Baguio City: It's great up here

[Feb 22-23, 2012]

 In our few travels, we always make it a point to find the nearest Catholic church and head there first. We always want to make sure that we pay homage and respect before we get to know more about the new place and its people.

  It was ASH Wednesday when we arrived in Baguio, so with no time to waste, we headed straight to Baguio Cathedral right after we got settled at our lodge.

  The rose-colored Baguio Catholic Cathedral, located on top of a hill in the heart of the city, is one of the more familiar and most visited landmarks of Baguio. This beautiful structure has twin spires and is one of the most photographed buildings in the city.

 We made sure we were able to visit everyday that we were in Baguio since it was just very near the place that we stayed.

The Cathedral is right in the heart of the city. 

Just across it is the newly installed SM Mall, Baguio.

SM Mall Facade @ night

 This is the only mall in the entire country that doesn't have air-conditioning system, instead,

it relies on the 'Au Naturale' coolness of the Baguio City weather.  

This mall was formally opened on November 21, 2003.

This was taken on the night that we arrived--when it poured heavily.

 It is situated on Luneta Hill on top of Session Road--it's definitely cold up here.
It has a viewing terrace--verandas--so to say, that overlook the whole city.

It gives the best view of the city's tourist attractions, such as the Burnham Park &
its Lake, the City Hall, the Athletic Bowl, as well as the Session Road.

Daytime view of the entire city.

Magnifique!

As previously mentioned, Session Road is just a stone's throw away from this area.

Session Road is described as the main thoroughfare of Baguio City.

It is the main hub of what is called the Baguio Central Business District.

We were able to stroll the entire road on our first night. 

 It was quite a busy street with lots of goodies and all sorts of food sold on the sidewalk.

We enjoyed every single minute of our adventure in Session Road!

It felt like we were in a city of a different country--

but the balot we find in every corner made it real sure that we were in the PH still ;-)

Before I forget, I would like to share to you this nice place where we stayed in during our 1st & 2nd night in Baguio, it's called the Tuvera Pension House:

This place was not bad for Php750 room/night.
The receptionist/front desk officer was not really all that warm and welcoming, which was quite
very opposite to the very friendly & pleasant aura of every single local we have met & interacted with.
Must be having his period or something.

ANYWAY, the place is clean, decent and has a hot shower--which is exactly all we ever asked for.

Oh and their location is just perfect because it is just walking distance to the Victory Liner Terminal on one side and walking distance to the Panagbenga Park on the other side:

This is the assembly area for the contingents of the Float Flower Festival

We then visited the one place I really love--- CAMP JOHN HAY

Inside the huge area of Camp John Hay is MILE HI CENTER.

 This place boasts of All American restaurants, other food and retail shops.

 We enjoyed a peaceful, serene walk around the grounds of CJH where you can smell the scent of pines and fresh greens that towered just about everywhere.

 Peeping behind me is the view of the famous, THE MANOR Hotel.

 I could walk around this park all day with not a care in the world. I love this place too!

But what we were really excited to find was this famous chocolate house.

 

After a few inquiries here and there, we were finally led to this little shabby place

CHOCOLATE DE BATIROL!

Their menu looks great! Perfect for some afternoon delight.

Chocolate batirol with Almond was tasty! But still.....i prefer the ones we actually have at home.

Off we go then! 
"Excuse me chief, where can we find the jeepney going back to the city center?"
"Because we want to go to...................."
Burnham Park--Yey!

One boatman approached us and offered an orange 'vintage' boat and an 'UNLIMITED' ride
for just a hundred bucks!

Oh it was sooo much fun!
We had a blast rowing our way back and forth and around the entire lagoon 
hitting other boats once in awhile.

Bump boats!

 

 These oars were heavy! Good exercise for my arms^^,

 All that boating made us hungry so we went to search for our early dinner.

En route, we found a display of the entries for the Panagbenga Best Open Landscape contest.

 

I've missed you for 25 years!

[Feb 22-23, 2012]

I have read somewhere that people usually find it somehow interesting if you say you are 25yrs. old and you have not been to Baguio at least once in your life. I got the same reaction from colleagues and other acquaintances when I tell them oh..I have not been there. So...last year (2011), I decided that my next travel destination would be to the City of Pines. 

Thanks to a promo fare last October I finally got my tickets, thus the start of my series of plans just for a 5-day trip. After months of 'research' so to say, entering travel forums (PEX, FN just to name a few..), reading one blog after another, at last, I was able to come up with an itinerary. One that aims to make every single minute of my trip up north, WORTH IT! So here it is:

Day1: Settle in Baguio

Day2: City Tour

Day3: Sagada (Yes...I know, I'm pretty psyched to tell you more about that too!)

Day4: Sagada

Day5: Back to Baguio for Panagbenga 2012 (and..Yes..this itinerary could never get more ambitious!hehe)

Please refer to previous post for Day1.

Here's DAY TWO: Baguio City Tour

Woke up early and headed straight to the city center to look for PUJs that would pass by La Trinidad...

Aaaaahh....the land of....nothing else, but

STRAWBERRIES!

Since the Strawberry farm was a little outside the city, we made it our first stop. So, off we went strawberry picking:

One kilo is worth Php 150 but if you are going to pick them yourself, you will pay additional Php 50. Our baskets were short of a few pieces so 'ate' added some more from their display to make our purchase a full kilo.

 Weeeeeeeeeeee! How I love 'em strawberries!

And because the 'strawberry fields forever' will get you dirty with mud and soil, we had to clean up the boots we borrowed ;-) 

Before we headed to our next stop, we first searched for the famed strawberry ice cream (flavor-of-the-road version).

One should never miss this when visiting the strawberry fields. Manong said there are about 20 of them (ice cream sellers) but how lucky of us to have found him, only him, during that day.

 

Y-U-M-M-Y! Happy me!

Goodbye for now! Off we go to our next stop:

The Bell Church is located north of the downtown area of Baguio along the road leading to the town of La Trinidad, Benguet. Within its compound are intricately designed arches and buildings adorned with flags, bells and dragons.

 It has a pagoda, and beautifully landscaped gardens. There are some artifacts about Buddhism that you will find at the Bell Church as well as some literature about the history of China.

 We didn't stay that long in Bell Church because there was really nothing much to see except for the pagodas and lion statues. Commuters as we are, we then hopped on to the jeepney that goes back to the city center.

Then we rode another jeep that heads straight to........

Mines View Park!!!!

The small gazebo has been one of the most photographed structure in the park. Tourists can no longer actually see the "mines" as they have long been gone. This viewing deck basically gives you a picture of the magnificent Cordillera Mountains--Nature at it's best for an island girl like me!

 Baguio City started out as an American mining town in the early 20th Century, and one of its lasting attractions is this breathtaking park.

Oh how we love it here!

Just at the entrance to this park, you are greeted by this gentle giant right here:

We waited for him to finish his bowl of water before he declared himself ready for the photo op. Man, this dog can drink!

His name is Doglas and I believe he's a St. Bernard. He's huge & heavy but he's very friendly and fluffy too!

Oh but because of his stellar performance & attitude, just a single photo with him will cost you Php25 or a combo 3 which will cost you Php50. We availed of the latter wherein the owner was the one who took the photo. However, when we look at the saved photos, 2 out 3 were decent. Oh well!

More about Mines View Park, over the years there has been quite a negative tag to this beautiful place mainly because of how commercial it has become. Souvenir stalls have tripled in the last few years which in turn made this park more famous as a shopping center, "tiangge", rather than a peaceful serene benchmark.
These little market crowded the entire region of the park and even extended near the ridge itself.

They sold lots of stuff here from keychains with engraved names to hats, bags, wallets, purses, shawls, even wooden kitchen ware is available here! Tourists enjoy going to one stall after the other to purchase whatever merchandise they can to bring as 'pasalubong' to their loved ones.

Another major attraction here in the park are booths were tourists can have a chance to get dressed in full Cordillera regalia--

 Bahag, shield and spear for the mean, tapis for the ladies, vests and headdresses for both--all these of course, comes with a certain amount of price. So we thought it best to skip this one and just take a photo for keepsake.

They say that any visit to Mines View Park would not be complete without a stop at the Good Shepherd Convent--which is just a good walking distance from the park.

 This is the best place to find the signature ube jam of Baguio City. You can also find strawberry jam, peanut brittle, almond cookies and other goodies here. We had a first hand experience of how many people line-up just to buy these famous Ube jams. They don't just buy one, not even two, but tourists buy boxes and boxes of these jams. They must be great!

To find out ourselves, we bought just about enough and headed to our next stop as we were getting really hungry for lunch. So proceeded to..

Wright Park

 After filling our stomachs with a sumptuous meal from a nearby restau,we took a stroll at Wright Park. This place is beautiful, laid back and much peaceful than Mines View. It's filled with lush greens and towering pools of pine trees.

A quaint gazebo at the center where people can stay under the shade to have a snack or simply just to relax a bit.

A few steps more and you'll get to this area where you can find this lengthy flights of stairs.

 Down the hill you will then find hundreds of horses waiting for you.

 

After a few talks here and there, we managed to rent just one horse for us two.

Aaaawwww.....

 The ride lasted for almost 30 minutes-- we have to wait for about 3 minutes before we could move the horse since he/she was still busy pooping! imagine that! ahaha!

We strolled around the whole area of wright park and made a stop at the landmark just across the park:

The elaborate main gate of the Mansion is said to be a replica of that at Buckingham Palace in London, England.

Formerly called the Mansion House, this stately building was built in 1908 as summer homes for U.S. Governor-generals who were the American Administrators for the Philippines and was destroyed in 1945 during the battle for the liberation of the Philippines.

The Philippine government later built and improved the structure in 1947 and since then it has been used by various Philippine presidents whenever they come up to Baguio City for their official visits and engagements.

We were allowed only until the gate--so photo ops only and then went back to the horses to gather our stuff and pay the horseman.