Travel : The City of Pines

Four hours and a very comfortable ride, we arrived at the City of Pines.

We arrived early dawn and even at that holy time of the night, there were Dept. of Tourism representatives who met passengers to provide assistance. Unfortunately, we found out later that it would be better to scout the net for hotels and hotel rates then let the tourism people guide you to the hotel of your choice, rather than letting them give you choices (they have tie ups with certain hotels, not necessarily the hotels that would give you the value of your money). Oh, sorry if I am starting with a not-so-good note. Promise this is the first and last, as my Baguio experience was as Fine as the Pine trees! lols

View from our hotel. No more pines, just houses -and McDo.

Right after settling our things in the hotel and grabbing breakfast, we started our IT. (Sorry, I cant recommend our hotel, as it turned out, it was not the best choice. It had good location and "okay" rooms but as we soon found out, we could get a better room with the same level of accessibility in a cheaper price..just my thoughts why I should not recommend our hotel.)

First stop : Mines View Park ~ Strawberry Taho, picture taking in rental Igorot costumes, more vanity and picture taking and a lot of pasalubong shopping. Yes, first day and we went pasalubong shopping right away! The cheapest pasalubongs is in Mines View, that's why.

A must-see - the Cordillera World. They have handmade products from Cordillera and Sagada. The store has this nostalgic feeling.

Second stop : Good Shepherd Convent ~ The famous Ube jam and the refreshing Strawberry Lemonade. I am not a fan of lemonade and strawberries, but the combo, in a drink, it was surprisingly delicious and refreshing! Of course, if I could only hoarde as many ube jams without paying $$$ for extra baggage, I would!

Good Shepherd Convent is just a block away from Mines View Park. In the sidewalk leading to Good Shepherd, a lot of pasalubong and Mt. Province and Sagada produce are in display. Hays, the produce are so "beautiful"! It makes me wanna live in Bagiuo.

We had a little detour, we went back to our hotel to drop what we shopped so far and to have a quick lunch.
Third stop : Wright Park Riding Circle ~ The Ang Utol Kong Hoodlum venue and a few minutes of scary horse back riding.

Fourth stop : The Mansion ~ Wright Park is just a few meters away from The Mansion -there is no need to take a cab! We knew that Wright Park is just near The Mansion, but how near, or how far is relative..specially if you are not familiar of the place. After like a block of uphill walking, we thought both points is not as near as we hoped it would be. So.. we took a cab. And, to our humiliation, it was just another block away! Lols! (Had Sagada oranges, jump shots and more picture taking)

Fifth Stop : Baguio Botanical Garden ~ The epic Igorots in costume and their wacky/korean poses! The funniest part of day! You have to give any amount to any native who would join you in the picture. But mind you, ALL of them would join so be ready with a few coins. They would insist for a wacky version/pose too!

We made it up to the gates of PMA but we were wearing slippers so we were not allowed to get in. Tip, PMA has dress codes. No shorts and slippers!
Sixth Actual Stop : Camp John Hay ~ I was surprised to see Starbucks inside. They made it like the shopping stores in US, no two-storey stores. There were store, a posh hotel and even IT/BPO companies inside.

We also made a stop at SM Baguio, and.. its still a mall. :)
Last Pits off for the day : 50's Dinner ~ It's a cool place to cap the day. Good food with generous serving. It's not a wise choice if you are already very hungry..we had to wait 30 minutes before we can get a table. Apparently, the place is famous to the local.

I hope I could share where 50's Diner is. My apologies, I already forgot. What I could remember is that we had a hard time locating it too. Not because its hidden or something, we are just not familiar with the streets.

So there. End of Day One. Wish to share a not-this-long Day Two!

xoxo

PS: I googled 50's Diner and this is the address.
Gen. Luna Rd, Lungsod ng Baguio, Philippines
You can use google maps to locate it. Its in an intersection, that's what I could remember. :)

Lucky Or Not

*Photo taken from Google

I know I did this -Ohh, how lucky we are. I know! But maybe, all luck wasn't poured my way that day or my luck had a 12-noon expiration. Oh, but don't get me wrong. I had a big blast on birthday, however the #birthdaycation that we originally planned didn't actually happen, well at least, not as  how we planned it to be.

I still got my #birthdaycation. Its just that the planned vacation ended up to be unplanned. All itineraries and reservations were cancelled. Let me share' a bit what happened, because in fairness to our airlines, they accommodated us well. First day of the 5-day #birthdaycation was supposed to be our trip to Coron, however due to bad weather and zero visibility the nearest we got of Coron is it's airspace. The pilot announcing that our flight would be reverted to the nearest airport -Mactan International Airport, was funny at first. We were at first excited to land again, anticipanting what the airlines' plans were for us, and sorely, anticipating to post our experience in social media sites. LOLs  However, when it downed on us that our flight was completely cancelled and we were to go home, we were a bit disappointed. My #birthdaycation hashtag was no more. Our airlines thankfully rebooked our flight via a connecting flight to Manila the next day.. even our return flight was moved a day more.

"the airspace i am talking about.."

Day 2 and all plans were still a go! The first announcement we heard while settling down in NAIA was that the Busuanga flight that was scheduled before us was delayed due to the same reason. So we were, okay.. it's just delayed. I told myself by noon time, this weather would soon improve..yes, I was reassuring myself. However, noon came, siesta came, afternoon came, only our announcement for boarding didn't come, it was delayed and delayed.. Then finally, the sad news of the first trip to Busuanga returning home.. that was the final confirmation that our Busuanga trip won't happen that day -the second day of anticipation!

Two days of our vacation was already spent but the tour we've accomplished was just the NAIA tour. gosh! After checking that the weather has no plans of improving itself in the next 2 days, we decided to change destination. We considered a few places, learning from experience, we checked the state and weather of our prospects before deciding where really to go. (Believe me, I was so hyped with the idea that we are going to Sagada instead of Coron that even the idea of wearing the beach outfits I brought with me in the cool weather of Sagada didn't bother me at all! However, safety was a big issue and Sagada just had bombing reports so it was scratched from the prospects).

Planning Plan B

After thorough assessment of all "factors" that would affect a vacation, we decided to with Tagaytay. Thanks to high speed net, free airport charging ports and portable devices, we were able to do little planning for our Tagaytay back-up-destination.

A view of the Taal Lake from Sky Ranch

Tagaytay is part of our Bucket list, and being able to visit the place (instead of Coron) was still an achievement. More than the destination, the vacation was a refreshing, relaxing moment for us. Beach or mountains, I was still able to do that thing that I love when travelling -observing other cultures. Tagaytay maybe in the same country as home -Cebu, but the people and the culture there is surely not same as what we have in Cebu.

So, when you to on a trip, do you do planning? Do you prepare a Plan B?

xoxo