08 July 2007

LIFE IN THE SUMMER CAPITOL

Yesterday has been one of the more exciting days of this Philippine Tour Adventure! (I always tend to keep having new names for this trip!) But anyway, today we headed to the city of Baguio! The drive there wasn't bad at all! In fact, it was just about 45 minutes up and up and up the mountain! The first thing I noticed was how beatiful nature can be in this country. The mountains were high with so many green! I felt as if the ride could have been a tad dangerous since the roads were wet. It also didn't help when other drivers tried to OVERTAKE you or when my dad tried to OVERTAKE them.


On the way there, I saw this big JOLLIBEE sign. It was no HOLLYWOOD sign, but it was the closest thing to it. I asked my dad to stop the car so I could take a quick picture of it only because it was so random with no Jolibee in sight! Then a couple of minutes later we saw it...our "WELCOME TO BAGUIO CITY."




We finally got to the top, and there it was..BAGUIO CITY. The first thing that we did visit the PHILIPPINE MILITARY ACADEMY (PMA). The first thing that we noticed were the cadets, with thier uniforms so fit and stiff. We took a lot of pictures in that academy, including one with a cadet who was having a lunch visit from his family. Lolz the first thing I noticed what they were eating was white puto, which all of a sudden gave me a craving. Me and the bro also took pictures in the tree house tower and a statue of one of their weapons. We ended up in the visitors center and bought some PMA shirts and I even got myself a blue PMA hoody! I can't wait to rock them in the States! On the way to the exiting gates, we saw this one statue of those Plume top hats. It was so random that we took a picture right in front of it. Here's saluting the Philippines Military!



After leaving PMA, we headed to Camp John Hay. It was pretty scenic regarding the golf course that they had. It sort of reminding me of where I live back in the states since I live on the hills of a world-known golf course. I basically breezed by and took random photos of thier clubhouse and local buildings and shops.

We continued the Baguio City tour by driving to THE MANSION. We just took some picture from the gate which wasn't much fun, but we knew it was a landmark somehow. Then we drove through WRIGHT PARK which was so beautiful. The long pond and trail made it seem like this place came out straight from a romantic movie. I had lovey dovey feeling for Jaybe all of a sudden. Down the hill from Wright Park was a little place where you could ride horses. We didn't stop by for that but I did take a picture of this random pink horse! It totally amazed me. Reminded me of Circus Circus in Las Vegas, NV! When we came to the busy part of the city, the first thing I noticed was this man doing something that you'd rarely se in LA. He totally defined the word labor. This is why filipinos are naturally studs.

So finally after a few twists and turns I saw it..THE SM at BAGUIO CITY. The mall looked so majestic since it was sitting ontop of the hill. The mall was very grand with 4 levels. The top level was the most beautiful since it had the view of what Baguio City had to offer. We ate lunch at GERRY'S GRILL which was more or less one of the best restaurants that was in the SM.

This was also where I had my first experience eating some kuhol (aka SNAILS).



First I had to sip up the snail juice.



But totally hesitant when it came to actually eating the real thing.



It was actually tasty! I ended up eating 5. Yum! Squish Squish!




After lunch, me and the bro were on our own. We went through each floor going through the shops that we thought were worth it. We even took a picture from the highest floor to get the best view of Baguio. It was a picturesque view, so beautiful in culture!! First we headed to HUMAN where I was debating whether I should by a shirt or jeans. I ended up leaving the store empty-handed since I kept telling myself that I'd find something more worthwhile. My first purchase of the day was at BENCH. The undies had blue crown prints and it totally made me feel royalty! Jk! But yeah..then we continued to OXYGEN where I was going to jeans (again). But I just kept telling myself.."You'll find something more worth it at Hong Kong."

After the whole mall experience, we headed to the streets of Baguio. It was seriously hard for me to keep up with my bro. Everyone walked as if they were driving. I had to literally takeover everyone just to get ahead.

Then we ended up at the CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL. It was nice. We took some pictures in front of it. Afterwards, we headed inside to pray. I haven't attended mass in 2 weeks. So I had a lot to pray about. lolz.

The end of our Baguio trip concluded at BURNHAM PARK. I kept thinking to myself how it would be romantic if I could stroll down this park with Jaybe. We just walked a lap around the park while my parents sat down enjoying the boat riders. It was sort of wierd, because we caught these two girls trying to take a picture of us. I have no idea why, but I hope it goes into a positive use. I also saw a dude walking with a purse on his shoulder. I have a bag of my own and it was rare to see men with man bags. But since this was a knock off of DOONEY, might as well enjoy this for my entertainment, but then again, I'm glad he ROCKED IT! (Apologies to the dude with the purse)



The ride back home was just as beautiful as going up the mountain. We stopped by to take a view from the high heights. On the way, we even took a snap of the LIONS HEAD from the car. I have no idea of the signficance of this monument, but it was uplifting. There was even a little girl who pulled up to our window offering us some gold for purchase. I just told her that I have some gold at home. Sad, but true! As predicted, it started to rain and chances of getting in an accident continued.

The remainder of the evening was spent with so many visitors coming over for dinner. My dad has been living here for almost over a year and has met so many people along the way. Some of the visitors were my dads neighbors. One of them was a girl named, Joy, and we ended the night singing karaoke together. She was such a great singer. When we sang The Gift as a duet, we so rocked the house! I don't know if I'm going to see her again, but I so regret the chance of taking a picture with her because she was the prettiest person I saw so far in this trip.

The night ended with me killing a lizard. I just closed the window before i went to bed and then I saw the body of a lizard with the head stuck in between. I felt so bad. Even though I tripped out everytime I saw the lizards on the wall, I stil felt like an animal murderer!!

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Today was more of a chill day. I woke up not knowing what we'd be doing today. I finally got a chance to call Jaybe today and we talked for more than 2 minutes!! I feel so happy everytime I hear his voice because I know that he's doing good. We ended up having lunch with more visitors. It was more unique though, because these 8 visitors were 17-20 year old nursing students. One of them is more related to us because shes my uncle's grandaughter. We all ended up singing karaoke and it was fun because they were all shy. I really doin't know why everytime we meet new people our age or younger, why they have to be so shy. I mean, I'm one of the most harmless persons you can ever meet in the world! I keep asking my mom why that is and she tells me that here in the Philippines, girls are raised to be shy. It just gets to me that most of these people don't get the chance to socialize with others besides who they're already familiar with. If I were to do something about it, I would try to talk to as many locals as possible. But until then..I'm just living the LA life in the Philippines!

9 comments:

John Halcyon von Rothschild said...

Glad your having so much fun in the Philippines. I haven't been to Baguio in a longggggg time...Marcos used to have a sculpture of his Ginormous head there. I wonder if it's still there...have you seen it?

Anonymous said...

The Marcos head was destroyed already. Hey, I'm GLAD you're having a blast here. I told yah, Baguio's the best way to start the trip. U can try the city and explore Manila's old walls, and the beaches soon.

chase / chubz said...

i had a taste of the squishy snails in makati... i thought i would be disgusting.. but it was pretty yummy..

never been to baguio. wish i could go there one of these days with my baby.. hhe

John Halcyon von Rothschild said...

@reyville- So the ginormous head is gone. well it was ugly anyway.
@tactology- you have to do some shopping at makati and shang-ri-la mall. and don't forget mall of asia.

travelphilippines said...

awwwwww i misssssssss baguio...

Anonymous said...

Hey there, no more updates?

khalel said...

I hate Baguio City. Hahaha.

I dont know, really why. But I love the Natives. Lolz!

Fendi said...

you eating snail?!!!!

whaaaat!?

kiss
Fendi

Winter said...

im not into snails but im into the colors of your eyes.. :P we have the same contacts.. well, same color..:)

link?? :)