I had been idle for
months and my feet was extremely itchy wanting to hop on the next bus ride to
nowhere. So when I saw this commercial on TV about the Panagbenga festival in
Baguio, I
enthusiastically
chattered about it to my roommates. After hours of trying to convince them, we
headed to the Summer Capital of the Philippines the next night with no thorough
knowledge about the city except for the obvious fact that it's cold and that they grow strawberries
there.
After a very quick
preparation, we headed to Pasay Terminal and took the 10:30pm trip for Php455
per person. That approx 7hours trip had only two stops for eat-and-pee-break and most of it had been
utilized to wander off dreamland. Kennon Road had made it impossible for me to
elude motion sickness but gladly I was able to hold it off.
It was Dawn. It was
Baguio. It was freezing.
When we arrived at 5:30am it was extremely cold due to the location of the city and the oncoming drizzle and light rain. The long trip had given us backaches and we were so darn tired to argue and haggle. So when this somebody came to us and offered a supposedly nice place to stay, we took the offer, regretted it but eventually looked on the brighter side and decided to just enjoy the stay at King's Court Pension House since we're just going to use the room for sleeping anyway. Well, for Php1500/room (good for 4 persons) I guess it wasn't pretty bad. Aside from the burned out light bulb (was changed at 2pm after a tiring yet fun city tour), the room offers a nice view at night of the glowing city lights. The restroom was clean and provided hot and cold shower.
What to Do in Baguio
Do like any visitor would normally do when new in the city. Visit tourist spots!
Burnham Park
Burnham Park has a man-made lake where one can rent a boat for Php150/30minutes. You can have the option to let someone paddle for you or you can do the paddling yourself.
Play dress-up with this Igorot costumes for Php10/shot while you're at the Park.
If you have plenty of time, you can rent a bike for Php40/hour and burn those excess calories.
Mines View Park
View from the top of Mines View Park
Aside from admiring the beautiful view at Mines View Park, your eyes can also feast on the souvenirs and pasalubongs being sold which are super cheap. When at the Park, don't forget to have your picture taken riding on a horse or together with one of the St. Bernards.
Si Vice Ganda daw to. Take a pic for Php10/shot.
This scene was simply breathtaking when I took the picture. Sorry for the bad resolution, I only had my camera phone to use for all the shots. :-)
Wright Park
If you want to try horseback riding for Php200/30 minutes then the best place to go would be Wright Park. There are also plenty of vendors there who sell souvenirs na super swak sa budget!
Across Wright Park is The Mansion, the official summer home of the President. All you can do here is take a picture and going beyond the fence is off limits.
We were able to tour most of the tourist spots in Baguio for half a day which meant that we had plenty of time to just sit back, relax and take everything all in-that we were truly there in Baguio. The next day, we headed to La Trinidad to pick fresh strawberries straight from the farms of Ibaloi farmers.
La Trinidad, Benguet
Yes, Php300/1kilo is expensive compared to the already picked strawberries sold at the markets but the experience of picking the strawberries right from their farms is incomparable especially for those like me who don't have strawberry farms.
Where to Eat
There are a lot of places in Baguio where you can eat and yes it's true that most of the food there are way cheaper compared to Manila.
Eat at Sizzling Plate, Session Road. Cozy ambience, great food and excellent customer service. Prizes for full meals start around Php100+
Still at Session Road, Solibao offers delicious Filipino dishes in huge servings at a reasonable price. Great for group eat-outs. For this, we paid Php400+ and I'm telling you, we're so full we can barely walk after.
The Pizza Volante branch just across Wright park let's you enjoy the cool outdoors while eating their yummy and very affordable pizzas.
We enjoyed our 2days/1night Baguio trip because everything fell into place even without us planning. If you would ask me if I want to go back there? Definitely! I even want to stay there for quite some time. I hope you will enjoy your trip to Baguio as well :-)
