Nobody knows exactly how old the rice terraces of Ifugao are. The popular figure of two thousand years has been questioned by archaeologists, who suggest that the great walls went up more slowly and perhaps more recently, but the effort involved remains staggering. The Ifugao people shaped these steep slopes in the Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon by hand, building stone and mud retaining walls, digging channels to bring water from the forest above, and planting rice on narrow steps that climb the mountainside in tiers. Laid end to end, the walls would run for many thousands of kilometres. The terraces were listed as a World Heritage landscape in 1995, and Battad, with its rice fields arranged in a bowl like a natural amphitheatre, is one of the clusters people come to see.
The terraces change with the season. In the planting months, around February and March, the paddies are flooded and shine like pieces of the sky, and by April and May the young rice colours the steps a brilliant green. Harvest comes in June and the slopes turn gold, followed by a bare, brown period when the fields are fallow. Rain can fall at any time, and between July and October typhoons come off the Pacific and can cut the mountain roads with landslides. The dry season, from about November to April, is the best for riding.
The roads are the thing to understand. The highway from the lowlands climbs to Banaue through a long run of bends, with steep drops, patched surfaces and the occasional fallen rock, and the road continues on to Bontoc over a high pass with fog and cold air. Jeepneys and trucks crowd the narrow sections, and the light can fail early in the mountain gloom. Go carefully, sound the horn on blind corners, and avoid night riding. The side road to Battad ends at a saddle, from which a footpath drops down to the village, and the walk takes an hour or so on stone steps, so a pair of sturdy shoes is wise.
Banaue is a small town of a couple of thousand, with a few guesthouses, shops and small restaurants, and fuel is sold there, though supplies can run short, so fill up in a larger town on the way. Barlig, thirteen kilometres by the map, is the nearest bigger settlement. The Ifugao are known for their carved wooden rice guardians, called bulul, and for the hudhud chants that women sing at harvest and funerals, which are recognised as a part of intangible cultural heritage. In the evening, a bowl of red rice and a cup of strong mountain coffee make a good ending.