Baguio Bliss!

For the past few weeks that I have not been blogging I have been doing my own version of Amazing Race!

I do not want to recount the dates as that means I will have to dig into my planner for that and I'm too lazy for that. Some time last January, on a Friday midnight I went up to Baguio for the first time in 21 years. I was a bit disappointed that I was not able to ride the luxury coach or the de luxe bus as we were unable to reserve seats. How was I supposed to know reservation was necessary? The ride took two hours longer because of the stops for the restrooms. When I got to Baguio, I felt as though I was in another country! I had to explore the place right away. No more sleeping, inspite of the fact that I was not able to sleep in the bus.

I was sent there by Cisco for a Quality Assurance Summit for instructors. Our host university was the University of the Cordilleras. After half a day of working we went to the University of Baguio and then scouted for nice hotels for the conference that we will have there on March 28. Yup! Am going back! :)

That night we ate at a pizza place by Session Road called Volante's. I ate Caesar's Salad with salmon and it was amazing! The salad made me so full that I no longer ate the pizza. We all were too full with our order so we ate the pizza for breakfast and it was still heavenly! A must try! After pizza we went to Padi's Point because I felt like dancing. I always want to dance.

Usually I dress up when on a night out but because that was unexpected, I did not come prepared. I was wearing a vendor shirt when I went to the bar. I was wearing my Nike Shox, jeans and a big white vendor shirt while all the rest of the bar population wore something sexy and clingy. Darn! Talk about underdressed. For a while I actually decided against on dancing. I mean I would look so out of place but the call of the dance floor was too much for me not to heed and before you can say "Push the button..." I was already there partying. Just in case you're wondering how the others reacted... A guy (possibly a teenager) danced with me! Haha... Beat that! Haha!

After the dancing a contest started. They were asking for females to go up the stage and dance their sexiest. It was a battle between young girls (No, I did not attempt or even contemplated to join). A girl got so competitive that she stripped down to her underwear! My jaw dropped! I can't believe she did that. Up to this day I simply can't!

The following day, we went to Minesview Park, bought jars and jars of yam at Good Shepherd's and went to the Ride Park where I got to ride a horse for one entire hour! How cool is that?! The horse ran every 1o meters or so hehe... My body ached all over the day after. I got to hang out with a friend of mine at a cool coffee place called Coffee By The Ruins. Amazing food and ambience there! Must try for people who visits Baguio! If you're wondering how I know the place, a friend of mine told me to try it out. We ended up walking around the entire City Hall rotonda looking for the place until we almost made a full circle! Apparently we took the wrong turn when we decided to circle around the rotonda. After exhausting ourselves, we began to doubt our navigation skills and decided to take the taxi. We forgot how much cheaper it is to take a taxi in Baguio. The rate in Baguio is way different. I don't understand why but I'm not exactly complaining. We stayed in the taxi for a few seconds (?) and found the place! We stayed here from merienda 'til dinner.

If you are into acoustic music, you might want to visit also Kofeeklatsz. May the establishment and its patrons forgive me for not being able to spell their name correctly. What were they thinking giving an establishment that name anyway? It's hard to pronounce and it's hard to spell! How are people going to talk about the place?

I got to buy kilos and kilos of strawberries! Yummy! For only 80 pesos a kilo! Coming from Manila, I know this is a great deal but the natives tell me it can go for as low as 25 pesos per kilos! Whoah!

Thanks to my newly found friend, I also got my first Ukay-ukay experience. I ended up buying a nice Louis Vuitton looping bag. I do not know if it is fake or the real thing but the inside of it is velvet to the touch and the stitching almost perfect. The price I got it for anyway is cheaper even if it were fake so I still think it was a great deal.

We stayed at Bloomfield and I really have to say that the location is great. It's near the Session road and across SM. So if you like gimmicks you might want to stay there. The rate is also reasonable.

On the way home, I finally got to ride a De Luxe bus and it was not as wonderful as I imagined it because for one, we were at the back and we were tossed like a salad. I do not like riding at the back of any vehicle. Especially not the bus.

I was so nauseated by the time I got to the Pasay station where my wonderfully sweet boyfriend picked me up. He said he could not find me because my head was buried in my arms. I was so glad that he, yet again, rescued me. If he were not there I really would have fallen asleep amongst strangers and who knows what could have become of me!

Thank you baby for waiting until the bus left Manila. I know you were tired and hungry that time. Thanks for getting up from bed so you can pick me up so early in the morning when I got back from Baguio.