ReDiscovering Baguio. A Cold Experience.
After about 12 years, I came back to what was dubbed as the summer capital of the Philippines. I remember quite vaguely the details of how it looked like in the past but what lingered in my memory was how me and my friends enjoyed the city of beautiful tress, flowers, and American architecture.
I love traveling but I hate sitting in the bus for long hours. I usually sleep in my travels so I won’t feel the nausea. When we reached the foot of Baguio though, I reached for my camera and we opened the window to savor the cool air breeze. Baguio… I often thought Baguio is the place for me because I easily sweat. It would be so cool to have an all-day and citywide airconditioning system.
Uphill, I saw the mountains and trees and I felt very excited. I eagerly took shots of the lush green in front of us but halted at the sight of familiar balding mountains… I asked myself: “Is this Baguio or Montalban?” The hell with quarrying, these were not the mountains I used to drool over when going up to Baguio in the past.
Sadly, I was not amused with the development: the trucks hauling sands and stones down the mountains and what looked like to be slum dwellings beside the main road. I was amazed at how houses sprouted everywhere — uphill and downhill. In Filipino, you can literally say “hindi mahulugang karayom sa dami.”
The initial sight of Baguio actually dampened our spirits. We held on to our jackets jokingly which we felt will not be used. We were thinking if the mountains were bald and the trees were replaced with houses, it wouldn’t be as cold as it used to be.
We were glad we were wrong. When we reached the Botanical Garden, the cold air enveloped us and we actually chilled. Hooray, our Baguio experience will be cold after all!
This was the house where we stayed in. It was a big white house with many bedrooms and two living rooms. Our room was the one with the patio overlooking the road. It was a big room with wood flooring and a very spacious bathroom. The room has an eerie feel to it and Meann and I tried as much as possible not to think of ghosts. We even avoided going to the bathroom except when it is truly necessary, we were scared of the closets and the bath tub even with the bathroom lighting on.
It was a cold night so we went to the session road for some hot chocolate and coffee.
Time for shopping for vegetables to bring back home. Trading Post in Trinidad, Benguet is the best bargain place for veggies. The prices were incredible: lettuce at P25 per kilo, brocolli at P40, etc.
We won’t be leaving Baguio City without experiencing SM. It was buzzing with people in jackets and bonnets. It was like the mall has a centralized cooling system, the management was very lucky to be saving millions of pesos for power costs!
Rediscovering Baguio City was pretty exciting except that we were not able to see more sights because the rain won’t stop. Going to the City of Pines is indeed a wonderful, cold experience worth posting in this blog.
*************************************
Read More Interesting Articles.
Comments
3 Responses to “ReDiscovering Baguio. A Cold Experience.”
Leave a Reply
-
Contact Form
Helpful Sites
-
Marikina News!
-
See More Blogs
-
Quick Trip
-
Support Sites and Readers
-
Testimonials
James: Love learning about you and your city
Tintin Rios: Nice article mhel! As always, I am indeed enjoying all the stuff that you are doing. Very honest and very inspiring. Keep it up! :)
Big Brother: Very helpful and enlightening person, always there to lend a hand whenever you’re in need… Keep it up !!! GOD Bless!!!
Zaldy: Very interesting and informative. Lovely as the author.
Kengkay: Ipagpatuloy ang pag blog tungkol sa kagandahan ng pinas… gusto ko ang mga ganitong blogs. nakakataba ng puso :)
Apple Lucero: It's wonderful, and knowledgeable. I love the beauty of marikina, continue blogging, great!
Ed Ebreo: You have a very interesting blog and an even more interesting work. Keep up the great work!
Rino: Thanks for this information. I would never have known about this. Good job and please continue to provide us with more of these…
Eclud: You surprised me mhel!!! This is great.. keep up the good work… (saka parang paganda ka ng paganda..) *From the author: "Aint this the best comment of 'em all?" :D
AnitoKid: Wow! Danda na ng Marikina! It has been a while since I last visited it! I studied at Marist School (Gr 1-6, HS 1-4). Loved your site kabayan! And I kid you not!
MyGlitch: Hi, Mhel. I salute you for promoting Marikina, the only blogger I know who truly loves her municipality.
Alvin Aljecera: Marikina is the Best in TOWN!!!
Lad Madrigal: Nakakatuwa, napaka informative at talagang helpful ang blog mo. Rating: 11 out of 10 haha.
Edelweiza: Hi der! I admire BF, too. I always see him during Cabinet events in the Palace as our office is the one in-charge of them. It’s his strong character and sincere efforts to “urbanize” the metropolis and us city dwellers that keeps me an avid fan. He belongs to a very rare breed of public officials that really walk the talk. I think he deserves all the support he can get from Filipinos. :D
Dennis: I was once a passerby, ngaun mukang magiging regular reader at “avid fan” na din! hahaha!
Ericc: Congrats to this wonderful website! it’s a good advocacy for responsible citizenship and good city governance! all the best to marikina!
Heidelyn A. Camaligan: We are so lucky living here at Marikina, werein lots of educational training are offered.
Islander: Wow! grabe na talaga ang marikina. beyond the legend na kayo. pano pa kami makakahabol nyan? hehe. Alamat!
Reign: I used to pass by Marikina since i’m just 40 minutes drive away from Antipolo but I never thought of these great facts about your lovely place. You’re a sure proud marikeña.
Lotus Flower: Happy Marikina Day to you. Aren’t you glad to be part of this quaint but definitely bustling and progressive city? I am :-)
Meeh: Maituturing na ang marikina ay nakilala sa paggawa ng mga dekalidad na sapatos na nagdala sa ating lugar upang makilala sa ibang panig ng pilipinas at sa ibang bansa…at ipinagmamalaki ko na ako ay isang marikenya…mabuhay!
Tapsiboy: Marikina is my happy and comfort place.
Spinning Lovely Days: I’m so glad there are so many interesting places to check out in our city now. with gas getting so expensive, i’m all for limiting our explorations within marikina. :D as always, thanks for all the wonderful tips.:)
Mera: Ang ganda naman ng lahat ng nakapost dito sa site mong marikenya Ms.Mhel…more of it were very inspirational.interesting and educational…just keep it and godbless u!
Abby: Hi. I'm glad i chanced upon this really interesting blog. i'm from marikina too. we’ve been living here for more than a year now. i'm super excited about your list. you see, hubby and i frequent eating spot in town. we are, still in search for the perfect crispy pata. a lot of my friends say you can find it here.
CallCenterGal: Thanks for the additional tips on improving one’s blog in simple, doable ways.
Sagada Philippines: I like your niche. More power to your blog! =)
“Horrible Experience Enroute To Baguio Via Dagupan Bus Line”
Just keep on coming back at the back of my mind the horrible experience we had, when my wife and my 7 year old son went to Baguio via Dagupan Bus Line. 5-6 hrs, is the approximate gruelling trip, so we took an airconditioned bus for more confortable ride. Unfortunately, one of our co-passengers is a geriatric arabian, with two young lady companions who were all drinking and smoking at the back seat area of a non-smoking vehicle.
What a disgraceful sight to see the bus driver and conductor doing nothing to stop this exasperating act in spite of our protestation. Hence, we can only surmice the ill effects of US dollars on the integrity and honesty of these two stupid employees of the said bus company.
Lamig Lang… Puso Ko!
[…] in the past but what lingered in my memory was how me and my friends enjoyed the city of beautiful thttp://www.marikenya.com/2008/07/05/rediscovering-baguio-a-cold-experience/Welcome to Baguio City ONLINE!Community forum.http://www.baguiocityonline.com/Baguio City, […]
Cesar…
natawa ako sa ending mo pero talagang nakakaasar ang experience mo.
these kind of people makes our tourism effort horrible. sana konti lng sila…
mhels last blog post..The Pills Craze