Baguio day 4...

On the fourth and last day, we went out to market for the last mission...the vegies, because like many others we had to take advantage of the fresh vegies sold at lesser amount. Then the remaining time, we just stayed inside our room and took pictures some more.

Before I end this post, let me show you things that caught our attention during our stay that some we actually bought. How could we leave Baguio without some of these: hand made wooden handicrafts, igorot bracelets, wooden keychains, lengua de gato, peanut brittle, organic wine, etcetera etcetera...

Below are some of the snacks we tried. Strawberry taho which Julien loves, Strawberry ice cream, sticky green rice flakes, seedless orange from Sagada which are the sweetest and juiciest I have tasted in years and did I mention that they're pretty big? 

Last picture at the lodge before we bid everything goodbye.

On the way home, inside the bus.

All in all, our trip was so much fun and full of memoirs. I didn't want it to end. If only I could backdate time because those were some of things I wanna record into my head and would want to replay over and over again.

Hey you've been here for a while and guess what, you just finished reading this whole Baguio thing all the way to the last. You deserve an award lolz. For now, I'll send you hugs and kisses. Thank you sooo much for reading. Until my next story. Keep well and stay healthy guys. 

Also, happy valentine's day tommorow. And girls don't expect too much lolz..

Link to Bauio Day 3...

Link to Baguio Day 2..

Link to Baguio Day 1..

Link to Celebrating Multiple Events in Baguio..

Baguio day 3...

So Chinese New Year actually fell on the 31st of January not 1st of February like I said on the previous post. And the next Feb 1st CNY is gonna be in 2022. Alright then. Eight more years. A big mistake haha..what the fuck was I thinking? Anyways I meant to blog about day 3 so let's do this while the memory is crystal clear.

Sorry for the collage that makes the pictures look tiny. I know no other ways to compress a thousand shots that would not turn everything into something dull.

A foggy Sunday morning...perfect for the view.

Baguio is the home for Igorots, though you will just find people dressed up as such only during special occasions and where else but in Botanical Garden. One old lady in Igorot dress came up to me as Julien was taking a solo shot of me. I thought it would be pretty cool so I let her include in the picture. Seconds later, one by one, other Igorots joined us (see picture below). The next thing I knew, they were asking 10 pesos each from me! Yep, the grannies did it in style. No problem.

Few minutes before 12pm we were back in the hotel to check out because we had a reservation at the lodge in Leonard Wood on the 3rd day.. We took a little rest there before we went to what they call the creepy White House. We just took some pictures only by the gate and went straight to Teacher's Camp next, which is few steps away. 

I thought Teacher's Camp was plain boring at first sight. But that was because its beauty lies behind. It takes a bit of curiosity and few steps down to see the secret garden at the back.

Balut. The favorite snack of clumsy people like I am.

This guy always drools over coffee. I lost count of the times he drank coffee in Baguio. He could smell caffeine like a dog. I was busy admiring the cliff's view and he was busy with his coffee.

We also went on a walk in Wright Park where plenty of horses in Baguio are found. Seeing other people enjoying their ride with the horses, I got thrilled beyond words only to find out Julien didn't like the idea. I was heart broken.

The next picture shows how Julien turned into a puppeteer! The puppet looks kinda weird, I find it hard to guess what kind of animal in the world would it be. A purple chimpanzee? A furry birdie? A wolf? Whatever the bitch he may be...he's cute a bitch dancing cha-cha, how could I not buy one? 

Picture below was taken in Forks Washington where Bella Swan lives Camp John Hay lolz. I always dream living in the woods. Recurrently in my dreams, either I'm walking in the woods or climbing up a hill, it relaxes my senses even unconsciously everytime. I have always been a voracious reader of novels and fairy tales so I easily get captivated with nature's beauty when I see one. Mushy...boohooo!

On the 3rd night, we loaded our tummies with yummy food at 50's diner. All worth the 30-minute queue outside the resto. I knew it, the patrons were not exaggerating when they said "expect the queue that comes with it". 

Link to Baguio Day 2..

Link to Baguio Day 1..

Link to Celebrating Multiple Events in Baguio..

Baguio Day 2...

Julien doesn't really know how to bicycle. So the three-wheeled bikes trikes at burnham park are perfect to his poor balancing skills lolz. But you know what, this is one of the moments I saw him strive to contain his smiles. I love it when his chipmunks teeth are peeking out. 

It was hard to just stand up throughout the parade...I needed some shoulders to put my weight on hehe...

Enjoying the parade of drum and xylo competitors (elementary level) in their colorful costumes and props.

Do you know who were the stars of the parade which took everyone by surprise? These babies:

Sooo cute and huggable...I almost ended up kidnapping puppynapping one for myself!

Eating icecream on a jaw freezing cold was like paying Baguio a visit during the peak of hanging amihan like we just did. A bit of an adventure is always a hit, check? Strawberry flavored ice cream, check! What's gonna be next? Hmmm...hot spring on a extremely hot weather? Check...check! Laguna you're next!

Half of the day we spent watching the parade then the competition shortly after. There were eleven schools competing for the win so I expected a lengthy program. But because my boys are so unlike me when it comes to appreciating music and art...they got jaded too easily. I know it when they are bored. The big boy started excusing himself to look for coffee (there were coffee vendors everywhere) and food. He gets hungry like every other second...wtf. While the little one's symptom of boredom was when he started throwing tantrums. He told me he wanted to go back to the hotel to catch the NBA. Why the fuck they are so alike in so many ways? I gave in anyway. I let them do as they please. I even let them take their afternoon nap because they sleep like there's no tomorrow. At 4pm though, we got back downtown.

Kaartehan. The store where I found cute but cheap bracelets and rings. The owner happened to be a a nice kapampangan old lady whom we got to know a little. She even offered her transient to us on our next visit with a discount.

Julien in his bonnet, I mean Perry's bonnet lolz, but the two girl's hoodies on the right got me. Don't you think they're pretty? I do.

Does a water fountain symbolize wealth? Where on earth is the counter part for health then? Would you take me?

Singapore equals durian, Baguio equals strawberry? Yes way? Strawberry keychains, strawberry jams, strawberry ice cream and what other way to do with strawberries? Strawberry taho? Sureness.

On the second day I bought pasalubong minus the vegies as we planned to buy them on the last day. Then I took the boys to dinner this time courtesy of Good Taste. We had pork sinigang and tokwa't baboy. As I mentioned their serving is huge, more than enough for us three, we even took home leftovers.

That ends day 2...but there's two more lolz...day 3 & 4 coming up yo!

Thanks for reading...you guys rock my world <3

Link to Baguio Day 1..

Link to Celebrating Multiple Events in Baguio..

Baguio Day 1...

It's rather obvious why we chose to go to Baguio on just its Panagbenga opening over the big event that's gonna be on the 22nd known as the grandest float parade of flowers. For one, we really meant to celebrate husband birthday and our 11th wedding anniversary in Baguio which both fell on the first week.  We got married Feb 1st on a Chinese New Year and it took eleven years for CNY to actually fall on Feb 1st again which happened this year. Well, the senti in me got that figured out. So is it safe to say this year is our 2nd CNY anniversary? I mean 1st? Whatever :) 

Another reason, Pangbenga is too crowded an event. Hotels, restos and parks are gonna be jam-packed of tourists. Transportation I bet is also gonna be pain in the ass. So yeah, I don't know about everyone else, for us the opening was the bomb. Everything that's too much is suffocating, yes?

Without further intro, let's get it on with day one now! 

Just arrived fresh haggard from the bus. From six hours expected travelling time to eight hours...wtf! And yes I couldn't complain. We were met by the cold wind and welcomed each of us with chilly kisses. That was 2 pm when the sun shines brightly but the cold wind out-ruled the sun amazingly. That point we knew we were in Baguio and that had put smiles on our faces.

We checked in our hotel just to unload baggage and hurriedly scoured nearby resto for food because we were dead starving. 

But man...the cold was such a force to reckon with! Our fingers were freezing hard! Thus, the mittens! Aren't they cute? We bought three pairs. 

Because we came late, not so much happened on the first day. Right after we stuffed our tummies with tons of foodie courtesy of Don Henrico, we headed off to market to buy some supplies we need. I brought along toiletries so we only bought slippers, water to last a day, some sodas, vodka to trick sandman because we badly need double-dosaged dust-sprinkling to sleep. We window shopped for vegies and some souvenirs, sight seen a bit of burnham park and nearby attractions, took some photos then got back to the hotel to spend the rest of the night.

The first day was freezing cccoooold! Our boogers were snowing...wtf.

Tip. You might wanna buy unique wooden handicrafts, try in Baguio, there's a lot. For us we bought wooden rolling masseur for only 50 pesos..perfect for muscle pain. Same place where we bought wooden bracelets and keychains for very cheap prize tags. Oh I almost forgot the wooden chess board Julien picked for himself! Very nice quality...everything looks durable.

Watch out for day two coming very soon if time permits. I will post the link once it's ready.

Thanks for reading!

Link to previous post...click Celebrating Multiple Events in Baguio..

Celebrating Multiple Events in Baguio..

Baguio is a place too special for me as the first and second time I was there, I was with then my boyfriend whom I married exactly eleven years ago. That said, we got tons of reasons to justify the four day trip in Baguio last January 31 until February 4. You see the month of February is the most romantic month for me not only is it because of Valentine but because our marriage and my husband birth happened to be in this month. Thus, triple celebration trip that was! And the fact that Grand opening of Panagbenga Festival and Chinese New Year (long week-end) were timed on the first and second day made our trip sky high more than worthy! I hit five in just a stone! So wise.

I couldn't say enough words to describe Baguio. In Baguio, peace never fails to embrace me. The freshness, the flowery smell, the pine trees making the view green and cozy and romantic...and giving me a kick of Bella-Edward twilight delusion? Hell yeah.

Now let's get into the highlights of the trip, shall we? I only got few of the photos to show to you..for now. Because I took roughly more than a thousand! What the hell. Due to the fact that I cannot post everything at a time, I will post them by batch so you won't get too jaded. 

Ready?

The view. Here is the collage of some places I was able to take shots of. On the upper middle is the famous haunted white house. It never gave us any creeps though.

I spent so many sleepless nights browsing through forums and blogs to get good ideas about where to stay in Baguio. There are lotsa nice but affordable hotels in Baguio but because of Panagbenga opening, most of them were fully booked even on a way advanced reservation inquiry. I started making reservations two months before the actual check-in date and I still couldn't reserve my ass in some attempts. It was crazy like that. In fact, there were group of tourists sitting near us at the bus who told us they did not have a place to stay and asked us if we have some place to recommend. Seriously, if you plan to go places specially during peak season, it wouldn't hurt booking early otherwise you will end up either sleeping at the park or staying at the hotel which is two times the regular rate. How common is common sense?

The hotel.  This is the hotel where we stayed for two nights. It's few minutes walk to burnham park, it has seven-eleven store at lobby side, our room is spacious for the three of us, so is the bed (california king?), it has fan and aircon which we never used obvioulsy because of the chilly weather. Ours located on fourth floor with tv, hot and cold shower and very very clean toilet and bath room. For only 1400 a night, a good choice right?

The lodge. I made a decision to stay away from the crowd on our last night because I wanted to have a relaxing and quiet time with my boys. This room, I fell in love with the moment I saw it. The fireplace is really for the kill, agree? You couldn't help but be emo by just staring at the fire. Son never requested for his mittens because we never felt the cold the entire night. The bed though a little small, is very soft and comfy. The chandelier made the room ambiance kind of yellowish. For 2,200 a night, you will never go wrong.   

They kept playing chess while I was so ignored. Times like this, what is camera for?

Dinner by fireplace-light, anyone?

Either they play chess or they just sleep their butt off... 

     

The food. Because I am such a wise spender, I won't risk going to unknown restos and then let them suck my wallet dry. Just like hotel, I researched for affordable but good restos in Baguio. True to bloggers reviews, we tried three restos from the list and, we thought nothing to complain about. We went to highly recommended 50s diner, we also tried Don Henrico and the one near the city center mall called Good Taste. All of them serve huge servings but for a cheap cost. With these three, our bill never went up more than 400. Even way below the cost at the turo-turo bulaluhan we tried in the street and wow that was highway robbery! I thought I was deaf when they said our bill was 500+!  Tip, if you wanna cut back even more on food spending, try buying half a kilo of lechon good for more than three persons (we had leftovers) only 180 pesos at the market. Promise it tasted yummy! We also bought sliced watermelon only 10 pesos (so sweet and huge good for three)

   

The parade. The grand opening of Panagbenga happened on our second day (Feb.1). I have never seen colorful a parade as this. So grand...the participants were well practiced and the costumes/props were well created. My son never blinked an eye. Just amazing.

     

The competition. I was also part of drum and xylo group in highschool so I know the pressure being one of the competitors. The practice and discipline are really tough. Let alone performing while dancing and wearing a costume heavier than a bass drum! I was a fan.

See? The crowd is having fun.

This is all for now my friends. Up next, our pictures from day one, day two, day three and day four respectively. Catch them if you can! Until then....