south-east asia → philippines → benguet → baguio city
so, baguio trip over last weekend. it’s a city in northern part of luzon, and popularly known as the summer capital of the philippines. often times before, people are surprised to hear that i’ve never been to baguio. well, it may not be very close to manila, (some 250 kilometers north that will take about 6 hours on road) but i guess it just becomes a requirement that a filipino must at least be in baguio once..and at 24, i think it’s really a bit late that i’m going to this town only just now. for first timers, it’s also popular to kiss the earth/ground in baguio once you get off the bus!
we got there around 4ish in the morning on a saturday (leaving manila friday at 10.30pm), and it’s a bit chilly. this place is elevated by some 1500 meters from sea level, that makes the temperature mild and cool especially during december and early parts of the year. well, in general (except for batanes group of islands), geographical location of philippine provinces has little thing to do with the climate. i mean, those in northern part of the country doesn’t mean they have cooler weather. it’s more of the altitude that makes the place mild and breezy.
we were actually here to witness the panagbenga festival. it’s a flower fest that draws thousand of tourist from manila or other local parts of the country, and as well as international travelers. rest for a bit on saturday morning, and then went to central area to get breakfast and witness the morning parade. it’s not yet the flower float parade (which is for tomorrow). it’s street parade, people dancing with costumes of different colors and design ranging anything from flowers, to native ibaloi clothings, to pizza design. some parade entries are sponsored by commercial establishments like greenwich, jolibee, or sm. you wouldn’t imagine how hard is it to look for a decent spot to take pictures! we squeezed our way up and down the pedestrian, swiftly cross the streets illegally, shove other people (well, you can’t avoid sorry), but it’s all worth it and the weather being not so hot is a little bit relief.
i like taking pictures of people. especially the natives when i’m in a different place, and i like it more if they could look at the lens and give even a faint smile. however, i’m also a bit scared and hesitant because first: they might get mad if you spot on unfriendly ones; second, they might not like having their face exposed and scattered over the net. well, indeed it’s strange if some people you don’t know would take a picture of you! this is especially true for local native people that are not really in costume or attire (unlike the picture on the right). it’s a bit awkward because you are having interest of somebody’s appearance in their normal dress. so, you deem that there is something peculiar in the way they look, which in this case might lead to a little confusion just like when my friend asked a lolo (elder man) if she could take a picture of him. the lolo answered, "sila na lang" (literally, just them), plus pointing to the parade. however, some are cooperative, just like the one above. 
after watching the parade, it took us more than 1 hour looking for a taxi before finally giving in and just had lunch at nearby SM. during this time, i swear you would have a very hard time grabbing a cab. most taxis in baguio are the bigger FXs, but there are still some cars…taxi rates starts at 25 pesos, and 1.50 pesos there after. so it’s cheaper than manila. in SM, they have taxi queue, so we decided to go home and have some rest first. later at night, we went to this place called nevada square and stayed longer that we weren’t able to get up early the next day to see the float parade. 
on second thought, i’m really just after seeing the floats and the flower itself rather than those personalities boarded. so after painstakingly looking for session road for lunch (ended up in pizza volante), we went to athletic bowl where they put the floats minus the prima donnas.
more picture –> here
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