After leaving Banaue we had a long journey to get to Sagada where we would be staying the night.

The journey required very skilful driving – tight bends corkscrewing up and down mountain roads, potholes deep enough to be swallowed up in, sporadic road works, trucks & buses providing obstacles to pass, and chickens & dogs to be avoided.

The views were awesome. We stopped several times at panoramic points overlooking rice terraces. At one there were men and women in their latter years dressed in traditional dress. Former paddy workers who now relied on tourist dollars for their living.

After 5-hours of travelling up, down and around we arrived in Sagada, home of the famed hanging coffins. We parked up in an area with a public toilet with a sign that tickled me.

The Hanging Coffins

In past times, Sagada residents performed a unique burial ritual. The elderly would carve their own coffins out of hollowed logs. The dead are placed inside their coffins (sometimes breaking their bones in the process of fitting them in), and the coffins are brought to a cave for burial. 

This ancient custom starts with a burial gathering led by the deceased’s family and relatives. The burial includes days of mourning, butchering of livestock, and preparing the body for entombment.

Thereafter, a family member caries the body to the cave or cliff where the coffin is waiting. It is believed that carrying the dead would transfer luck, blessings, and talents to the family. Instead of being placed into the ground, the coffins are hung either inside the caves or on the face of the cliffs, near the hanging coffins of their ancestors.

The Sagada people have been practicing such burials for over 2,000 years, and some of the coffins are well over a century old.

Eventually the coffins deteriorate and fall from their precarious positions. Specifically, the coffins are suspended in the rocky cliffs of Sagada’s Echo Valley.  

The reason the coffins were hung was due to the belief that the higher the dead were placed, the greater chance of their spirits reaching a higher nature in the afterlife.

We also visited a Lumiang Cave, another ancient burial site. It actually linked to another cave (Sumaguing) a few hundred meters apart. We saw some cavers embarking on the 2-3 hour treacherous underground journey between the two. Yikes!

Hobbiton

We then headed to our accommodation, the Shire of Sagada. Lord of the Rings fans will know that the Shire is the land of the Hobbits. Bilbo, Frodo, Samwise, Pippin, Merry et al.

Well this unique hotel is based on a Hobbit home. Happily not the low ceilings of the little folk’s dwellings, but round doors & windows, well manicured gardens, vegetable plots and heavy wooden furniture.

I was staying in the Legolas room, whilst Hamish (who is clueless about LOTR) stayed in Gandalf room. Obviously it was me who booked the hotel being a lover of all things LOTR (except orcs of course!).

There were nice touches everywhere – my bed cover looked like mithril, pictures from the film adorned the walls, the food menu included second breakfast & elevenses.

Hamish is a structural engineer and he explained that creating large round windows & doors is extremely tricky in achieving structural stability. The hotel is actually building an extension to increase its 6 room capacity.

To book your own stay in Hobbiton, click Bilbo’s Gaff.

Coming next – the ancient tattooist