Exploring Sagada Philippines (Sustainable Tourism Mountain Town)

[Music] segata has stood the test of time it was first founded as a refuge for people from Abra when they were being pushed out of their towns by warring headhunters and later by Spaniards trying to baptize the local population gandu yen as it was once called stood strong the highlands of the mountain provinces Kalinga a Phu Gao are some of the only areas in the Philippines that have had little Spanish influence maintaining a strong unshakable indigenous identity that we should all respect and admire this area gives you a very distinct perspective from what you're used to seeing in the coastal areas and is one of the few provinces where you can get a glimpse of our pre colonization culture today with the influx of tourists things are changing but the local community is making sure they're seeing true to their roots Sagat Atlanta strong force agajanian and then they never welcomed investors so whatever you see here inside or since I got in established mint or any means that is owned by the Sagara so they can guard their own self yeah if you let their investors coming it would hundred-percent encroach the place please if the day come in Sagada be cautious about the garbage for the last 50 years the Philippines has always been talked about as a nation on the rise with high growth potential and touted as the next big destination [Music] the country has so much to offer and the tides are finally coming in and we want to show you this beautiful nation and what needs to be done to preserve what makes these islands special and keep them more fun forever so join me as I take a closer look into the archipelago [Music] just last year the combination of perfect weather and a long weekend created a meme on social media that was dubbed the Sagada Carmageddon this shouldn't surprise us the sound has lots to offer but on this particular weekend they yet to be defined carrying capacity of the site was clearly over passed by tourists chasing a particular picture next to Lake Denham thankfully the mountain provinces in the Cordilleras have so much left to discover we've been exploring different areas of the mountain provinces and Kalina for about five days now we've been on the road and it's been amazing but we will talk to you about those places a little bit later but now we are heading towards Sagada it is our last stop during this trip on our big trip north and the reason why I like going back to segata I've been there a couple of times already is just because it's just such a comfortable little town in the mountain province where a lot of the other towns are a little far fetched and it takes a little more that's the effort to kind of go through the different spots that they have because of the length or you need to walk and everything whereas segata everything is in one place to get the segata from Manila one has to drive roughly nine hours on a very good day most of the time this trip will take you closer to 12 hours to make [Music] it's nestled between the main Cordillera mountain range and the Ilocos range creating a very particular terrain where everything grows down to fleece surrounded by natural wonders with temperatures that heat up during the day and drop to jacket wearing weather at night all of this creates a unique little mountain town that people can't get enough [Music] this is kind of the main area here in Sagada where everyone is there's a bunch of cars but not a lot of people so maybe the rain is kind of deterring people to come out one of the reasons people come here is just because every modern comfort that you would want from a mountain town is here this restaurant filled up real quick we were just talking about her guide Junior but it's still such a kind of cozy friendly vibe it does feel like her you know if you go skiing in other countries and after skiing you go to these chalets and kind of hang out wooden houses this is pretty much the vibe that you get everyone just coming together having some beers and some good food and right now we are in salt and pepper which is one of my favorite places to come eat here having some to tag everything so we have the tag ceasing the tag stir-fry we have an attack fit pizza coming up pizza and everything just beautifully smoky tasty their vegetables are nice and fresh there are tons of other places you can actually come eat and drink here and we can list them all down for you but right now I am just starving and we're gonna kind of smash all this food because I think we deserve it after all the traveling that we've been doing and tomorrow we're gonna show you a little bit more about sea god [Music] [Applause] I love it there's a local brewery like in the non province like I think that's part of the charm is that you find things it's crazy thank you compared to all the other places that we've been to and it's good to be here it's really good beer so Sagada at night it's something that still boggles my mind like when you think about where we are you know how are you when you go to the beach you kind of like a beach community with bars and restaurants and stuff all like in one area this is pretty much the same thing but in the mountains and it feels very unique it feels very special [Music] I've partnered up with the Department of Tourism of the Philippines to try and focus on locations and destinations that really are trying to push sustainable tourism and the VOT this year has really been focusing on developing sustainable tourism solutions and destinations and I think that's extremely admirable because in a country like ours that is so rich with Natural Resources tourism and tourism development can really be a driving force in the economy for years to come and its impact is massive it can help local communities it can give people jobs where they didn't have them before it can bring international exposure and and it can always bring lots of positives but also the downside of that is that it could also bring a lot of negatives and the way to mitigate that is to make sure that you have the systems the ordinances the rules and the regulations in place to make sure that something doesn't get overcrowded or something that was beautiful doesn't get destroyed but the most important part when it comes to tourism destinations is having a strong local community because at the end of the day they are at the front line of making all these things happen and protecting what is theirs so we're gonna be rolling out multiple videos about sustainable tourism destinations and we thought Sagada would be the perfect place to start because they've had issues of overcrowding and garbage but what you'll see is that the community is really responding properly and they're just asking all the tourists to kind of follow their rules and regulations to keep this beautiful place beautiful for generations to come and I think that's probably the most beautiful thing it's the most important thing because at the end of the day what we leave behind should be exactly how we experienced it for the generations that come I first came to Sagada in 98 as a young teenager eager for adventure back then this felt like a secluded secret that one really had to put in the effort to access [Music] revisiting a place will always carry a veil of nostalgia with it warp deja Vu's of how things used to be we sat down with Lester to talk about how things have changed for the local community we also moved with the development of the development of the community especially for for our houses it's it changed a lot early 1980s when you go inside the community you still find native huts lots of native huts along the road the roads were quite rough before before also we found that the tour is mostly that you'll be able to meet on the hearing together were foreigners and later on the local scheming before it was also agriculture that was the main economic source also for Sagada before it had been the agriculture then later on mosy they concentrated on tourism [Music] everyone you talk to will tell you how lucky this place is blessed by the gods they say [Music] we are no hear of the one of the remaining apply house applies one of the tribe of the Cordillera and Sagada is one of the member of the pop life run when you enter this we think there's a bed and then everything is in there what do most people who come to Sagada what are they looking for about maybe the nature because when guests came here to sugandha to say what is in Sagada find anything you can find anything except is now clean because we couldn't have the scene but name it cracking Mountain cracking we have it is belonging kV we have it waterfalls canyoneering river rafting river crossing we have it maybe history we have it with so many activities within the direct vicinity from the hanging coffins a 2000 year old ego tradition particular to the apply people that inhabit this municipality to the endless rice terraces mountain treks waterfalls that seem to come out of nowhere chances are you'll probably go visit all these places and you definitely won't be alone those who would like to observe could come in to observe a ritual from a distance they are not allowed to be doing training to interfere with the rich ones please respect the rituals when they say no please yeah because the rituals aren't meant to be tourist attractions the rituals are real authentic ritual yeah that you guys value [Music] it's amazing how this little town has so much variety when it comes to food and drinks one of the places I like going to a lot and that first came here a couple years ago was the yogurt house just because who doesn't want fresh yogurt in a mountain especially for breakfast and the yogurt is made fresh over here with whatever fruits that they have in season and it's just always still refreshing a good place just superb right amount of acidity honey that's in there and that's a local honey as well for coffee if you're a coffee addict together is the perfect place for you there's so many little shops and all I'll kind of this stall them down because it's too much to actually show you so we'll just list them down for you to actually try them one day if you come here so that way you've an option of places to try we decided to go visit one of these coffee plantations to appreciate the hard work that goes into your morning cups there are a lot of natural attractions in Sagada I prefer going places where there's not many people but so we decided to visit this coffee farm because the coffee growing market here and the coffee business is really booming and they grow a beautiful Arabica which you'll find in town you can actually taste some town we're in all the farms which was one of the first pioneering farms here and one of the largest and it is such a lush beautiful dense coffee forest and it's just so green and it smells just ideal it so right here you coffee beans here and they do absolutely everything from the drying to the processing to the roasting up to the packing a lot of this is actually also exported to different coffee blenders in the Philippines or outside of the Philippines oh yeah so one way to be a great sustainable tourist is to make sure you buy local products in Sagada but that's not too difficult because a lot of the businesses are like most all of the businesses are locally owned but another way you can kind of help the local economy is bring these products home with you to people try them and then eventually if you like them order them again and coffee is one of those things so we're gonna walk around maybe try a cup see what happens such a beautiful place to have a house and fun very calming no it must be followed by a new natural beauty of the mountain provinces is walking through all these small barren guys and just meeting the people because they're so generous and they're always so friendly and smiley and and it just really touches your heart and I think that's what makes this province so magical so they just had a ritual here death ritual called Cinna a couple of minutes ago we didn't want to take any pictures obviously because it's not respectful but I love how it's still such an integral part of their culture here and that they've kept it alive and that they've kept it for themselves I find that amazing and if you get to witness it and be invited then that's great probably can't shoot it but most of the time it's by invite only the applied people as with other tribes in the mountain region each have their own ways of dealing with death celebrations and harvests these rituals are cherished and keeping them alive is of the utmost importance to the tribes at the end of the day it's all about keeping the community strong and getting everyone together for important life moments same can be said about their other customs surrounding food or even their weaving [Music] [Music] what my grandparents taught us was it's you working with someone else it's not that somewhere someone else working for you is you working together for both of your economical social or whatever advancement [Music] while waiting on the tourist carrying capacity be said to help disperse the amount of people coming to the mountain provinces make sure you talk to local people to get information on other places you can visit around the region now don't expect the same amount of comfort rooms or restaurants but you'll get to immerse yourself with the sleepy secluded towns that are rife with adventures where distance is covered on the road and on foot will leave you winded making the journey that much sweeter for rice terraces for example you can go to Malik cone just a quick drive away from bonne talk not far away you have the weaving village of kaneo and further out as you drive towards Kalinga you have the village of sadhana often confused with Sagada this is one of my favourite areas to visit only a handful of home stays for people to stay in and filled with local customs this is something I only thought happened in Japan but behind me is the hot spring so it's naturally hot water currently if I want to go in there I have to take off all my clothes which I'm going to do I took a dip here to relax after a long hardiest trek to one of the most powerful waterfalls I've seen in the country we will talk about all these other places in three other episodes that we've shot but if you are interested in visiting before coming please make sure to contact local guides register at the barangay halls so that they know that you are coming and can tell you whether or not it's a good time research is so important in this area certain periods of the year a lot of these sounds have sacred rituals where they don't allow people who aren't part of the community to come visit so please make sure you come here with the right mindset and that you respect anything the community tells you [Music] everything around you from the Beatles playing in the high grass to the mists covering the mountain ranges extending further than any distance you can comprehend was here before us it stands as a testament that our earth doesn't need us in the cities we are the kings and queens ruling over our domain in nature we are but humble guests and like all good visitors we leave nothing but gifts behind and take only our memories back with us don't chase what everyone before you has pictured look for Immersion connection come with no expectations and just enjoy the journey I hope that gave you guys a little bit of a glimpse of why Sagada is so important as a tourism hotspot and why it's just so key in today's kind of modern world and as tourism develops in this country it's great to see examples like this of communities coming forward and taking charge of something that is truly theirs and keeping their identity and keeping all their beliefs their heritage and everything that they've inherited from their ancestors so strong and so central to who they are we're actually doing three more videos so make sure you guys watch out for those around these whole areas it's been a crazy crazy trip and I hope that through them I'll be able to kind of make you travel to this area if you are coming to the Philippines it is so key after the beaches and the white sand and all the beach bars and everything it's so key that you come to the mountain province to Kalinga to Ben get because there's just so much to learn from here and it's truly a really distinct culture from everything else you might see in the country [Music] you

Channel: Erwan Heussaff

Views: 383,122

Rating: 4.9794998 out of 5

Keywords: erwan heussaff, the fat kid inside, sagada, exploring sagada philippines, most beautiful mountain town in the country, sagada travel guide, sagada travel itinerary, yoghurt house, salt and pepper diner, mountain province, travel philippines, sustainable tourism, ola farms, hanging coffins, luzon, philippines, what to do in sagada, rice terraces

Id: bI0VRluY-QQ

Length: 20min 45sec (1245 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 08 2019