Batad by Drone - Stunning rice terrace from the sky (Philippines)

Batad by drone, flying around an amphitheater of rice terraces.

The Batad rice terraces in the Philippines are among the most beautiful in the world. And knowing how they were created 2000 years ago by the local Ifugao people, the energy that went into building it (carrying stone up from the river!), is nothing short of mind-blowing. This is one of the few places where human intervention with nature created something more beautiful than it was already. I could not have wished for a better location to fly my new drone and shoot this Batad by Drone movie.

There are no roads at Batad, only stairs and narrow walking paths. All day long you see people walking up and down the huge stairs, carrying all sorts of heavy stuff. It’s not an easy way of life and you can’t help but admire the people living this lifestyle. Get ready to sweat if you’ll be walking around here!

Drone tries to commit suicide at Batad

Getting the footage for this video didn’t come without its problems. A few days info my stay, I was flying my drone when for no real reason it went into landing mode. There was nothing I could do to stop it. Luckily it wasn’t too far from where I was standing, but still, this is right above rice terraces with a 99% that it will end up in the water. As I’m the watching the video as it’s moving down, it’s actually headed straight to a walking path. Thinking I might get very lucky, it ended up landing on the edge and falling into the water sideways. With the help of some kids who were watching me, I was able to get my drone back from this maze of dead-end walking paths. After a few days in a bag with rice luckily it was still working as before.