DIY Travel PH#20: Around Baguio City Day 1

junebride (69)in #travel • 6 years ago (edited)

Since I was young, stories from my parents affirm about how beautiful Baguio City is. My mother would tell me about how cold the weather was when they went there for a certain annual summit of a group my father was part of. She told me about sunflowers, the natives, and Burnham Park.

Living in a tropical country, I had hoped that one day I will be able to go to Baguio as well. The "Summer Capital of the Philippines" where I'll be able to also experience the "cold" weather my mama has been talking about.

^{Taken at a crossroad sign going to Kennon Road.}

It's been two years since that trip, I can hardly recall how I got hold of our tickets, perhaps a Piso sale because I am a sucker for one. But I could recall arriving in Manila at night and headed directly to Pasay Bus Terminal to catch the 11 PM Victory Liner Bus.

A six-hour trip was not very stressful for me because I slept the entire time! My husband would always inform me that he's very jealous of me sleeping while he was appearing uncomfortable the entire time. I am definitely okay with sleeping anywhere!

^{Morning golden hour in Baguio City.}

It was five in the morning when we arrived Baguio City, it was still dark, I was still sleeping, @panoramicview woke me up so we decided to go down from the bus as most passengers did which was not a good idea because it was crazy cold!

Both of us hurriedly went to the nearby 7 Eleven shop to get coffee and warm ourselves but boy, that store has its doors opened and we still had to endure the coldest morning ever!

Three days and two nights felt like enough for us to explore the city but mind you, we still had a lot of places we missed to check out, good reason to go back huh?

Our reserved room has no early check-in, we originally thought of spending the entire morning at Burnham Park and wait for two in the afternoon but because it was super cold, more than what I had imagined, we instead looked for an alternative. Local cab drivers had been following us and recommending a place to stay which offers early check-in, as early as five in the morning! I believe that was a good deal, we gave in and booked ourselves at Ferrioni 2 Apartelle. We had no regrets because the room which was assigned to us was super spacious, it has a kitchen and dining area too for an affordable price!

Burnham Park

Of all the attractions in the city, perhaps Burnham Park is where all the tourists and travelers would first go. And for sure that's our first priority after waking up at seven in the morning.

^{Pretty colorful flowers at Burnham Park.}

We spotted locals exercising which was a surprise! There were a lot of groups around, we found colorful trikes and vendors around but what really caught our attention was the flowers around the park!

I can't anymore track how many hours were we in the park just taking photos. I had a lot of photos of the flowers without really knowing their names except for the sunflowers.

^{I am out of idea what this flower's name is. Can you help?}

^{Sunflowers were also in full bloom! Can you spot the seeds?}

We didn't even bother riding the water rides anymore, we were already enjoying the flowers and the view. We only stopped when feeling hungry of course we had to try Baguio City's Strawberry Taho!

^{Famous strawberry taho, I guess this is only in Baguio City}

Because it was the Penagbenga Flower Festival week, a marketplace has been set up within Burnham Park along Harrison Road. It reminded me of Cebu's Sinulog market during Sinulog season.

^{So many people, locals, tourists and travelers at Burnham Park.}

^{Keychains at Burnham Park were sold at Php 10-15 each.}

^{Baguio City is abundant in strawberries, there are strawberries in most of their desserts and sweets. This is just an example.}

There were lots of food stalls so finding something to eat was no problem. Plus another garden display competition which means more flowers! Baguio City was indeed in full bloom during that time.

Mines View

One of the challenges we had while in Baguio City was finding the right jeepney to take us to the next attraction. The same was true when we were on our way to Mines View that we ended up hiring a cab.

^{Traditional costumes and dresses available for rent at an affordable price! Unlimited photo ops!}

We both enjoyed the view of pine trees on our way to Mines View. I tried taking a video but it was not steady thus I deleted it. Reaching the spot, the weather turned gray, it started sprinkling so we were forced to stay at one of the huts.

As soon as the rain stopped, we started our photo opportunity. We wore traditional dresses for rent at Php 20 only and took photos like these:

^{There were no other travelers around when we took this, it was just the perfect timing.}

Bernie the St. Bernard Dog was super huge that we can't just disregard him so of course, we took photos with him too!

SM Baguio City

We took a lot of time at Mines View because of the weather so it was already late in the afternoon when we went back to the city. We couldn't think of anything to do so we check out SM Baguio City instead which was I guess the only SM here in the country which doesn't use any air conditioner!

^{SM Baguio City}

We had stayed at the mall's terraces looking over Burnham Park and the rest of the city, the lights were looking nice but our noob photography skills couldn't get to capture the lights in a long exposure effect so we instead let it go and just enjoy the coldness.

^{The photo above is an evidence that we were still new to the long exposure photography.}

Our trusty Baguio jackets were there to help us cope up with the coldness!

Ukay-ukay in Baguio

We then moved to Harrison Road for the famous Baguio City Ukay Ukay! This was so far the biggest ukay-ukay display that I had ever been! While we have these stands in Cebu, they aren't that huge compared to what we have seen in Baguio City!

^{Chaotic but beautiful.}

Walking past these items for sale was hard because I wanted to check out each and every display but we have to resists. However, when we passed by a table full of backpacks, we can't help but check it out and even bought two backpacks!

That ended our first day and we called it a night.

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You might also be interested in my previous travel blog series:

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