south-east asia → philippines → benguet → baguio city
baguio city, the famous summer capital of the philippines, yet i’ve never been this city until this year. i was here during the panegbenga festival last february with grace and some lawson friends; and my mom, sister and myself decided to go up north from sual, pangasinan before going home. we hitched a courier ride from the power plant to dagupan city on a very early 4ish am sunday..and took a bus from there, reaching baguio city just about time for brunch. we don’t have arranged place to stay, so after wandering for awhile and still unable to find one, we headed first to pizza volante, which i tried during my last february trip. food was ok, but the service was very bad. they have wifi, my sister’s laptop doesn’t have a battery and they don’t allow using their power outlet. my god, even only for a very short time! we were just thinking of finding cheap hostels over the internet..also, i asked for a glass of water after meal, which unsurprisingly, never came.
at least having full stomach now, we continued our search, and was thinking between two extremes: a cheap inn just across a bus station in baguio downtown called ’south terminal inn’ at 1000 pesos a night for all of us; and microtel in its country american-style facade at more than 3000 pesos a night, but that comes with a breakfast. haha.. the choice is easy for me, so we stayed in south terminal inn, hehe.
unloading our bags, we headed to minesview by taxi…and it’s so nice to find out that taxi drivers in baguio didn’t changed. they will give you change up to the exact peso! the country has a new policy to add 10 pesos in the taxi rate, which i didn’t know, and after only paying what the meter says, the driver didn’t even complained! my sister just added difference. we have taken taxi a lot of times to minesview, back to the inn, to tamawan village, to a coffee shop, to a grotto, and finally to the bus station heading manila, and they all give you change! could it be a peso or 2, they won’t hesitate giving it back. i, on the other hand, due to their extraordinary attitude, appreciated this very much, and i didn’t take any of the changes as i simply round it off.
minesview is amazing with the overlooking deck (which is a bit dangerous i suppose), and it drizzled, making the atmosphere cool and extra foggy. we tried the igorot costumes for 10 pesos per person, and made a lot of poses. hehe.
then to wright’s park, the mansion, good shepherd for some ube (purple yam), and a sidetrip to sm baguio. afterwards, we went to the bus station to get tickets back to manila tomorrow, and spent a few hours in baguio market for shopping. had andok’s chicken for dinner, which is just a corner from the inn, and at night, we went out for coffee in kaffeeklatsch, nice cafe with live music. the performers were the same girls that i saw last february (excellent pianist), and we were there late so we got to see only half of it. early the next day, we visited an old grotto established in the early 1900s, our lady of lourdes. the last (and only?) time my mom was in baguio was during her second grade elementary, and she could only remember a photo of her pointing somewhere else, looking away from the camera, so we had some reenactment of it. hehe. and finally, to tam-awan village. it’s a garden-art-exhibit-museum set on a cliff, and features igorot huts.
i ran out of battery when we passed by igorot stairs, so here’s some pics from celphone.
