My dad drove us to Alabang at 2:00 in the morning to meet Ina and Jun (Pin stayed at our place the night before). The couple arrived 30 minutes late but we’re still on time, it was Saturday morning we’ll be smooth sailing across SLEX for sure. Enzo fell asleep half way through SLEX and we stopped at the last gas station in NLEX before entering SCTEX (Subic Tarlac Express Way). We thought we need to pee as per advice to us there’s no gas station yet in SCTEX…this is another case of “PEE NOW or FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEE”.
4 cups of coffee, a carton of milk and Julie’s cheese streusel pandesal bread, we had our first meal together outside the gas station’s store listening to Bob Marley. After stretching our legs and few shots, we went back on the road. The drive through SCTEX was fast, before I knew it, we were driving through towns of La Union already at 6 in the morning. We had another restroom break and bought “taho” for much needed sugar to keep us up. Another hour and a half…we were already driving through Marcos Highway. As per researched, we found out that most travelers recommend to take Marcos highway than Kennon Road. The latter way was more steep and narrow, and I would recommend for all to take Marcos highway too. The drive was a breeze except when we were almost there, I could feel kuya’s car crying. We need to stop gas up, but this time we were already in Baguio, you could tell by the breeze, it was not the usual cold breeze…it was cold, cold Baguio breeze.
My mom, a regular Baguio traveler, told us if we were on a budget trip, we should stay at Teacher’s Camp. A place handled by the Department of Education where obviously teachers stay when they have out of town sessions. I’ve been to Baguio several times but I have never stayed at the camp. I have heard and watched a couple of spooky stories about it. Teacher’s Camp is one of the haunted places in the City of Pines. We parked inside and got off to check the room. We reached the lobby and someone guide us to 2 nd floor of the White Hall. Our feet creaked through the old wooden floor, a musty smell caught us and immediately send some creepy thoughts in our mind as we looked at each other. The caretaker unlocked one of the rooms through the dark hallway, 4 old beds lined up like hospital beddings with one pillow each, the room was dark and the only light was coming in from the big window on one side of the room. The girls and I gave each other the nod that translates to:
Ina: “I’m very much open to another option”
Maui: “I don’t want to die here”
Pin: “Moving on…NOW”
We basically flew out of the place and right back along the road of Baguio city. Leaving us with no plan or reservation, our hunt for a place to stay for a night began. We went from mid-range hotel to rent-inn private house to room only. The girls and I split into two, Pin and Ina went downhill, and I went on the other side, Jun and Enzo stayed in the car parked in front of a 3-star hotel that was too expensive. I found one, called up the girls and they found one too. I went straight to where they were at. It was a private house that has 2 floors. I found Pin waiting at some sort of lobby area while the owner cleaned up the last vacant room. Finally an old lady showed up and led us to some sort of a basement, she told us it’s the only vacant room available. From the look outside it already didn’t look good, inside…it was worst. There was no word to describe how awful it looked like and she was even charging us more. I didn’t even have to think about it, I gave it a look and off I go, I waited for the girls to come out of their senses. The two girls were being polite, as they told the old lady they will think about it and will call her. We went to the place I found, Medrano’s Apartelle. It looked nice outside, very modern. We went inside and checked the room and we all agreed that it was the best place and we couldn’t waste anymore time as we only have 2 days to explore the city. We negotiate with the price and we got the unit that has 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a small kitchen with refrigerator, chairs, dining table for 5, it was perfect for us (room rent P2,500 a night). We immediately unpacked and settled in, Pin and Ina (both perfect homemakers) got busy in the kitchen cooking lunch. Enzo was in bed playing with his gameboy, Jun was on the other room, resting and I was sitting on one of the chairs watching cable tv. I didn’t bother to help my girlfriends for some reasons:
1. The place was too small for us 3 women to work around.
2. I am not really the “homemaker” type.
3. I was feeling extremely tired (the next day I got my period).
After lunch of adobo (chicken and pork) and laing, the girls (again) cleaned up and off we went to explore Baguio City. We took a cab to take us to the Mansion, the place where all the first family spends their vacation when they are in town. We took pictures and I also took few shots of Ina and Jun for their pre-nuptial wedding photos. I was excited to do it, I really like photography and I was hoping to develop if ever I have talent for it (I’m planning to buy enlarging lens this year). Although I only have the lens kit from my Canon 1000d (18.55mm) I tried hard to capture best shots of the couple.
We took few more pictures and decided to walk from The Mansion to Mines View, when we heard some sort of a weird sound like there’s a huge march of people coming toward us. We looked at each other and in 2 seconds, Pin realized it was a heavy rain coming, we could see the clouds and the downpour like a black carpet covering us all. We ran to the nearest waiting shade along with the other vendors. We got stuck under that shade for 30 minutes or so. I told them either we take a cab and bring us to Mines View even with the rain, at least we’re already at our next destination or we just sit and wait for the sun to come out and waste another minute in our overnight stay in Baguio. They agreed and we hailed another FX. In Mines View, the sun was coming out slowly, I covered up my precious son and my dear camera and hurried to the nearest store. We stop by for some shots at this one store that has sunflowers on one side for picture taking. We took several shots and went on to see some sights!
Over Mines View, we posed with a beautiful gentle giant St. Bernard dog, famously known as Douglas, but the photographers were calling the dog “PJ” (a nickname perhaps?). There were few around Mines View, Douglas was the most expensive stardog in Mines and its P50 per group picture with 3 shots. 
As we moved on we went over the edge to enjoy what we went for…the view. Enzo hold on to me trembling, he’s afraid of heights. I tried to calm him and let him know I got him and need not to worry but to just smile at the camera. He tried…but he still looked constipated on his pictures…poor baby.
After going around some stalls for pencils made from pine trees, Ina and Pin stopped by a grilled dry squid. I let Enzo tried it…he finished it but gave me the last piece.
Next stop, pasalubong On our way to Good Shepherd to buy some goods to bring home, there was fog on the road, we could hardly see our way and amazed at the same time of what we were experiencing at that time. Baguio at this time was indeed very much different to Manila.
In Good Shepperd, it’s where you can buy all the goodness of jam, strawberry and ube, it is also the best place to buy peanut brittle. With all list done, we took a walk by the view and took more shots of the coldcoldcold fog. It started to drizzle so we decided to go back to our place as we cannot go walk with all our bottles of jam with us.
Back at the inn, the rain hasn’t stopped. The girls and I went to the market and we left one little boy and one man who’s trying to catch some much needed sleep.
Pin, Ina and I went off to buy some vegetables for tonight’s dinner. We still had some leftovers and Pin took charge of cooking some veggies. We retire early that night as Baguio’s temperature turned cold.
The next morning, we got up early except for Enzo who was still in neverland. The girls (again…im not included) prepared breakfast and boiled water for coffee, we settled for some leftovers (again), as long as there’s caffeine mix…I’m cool with leftovers.
For our 2nd and last day, we went to Wright Park hoping to catch some sun for our photos. I’ve been to Baguio a couple of times but I could not remember the park, I remember the horses when I was a kid…but when we arrived that morning, it was a stranger to me. The horses’ hair was colored pink, periwinkle and other gay colors. Enzo was of two minds about riding a horse, but then after giving more time to think, he decided not to.
We walked around the park and enjoyed the cold air and horses’ shit smell for few more minutes before heading out to Botanical Garden just few walks away from the park.
Basically, a large garden with souvenir shops inside. As we tour around and take pictures I began to squeal like a piglet when I eyed a dead snake few feet away from me. A small dead snake.
The rest of the group, including my 8 year old son took a closer look at the scary dead snake…while they keep saying “poor snake”.
We took another fx to take us to Pink Sisters church. My mom reminded me to visit them and pray inside and wish. They have a petition box where we can put our prayers in.
The pink little church looked just like any ordinary small churches, but inside, there was a gate that divides the mortal and immortal. The pink nuns were seen kneeling and praying on the other side and the public would have the space on the door side. Then one by one, the nuns came in and the church was full of pink sisters praying and singing a tune that sent me to bliss. It also made me feel like being on the set of the old movie Sound of Music, I could hear myself humming “how do you solve the problem like mariaaaaa” listening to their voices was like being high and nothing but pure calmness.
After a blissful trip we thought we’d walk from Pink Sisters to another church, the Baguio Cathedral. Not even halfway there, we decided we needed to take another fx. We got off and we heard the mass from the outside, it was in Ilocano…and although I can understand a little I can’t go on and translate to others the rest. Pin and Ina went to peek inside the church and I took a picture of it from outside.
The last stop was to buy our vegetables at Session Road. Pin and Enzo decided to camp inside the comfort of Mcdonalds while, Ina, Jun and I went inside the wet market for the last time.
After packing up our stuff inside Jun’s trunk, we settled inside the car and we got ready for another long drive back home. We were shocked on what we saw on our drive to Marcos highway, a zigzag road of nothing but thick FOG. I asked Jun to open his headlights for safety, we drove through thick white smoke and we opened the car window and enjoyed the cold air. Pin took out the video camera and I took the camera for some shots. We even have to stop somewhere to get a close encounter with something that we don’t usually experience, for few minutes we just stayed there.
We got back on the road, stopping every once in a while for bathroom break, eat and let Jun stretch his legs, 4 hours later we’re back on Edsa. We took Pin home first, and then Enzo and I were dropped off in front of our house. After greeting each other “happy birthday” Jun and Ina went off home. Enzo and I were tired, sleepy with bottles of jam, peanut brittle, fish sauce and vegetables. Baguio was a trip! it was great that we were able to enjoy it with that kind of weather, damp but it met our expectations, cold, foggy and worth road tripping to.
for more help on your Baguio trip, try this link: http://www.gobaguio.com/
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