Oct 22 @ 2am : departed from Nikki’s house to go to Baguio
We passed by North Luzon Expressway which seemed like a never-ending road with white stripes, I even got bored watching the road for just a few minutes. Hands down to Nikki’s Mom and Dad who drove us there hehehe :)
7:05 am : arrived in Baguio!
It was chilly! Nikki’s brother was wearing shorts and his teeth started to chatter hehehe. We had breakfast at Pancake house (I love Pancake house!) and I had Bacon and Pancake Medley with Orange Juice and Hot Chocolate! The Bacon and Pancake Medley had 2 pancakes with cream and syrup, a sunny-side up fried egg ang 4 strips of bacon. I left a strip of bacon and about 2 bites of pancake on purpose as my ‘diet’ for that morning, hahaha! Afterwards, Nikki and I were dropped off at Session Road to shop for clothes and thus…
My First Ukay-Ukay Adventure
I thought that the clothes would all be piled up high as a mountain in a box and then we’d go ‘ukay-ukay’-ing for the ones we like. Apparently, ukay-ukay looks just like a tiangge stall in Greenhills, only that the clothes are all second-hand with no stock for different sizes and colors. All the clothes are lined up in mulitple racks on hangers and you just need the patience to sift through each one :) There’s an entire building with about 3 floors of bargain clothes all up for grabs.
I think I didn’t do bad for my first try. I bought 2 jackets, and 1 sleeveless blouse all for P190 total! :) Cool! And they don’t even look like they’re only 50 or 70 pesos worth, that’s really a bargain!
Our Wooden Home
Afer lunch at Don Henrico’s in Session Road, Nikki and I finally got to the place that we were staying in: RidgeWood! The place looked so country-ish and not of the Philippines. It felt like a very big, ultra-furnished log cabin of a very rich family! hahaha! Here are pictures to prove it!
We got the room with a loft since there were 6 of us there. The lower floor had 2 separate twin beds with cable tv and the upper floor had one twin bed and one single bed. They also provided toothbrushes, soaps and towels just like any other hotel. The best thing I liked about the place is their lobby which had a very cozy and homey feel. I especially liked that there were little arrangements of fresh flowers on each table :) There were also 2 fireplaces but they weren’t lit during our stay, too bad. Oh, there’s also a desktop computer equipped with Windows XP OS with internet connection at a P50/hour rate in the lobby just in case one feels like browsing the world wide web. This was very apt for Nikki since she had to do some ‘homework’ when we were there.
me @ the fireplace
the sala with a smaller (hidden) fireplace
farther view of the place
Shopping and Boating
One of our main activities in Baguio was shopping. We shopped for 2nd hand clothes at the Session Road ukay ukay, we shopped for cheap jeans in the Tiangge, we shopped for woven clothes and food pasalubong at Mines View Park, we shopped for Good Shepherd foodstuff again at Mountain Maid Training Center and finally, we also shopped for more food stuff at the local wet market. Ah, the wet market was where Nikki bought a P50 Strawberry Wine that tasted of juice with just a hint of alcohol. Guess what, I got tipsy after 3 or 4 glasses hahahah!Aside from shopping, Nikki, Mel and I also walked from Session Road to Burnham Park to ride the boat in the lake. At first, we were supposed to row the boat but we just went around in cirlces in one place hahah, so we got a manong to row for us for an additional 15 pesos ( I liked the boat ride very much coz the breeze was cool and I was surrounded with water, never mind that it was green and kinda swampy looking, hehehe. Water has a relaxing effect on me and I even broke out into song while enjoying the 30 minute ride. What did I sing?
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.
The Mall
Since it was my first time to really go around Baguio even after 10 years of visit (I’m stuck in Teachers Camp every Holy Week since 1995), I requested Nikki and Mel that we go to SM Baguio. My brother who went told me that the place looked more like Greenbelt than an SM, so I got curious. My verdict? I say it’s a cross and falls somewhere in between. There’s no need for airconditioning in the mall since the cool mountain breeze is able to provide that for the whole 4 floors. The floors are all open and that’s where the good restos are all situated. You can eat with the glorious view of pine trees in front of you, very cool :)
Oct 23 @ 1:30pm : departed from Baguio to go back to Manila
Our last stop in Baguio before heading to Manila was the Pink Sisters Convent since Mel wanted to buy cookies made from hosts sold in the Gift Shop. Unfortunately, the shop was still closed so Mel and Nikki just dropped some prayer requests for the sisters. The trip home took about 6 hours including a stopover in KFC for dinner.
It was really a wonderful experience and I’m hoping to go to Baguio again with my officemates the next time around :) In terms of spending, I had 100 pesos left out of 2K in my wallet. I would say not bad since technically, I still had an additional 175 from the strawberry jam and pili nut requests of my friends. So that’s 275 left from all that shopping! Cool! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment