This trip is very significant in my life. All of us three, Mom, Jam and I are all in this together. I think a trip like this will never happen again... :(
My brother Jam, Mom, and I...
It's been a while since my elder brother worked in the business district of Makati. He is not a businessman nor anything that is in your mind right now but a pseudo-electrical engineer. He took up this five-year degree program of BSEE, and after failing his first licensure exam, called it quits.
My brother told us he's doing office work in a big construction company which is building a condo in Makati. After being away for some family occasions like Christmas and Birthdays, Mom wanted to see if her favorite son is doing well... So, one summer day we packed up our bags and called him we're coming...
Mom and I boarded a Cebu Pacific flight to Manila. And after an uneventful hour, landed in imperial Manila...
The three of us decided to meet at MOA... We ate our dinner, stroll and then shopped for the long journey to Baguio City the following day...
This is how he looked like when we met him... Mom said my brother doesn't look well... Perhaps he's having a hard time in his place... She's so concerned... Her level of paranoia is exceedingly at its best... I told her that it is the look of an independent young man living an enjoyable life of freedom... Jam did not say a word... Later, we ate in silence...
That's how we are in our family. Mom is a single parent. And thus, we may not have the best kind of life, she always sees to it that we are in our way to success. With this, we may have our misunderstandings and differences, but we value each other. I, for one, do believe that at the end of the day, only our family is left to help us... DO YOU %&@!# UNDERSTAND??? GOOD!!!
Oh yeah! Haha... After shopping at MOA's Hypermarket for some clothes and food, food, and more food for the long journey, we found a place to stay but not sleep for the night. We have to go to Victory Liner Terminal at Pasay Station at 2:00 AM...
The air-conditioned bus for the 6-8 hours travel to Baguio... Whew!
Are we there yet??? Nope, its 204 KM more... Ahhh... Ok... zzzzZZZZZz!!!!
I think we traveled in the Subic-Clark North Luzon Expressways... and after two stops for restroom and food, I think somewhere in Pangasinan and Tarlac, I noticed that we are on high elevation already... This ad is great, isn't it?
A sign said we are already in Benguet... This is a tunnel constructed in cooperation with the Japanese Government...
When we arrived in the city, it is only then that I realized that Baguio City is in Benguet Province... And that, people relate themselves to Igorots even if they are not native-looking like our usual misconception...
Men waving brochures about this hotel and that apartment welcomed us when we climbed down the bus... We hailed an FX (non-AC.) I think there is no aircon taxi in this place...
The place is really cool. It's the first week of May. It's sunny, but there's a fine drizzle and light wind... "W.O.W!!! I've only read and seen this in books and magazines, but now I'm in here!," I told myself... Atek!!! Haha!
We told the driver to bring us to Legarda St. because the apartment where we are to stay is there waiting...
We stayed here at Prince Plaza Hotel and Apartelle...
This is where we stayed... It has a living room, kitchen and dining area, two spacious bedrooms and great restrooms...
We ate lunch at a nearby grillhouse before we boarded another FX to bring us to Mines View Park...
Mines View Park is jam-packed with people...
The place is tainted with tourism... Everywhere you look, everything is commercialized...
Do you like strawberries???
Senior Citizens Enterprise... Have your picture taken with them wearing an Igorot Costume for, I think it was, Php 15.00...
Hahaha!!! What do you think???
The little girl said, "Eto po si Cha-cha, mabait po s'ya... Papicture po kayo 20 pesos lang..." Hmmm... I was about to, however, my brother stole a shot... Now it's free... (Even dogs here are trained not to be shy in front of cameras.)
The tourists in there own country...
After buying Baguio shirts, strawberry keychains and other souvenir items, we boarded a jeepney enroute to Wright Park...
At Php 300.oo per hour, you can ride this ginormous steeds... Hahaha!!! Bangs!!! Wright Park stinks of horse urine... The smell is all over the place...
We passed this by... The place sells almost all kinds of stuff...
In Wright Park, we climbed this to go to The Mansion House...
Whew... the climb was just right... Let's rest and have this picture taken...
Nearby, Henna Tattoo artists have a comfortable location...
Across the gates of The Mansion...
The heritage marker saying it all...
Welcome to The Mansion!!! The Official Summer Residence of the President of the Republic of the Philippines!!!
After The Mansion, we opted to go back to the Apartelle to leave the things we bought...
A view from our window... Like in the Korean-soap...
We went out late in the afternoon and walked downtown toward Burnham Park... Our place is just near the famed Lake...
The Burnham Lake... Look at the upper right part of the picture, that's SM Baguio... No aircon too because of the cool climate...
Buttered and cheesy sweet corns in the park...
It's almost dark; darn it, it's already dark and we're still on a Swan boat in the lake...
We ate grilled bangus, pork belly and Baliwag lechon for dinner...
Our window... The Korean restobars and other places for nightlife began to stir...
The following day, we ate canned tuna, eggs and corned beef... We hailed a taxi after and traversed the Baguio morning toward La Trinidad, Benguet's Strawberry Farm...
Baguio is sprouting with a lot of houses, hotels, inns, lodging houses, clubs, apartments and resorts.. It's so congested...
Inside the FX...
These are the plots in their Strawberry Farm...
My hand held Strawberry... Pick the berries yourself for a fee... not for free, for a fee...
This man is picking the damaged berries... He said that they have not applied pesticides to the crops that is why slugs have eaten some which have not been picked right away... He said further that they're going to make these damaged ones into STRAWBERRY JAM... What??? After slugs have eaten half of them, you're gonna let us eat it??? Man, that's delicious!!! :D... LOL!
NEVER MIND THE SLUGS!!! Apart from Strawberry Jam, they're gonna stir a few scoops of this strawberry whatchamacallit to my favorite STRAWBERRY TAHO!!! T_T I really miss this...
Next on our custom-made itinerary is a stop in the Philippine Military Academy at Fort Pilar back in the outskirts of Baguio City...
The Melchor Hall of PMA...
How are you feeling Cadets???
The place is like a resort... Tsk... I wonder if the officers had this eye for aesthetics...
A shot confirming my being a frustrated photographer... Do you see the bee???
I dunno what this monument behind us is...
COURAGE...INTEGRITY...LOYALTY!!!
Fighter planes, helicopters, tanks and machine guns were on display...
Before going out, the FX stopped by the guard house and I recovered my ID... All visitors in the PMA need to leave identification (one in a group.)
Everything became so fast... This is the Victory Liner Terminal in Baguio... We're now going back...
Back to Manila...
SM City Tarlac announced this... Sigh!
We arrived in Manila and zzzZZZZZZZZZZZZ.... so tired...
My brother has to go to work early the next day so he opted to stay in his place... We said our goodbyes...
Next day, we went somewhere in Manila Bay...
The Boulevard...
... And the Street Urchins...
... I wanted to ride MRT... This is the ticket booth...
It's awesome... (I have to stand even if there are a lot of seats left to have this picture taken... LOL) My smile is so fake... haha!
Ahh.. Ok... Just in case...
I think we came down in the last stop in TRINOMA... Just look at this ad... VINDICATED AND HANDS DOWN ARE MY FAVORITES!!!
After Trinoma, we went to Glorrieta to take our lunch...
It was almost time to go... So we prepared for our flight... We went to NAIA Terminal 3... Checked in... and boarded another CePac flight now going to Cebu...
The Directress of the school where I work texted me of my whereabouts... We have a seminar today... Sigh! Off for work...
