April 8, 2015

The Ultimate Summer Trip (Day 1): Baguio Part 1

Read about the entire 6-day trip here.

After more than 2 weeks, I finally found the time to write about our 6-day trip. I kept writing 5 days in some of my old posts, and when I did the math, I realized 6 days pala. Oops!
We temporary said goodbye to Davao on March 21, a Saturday. You must know that I have classes on Saturdays and Sundays, so I was actually absent for two days. I didn't like to be absent from class, but we already had our trip booked last year when we expected real estate brokerage classes to begin in January and be done in February or early March. Long story short, buti nalang a maximum of 2 absences is allowable.

This is Yuri's second flight (first flight was to Cebu when he was just 7 months old), but this was the first time he got his own seat! He didn't stay in it, though.
We arrived in Manila at around 12:45 pm, and we haven't had any lunch yet save for the sandwiches we ate during the flight. However, we headed straight to our waiting driver and rented van to save time. We figured we can just pass by a drive-through and be on our merry way. Because some of us were late (ehem), we weren't able to leave NAIA until 2 pm.

There were 15 of us in our group, by the way, not including the driver. We went on this trip with my aunt, my cousins, my nephew, and some family friends.

But grabe ang traffic sa Manila that we never found the opportunity for a drive-thru. Grabe, I get annoyed here in Davao when I get stuck in traffic for 3 minutes. Dear ManileƱos, I admire your patience! As for probinsyana me, I'll stay here. Hee hee.
It was fun taking photos of milestones along the way, thanks to a hyper-zoom camera. I think we were more than 40 feet away in a moving vehicle when I took this shot. But I stopped taking photos when hyper-acidity hit me!

Obviously, everyone was getting hungry. We were munching on our snacks, but those are not enough, right? Ang tagal naming nakalabas sa Manila; it took us almost 3 hours yata. (Matagal na ba yun?) We were able to eat lunch only when we stopped over at Bulacan.

Our trip from there to Baguio was still long, obviously, but relatively easy because there were no more traffic jams especially along NLEX. Now, that's the kind of road trip I can tolerate!

It was already dark when we reached La Union and even darker when we entered Kennon Road. I swear, I will never go through that road again. The next time I need to visit Baguio, I will just hop on a plane. Road trips are not for me, so having to endure the winding Kennon Road for what must have been an hour was torture! I had a toddler with me pa, so double the torture. #chicken #carsickproblems

We finally finally entered Baguio City at around 8:30 pm, if I remember correctly, and I have never felt so relieved. Halleluiah! Now, our driver, Mang Leo, hails from Cavite, and while he has driven tourists to Baguio before, he's not very familiar with all the streets (read: pasikot-sikot), so we got a little lost looking for the house that we rented for two nights. The owner helped us, so we were able to immediately find it afterward. Here are photos of the house we rented:
Baguio accommodations 
I am very satisfied with this house we rented because it is spacious enough to accommodate all of the 16 people in our entourage and it's very new and clean. I did not see anything that was dirty, swear! Best of all, the bathrooms are really clean. My only pet-peeve here is that the caretaker wasn't accommodating at all. We were there for 2 days, and when we texted him for help (about food and our hot shower not plugged in), he never replied nor made an appearance. Oh well!

Also, I'm positive I left Yuri's Attipas shoes there, but we didn't receive a response from them. I think the next group who stayed in the house might have found them. Again, oh well! Adios, Attipas.

On the other hand, the owner is helpful and accommodating (and reachable). It's a shame he didn't hire the right caretaker! But for a new, spacious, and clean house that comes with a cheap price, I'm still recommending this transient house.

I will compile all of the pieces of information about our rental van, hired driver, accommodations, and itinerary in a future post, so stay tuned for that!

On the second day of our trip, we went on a tour around Baguio City. I will write about it tomorrow! Good night!


_________________________________________________________________
Do you like this post? Never miss out again when you click on the cute bunny below:

rss_bunny

Or by entering your email here:
Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for daily updates on my mundane musings.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...