Ride of a lifetime | Ilocos Norte, Philippines (Part 1)

---

I felt that I might have spoiled you with the beauty of Cebu in the recent weeks that I forgot equally sharing the spotlight with the rest of the Philippines. I heard you! So today we will travel back in time to the days when my workmates and I journeyed together to the last Province on the north western part of the Philippines.

You got it right! Today and in the next few weeks, I hope you’ll join me in my Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur tour.

We belong to the same department, Sales and Marketing. One worked in Events, another in Digital Marketing and two worked in Business Information. We all report to the VP for Sales and Marketing. Gladly, our boss has always been supportive of our endeavor to balance life and work so he always approved our vacation leaves. Unfortunately, unlike me and Grace, Tanya and Alisa and their boyfriends couldn’t extend their leaves for more than 5 days. Hence, we planned on taking a 2-night 3-day trip together and we’ll split up after that. They decided to head down to Baguio while Grace and I will head to Sagada via an unpopular route, via Cervantes, Ilocos Sur. We planned a 12-day trip across the Provinces of Mountain Province, Banaue and Benguet.

Right now, my excitement is over-the-top! Years may have passed since this trip but I can remember every single thing including the moments that changed my view of life and its beauty forever.

That’s a bit of an introduction! Before we proceed, here's a little warning: you’d see the fat, undisciplined Patsitivity who didn’t care of her health and wellness back then. Always happy to see who I became after those days; I’m a changed woman now. 😊

---

Where is Ilocos Norte located?

_Source

Ilocos Norte is the last province on the northwestern part of the Philippine archipelago. It faces the South China Sea on the west and Taiwan is only a few miles from here (although there's no direct flight from Ilocos to Taiwan).

---

Ride of a lifetime

Since we travelled in a group, we thought it was cheaper and more convenient if we’d just rent an entire van that would take us to all the places we wanted to visit in both Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur. As usual, I took the initiative to look for one. I found a reliable tour in Facebook and we paid Php 13,500. This already included fetching us in Clark International Airport during our arrival. We ended up paying Php 1,900+ ($36) each for the entire trip or Php 600+ ($11.50) per day. Not bad really. If I went alone, I'd probably just take the public transport to tour these provinces.

It took more than 4 hours to reach Ilocos Sur from Clark Airport in Pampanga. It was already 4 PM when we reached our first destination: Masintoc Paoay Sand Dunes in Ilocos Norte. Activities here are 4WD Ride and sand boarding. We paid Php 2,500 for an hour of adventure in a 4x4 Jeep.

I’ve seen a couple of videos of tourist trying this adventure in 4x4 jeep at the sand dunes but they’re right, it’s different when you’re experiencing it yourself. The ride started slow and chill until the driver drove the 4WD like he’s a Formula 1 driver, drifting here and there. He gave us the ride we were looking for. The entire ride, I felt they know exactly where to bring us so we’d end up shouting the names of our mothers. Haha 😅 All the adrenaline in my body were ecstatic to the point that I could no longer feel fear of where the driver will bring us next and whether it was steeper than the previous spots he brought us. We even asked for more! There were spots when we had to momentarily stop to take photos!

---

Have you heard of sand boarding?

No, this ain't Dubai but when we were almost done with the ride, they brought us to the part where we can try Sand Boarding. I don’t know which one was more scary to try because in both activities, I found myself shouting at the top of my lungs! Haha 😂

More photos during our sand boarding:

---

Beyond expectations

My initial plan was to try the 4WD ride early in the morning but we underestimated the long travel from the airport to Ilocos Norte. I’m grateful tho how things turned out. After trying the sand boarding, the drivers took us somewhere else. In my mind I thought it was already too much; I’ve had enough but when we realized where the driver’s bringing us, What a first day! I said at the back of my mind.

From the back of the 4WD, we could see we’re heading to the shore, the end of the hectare after hectare of sand dunes and where the coarse black stones and sand glamorously meet the sea.

While the sun was fading into the background, we spent a few minutes there, taking group photos and marveling at how perfect the view of the massive sand dunes from where we were standing.

In a matter of minutes, we left the shore and headed back to where our van was parked.

---

As a parting gift for this post, I'll leave a few screenshots from the videos I took during the 4WD ride. I might find time to create a video out of the clips I have, for now, I'll leave this here! Epic faces and reactions, right? 😅

That's it for now fellow travel bees! See you in the next episode of my Northern Luzon travel with my workmates! 😁

---