rock formations where it’s possible to rappel, from top to bottom of a sizeable cliff.

The group shared that good accommodation can be had for just 2 Euros a day. Most locals express themselves better in English than in Filipino, complete sometime with American slang. Local culture, on the other hand, can be glimpsed through animist hanging coffins, carved in tree trunks, put inside holes on cliffs, or caves, … perhaps the culture’s symbol of death as going back to a mother’s womb. While a native meal must have Tapuy (rice wine) and a chicken dish called Pinikpikan.

Said [name of colleague]: “I'm working for [company] for almost 37 years. The people are very friendly and warm. [And] the team spirit is striking! That's what most Europeans can learn, because most of us are quite individualistic. Being individualistic can also be OK, but I think that I have several new friends since that marvelous weekend in Sagada,”