Unplanned trips are better,
because they often materialize ("yung mga di planado, yun ang natutuloy"), said my best friend Herbert. I wasn’t sure if that’s
a good idea, though. Hahaha. By unplanned means not buying tickets in advance,
or not anticipating that everyone else flocks to where you are going. Could be a problem, indeed! And I am
talking about our Baguio trip. But, unplanned as it was, we were still able to enjoy our
overnight stay in the Summer Capital of the Philippines, last January 15-16,
2015.
Uhm, what could one do for an
overnight stay in Baguio?! There’s much to do. Really! Let me share with you our
crazy adventure.
January 15
Karen and Aris, her boyfriend, were already in Baguio a day prior to our trip. I told my other best friends Rhose, Harold, and Herbert to
go to our house in Valenzuela first and have their lunch there as it’s their
god daughter’s (my niece’s) 10th month birthday. We left our house
by 1pm and took a cab to Cubao. Matt, Harold's friend, joined us. As soon as we alighted the cab, we were overwhelmed by the number of people
waiting for the Baguio-bound buses! And much to our disappointment, all tickets were sold
out! Waaahhh!
What to do?! Of course, we had to think of an
alternative. Thus, we decided to take the bus (First Solid North) going to Dau.
From there, we would just transfer to another bus going to Baguio. And we
followed the plan. From Dau, we transferred to Genesis bus, and after 8 hours
and a number of stops, around 10pm, we reached Baguio! Yey!
We rode a taxi to our hotel, Ina’s
Mansion, which was just a few meters from Burnham Park. Karen reserved the
family room with 2 bedrooms, a sala, kitchen, toilet and bath, and a balcony
for Php 2,700/night. Not bad! After freshening up, we started our adventure!
 |
| Ina's Mansion with Herbert at the foreground |
First, we had our humble, and “tipid”
dinner at the bus terminal at the foot of SM Baguio. The Special Mami (with
beef, egg, and siomai) worth Php 60 was really a good buy!
 |
| Special Beef Mami with Egg and Siomai for Php 60/bowl |
Then, we walked to Burnham and
shopped at the night market! I bought a yellow sweater for my niece, while
Karen and Harold bought rubber shoes! And, oh, Bert, Harold, and I bought
beanies (not bonnets, mind you!)
 |
| Trying on various beanies and hats |
We also had some bites of street
foods, including siomai, hotdogs, and chicharon bulaklak. But the best among
these was the binatog with milk!
 |
| Street food galore! |
 |
| Food pa more! |
Lastly, we bought coffee at the
nearby SanMig Food Ave., before going home, and finally calling it a night.
 |
| Coffee to cap off the night! |
January 16
We woke up early “para makarami”
(so we could accomplish many things). To ensure that our bodies were warmed up for
the entire day, we walked to Burnham Park and participated in Zumba! What made
this Zumba dance fun was that they were playing new songs, such as Bang! Bang!
By the way, it’s my first time to do Zumba! I realized, I missed dancing!
 |
| Zumba! |
After exercising, we had our
breakfast at a nearby restaurant, Kamayan sa Ganza. The food was so-so, though.
 |
| Breakfast at Kamayan sa Ganza |
Then, we returned to our hotel to
take a bath and change clothes. By 9am, we were all ready! Our rented Adventure
(for Php 2,500 for the whole day) was already waiting for us.
La Presa
Because of the hit teleserye
Forevermore, Sitio La Presa in Benguet has become a destination. But hey, going
there was really a challenge! Indeed, its monicker “la parusa” was very apt! In
fairness, it’s still a good spot for picture-taking – we had to pay the price
of a good photograph!
 |
| View from 10,000 meters above sea level |
 |
| We were so excited to visit Sitio La Presa... |
 |
| ...because of the beautiful view... |
 |
| ...that could only be seen from above... |
 |
| ...Oh, Sitio La Presa... |
 |
| ...why the Parusa, La Presa? |
Lion Head
The first time I went to Baguio
in 2013, I wasn’t able to visit this popular monument. Glad I had my photos
taken with my best friends this time!
 |
| Head of the Lion |
View of the ZigZag Road (at Kennon Road)
Our driver insisted that we see
the top view of the ZigZag Road. And so we did.
 |
| Rhose, drama pa more! |
Philippine Military Academy (PMA)
Campus
One thing that I liked about the
PMA Campus was its cleanliness and orderliness, an environment befitting the
disciplined and structured (future) defenders of our country!
 |
| Pedestrian Crossing at the PMA Campus |
Good Shepherd
Karen and Aris bought their
pasalubong at Good Shepherd. I bought mine (Ube Jam and Chocolate Flakes)
outside the famous establishment because I did not have the patience lining up!
There were just way too many people buying pasalubong! Again, everyone’s in
Baguio!
We did not go inside Mines View
because everyone had been there before. Also, we needed to go back to the
terminal to purchase tickets for buses bound to Manila that night. (It’s
actually me that needed to go, since I had to report to office by 8:30am).
--- but the effort to be at the bus terminal at the earliest time
possible was put to waste because of heavy…TRAFFFICCC!!! ---
When we checked for available
trip tickets from Victory Liner, we were shocked to see a déjà vu! It’s the
January 15, 2015 Cubao scene again! To cut the long story short, we decided to
take another bus, an Avenida (instead of Cubao)-bound bus. We just ate siomai,
siopao, and congee inside the bus. We left at 8:15pm and reached Balintawak at
1:30am, January 17.
Yes, we wanted it that way. Haha.
Gala pa more!
No comments:
Post a Comment