After the hike on Mt. Pinatubo and catching a bus afterwards that arrived to Baguio late in the evening, we only had the energy left to get something to eat and to crash in the hotel we found for the night. I think we never slept better :-)
The next morning we were up too late to get the bus to Sagada (they only leave in the morning), so we decided to stay a day in Baguio, which is known as the "city of pines".
I read that it's like the Switzerland for the Filipinos and that the city is a popular get away for the rich and famous. The last was probably true because judging by the prices for accommodations you have to be wealthy to stay in them.
The hotel we booked had room only for one night, so we changed to a different one.
The city is situated high in the mountains, among the pine forests mixed with tropical plants like palm trees and bamboo, a kind of weird combination.
To be honest there wasn't much to do in it, as the only places of interest were some natural parks and a botanical garden. We had to do something for the day, so why not the parks.
Mine view park was close enough so we started with that.
Basically it turned out to be a viewing platform and tons of stalls around it, all in the setting of pine trees on top of the hill.
At first we didn't get why they all wanted to be photographed with a pink pony, but then we thought that it might something to do with 2014 being the year of the horse (a pink horse??)...
That's how the local national dresses look like (also to be rented out for tourist photos)
On the way up here we saw the entrance to the botanical garden and we decided to walk back down to it to kill time.
On the way we came across "the mansion" which turned out to be the Baguio residence of the President. A bit unimpressive, but may be that was the idea.
At the entrance to the botanical garden the whole group of grannies is available for photographing with those who wants to pay for it.
Inside was quite nice, not very interesting but for sure relaxing.
It even came with local Robin Hoods making selfies :-)
Here we studied the guide again trying to figure out what else we can do. We found some info about the Tam-awan village that is suppose to be a place of interest. It was on the other side of the city so we grabbed a taxi.
During the ride it becomes visible how densely populated the place was: every possible square meter was occupied by some build.
The Tam-awan village wasn't much of an interesting place either, a couple of old-like houses in the tropical setting.
I liked the rice paintings displayed here that are made by the local artists.
As we were out of places of interest to see we decided to come back to the city center at least get something interesting to eat.
The main city street is called Session Road and is fully packed with shops, restaurants and tones of people.
The local specialties are: sizzling sisig (any kind of meet, almost minced and fried with some stuff, we couldn't decide what it was) quite tasty.
Siomai (also with any kind of meet mixed with some veggies) a very tasty version of dumplings, only open.
And the local soup called Arroz Caldo (no idea what the ingredients are, but not pumpkin soup for sure, we asked) we didn't like this one.
After dinner we went to the bus and jeepney terminal to see if we could buy the bus tickets in advance. Unfortunately, they were only sold "first come, first served", so we decided to try and get them the next day as early as possible.
The jeepneys here are really almost art :-)
By 5pm we were completely out of things to do, so we went back to the guest house to hang out and write the blog.
Halfway through the post an email came in saying that our return flight from Manila to Shanghai was cancelled and we had to find another option.
Took us almost 2 hours to solve this and we had to buy the new tickets almost twice expensive. Thank youdamn AirAsia for the headache and the money lost!
After all the ticket troubles we didn't feel like writing anymore, and we had to get some sleep as our bus ride to Sagada the next day was going to be 7 hours.
Next: Sagada
The next morning we were up too late to get the bus to Sagada (they only leave in the morning), so we decided to stay a day in Baguio, which is known as the "city of pines".
I read that it's like the Switzerland for the Filipinos and that the city is a popular get away for the rich and famous. The last was probably true because judging by the prices for accommodations you have to be wealthy to stay in them.
The hotel we booked had room only for one night, so we changed to a different one.
To be honest there wasn't much to do in it, as the only places of interest were some natural parks and a botanical garden. We had to do something for the day, so why not the parks.
Mine view park was close enough so we started with that.
During the ride it becomes visible how densely populated the place was: every possible square meter was occupied by some build.
The main city street is called Session Road and is fully packed with shops, restaurants and tones of people.
The jeepneys here are really almost art :-)
Halfway through the post an email came in saying that our return flight from Manila to Shanghai was cancelled and we had to find another option.
Took us almost 2 hours to solve this and we had to buy the new tickets almost twice expensive. Thank you
After all the ticket troubles we didn't feel like writing anymore, and we had to get some sleep as our bus ride to Sagada the next day was going to be 7 hours.
Next: Sagada
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