Bohol to Baguio

Our departure from Tagbilaran went smoothly - we were even given a free shuttle transfer to the airport by our hotel, which we hadn't been expecting. in addition, the airport terminal had free wi-fi so I could keep in touch with the cricket before boarding our flight.

With the last minute organisation of our car+driver hire to tour the Cordillera we were a little unsure of  how smoothly our pick-up would go. Once we'd arrived in Manila the first stumbling block (since we were travelling sans-phone) was that there were no public phones for us to ring our driver, Ferdinand. We had to improvise by lining up at the AirAsia office and asking one of their employees to ring on our behalf. This enabled us to finally rendezvous with Ferdinand and we set of on the drive to his office.

The car hire office revealed a rather more informal operation that I had expected - one woman working from the front room of a house in a what appeared to be a well-to-do gated estate. Unfortunately she did not take credit cards so the driver took us back outside the estate so I could use an ATM to pay for the hire or car + driver.

Once that was settled it was time to hit the road. Given that we were now some way south of the airport, which is on the southern side of Manila, and we needed to head north, we had a lot of Manila traffic to negotiate before we reached the relative ease of the Luzon Expressway. The traffic was probably not helped by the fact that today was the annual Procession of the Black Nazarene, which meant that a lot of streets in the centre of the city were closed and we had to take a detour through QuezonCity. Seeing the Manila traffic first hand, and the way that Ferdinand was able to change lanes and weave with inches to spare made me realise that self-driving would not only have been seriously stressful, but also much slower.

It took us about an hour and a half to reach the expressway, and shortly afterwards we stopped at a service centre for a late lunch. From there it was non-stop to the end of the expressway (not counting the various toll booths) and then via the MacArthur Highway to Baguio - which took about three and a half hours. Ferdinand managed to find the first hotel we had in mind but we didn't like the price so we ended up settling for an alternative. We arranged to meet Ferdinand at 9:30am tomorrow to explore Baguio for the day. After that we managed to find a place to eat and a supermarket for supplies before turning in. Pity about the short lukewarm shower though.

View of one of the terraces of the BenCab Museum,

This is our first hotel that doesn't supply breakfast (free or otherwise) so we had to find some of our own before meeting Ferdinand at the appointed hour. Our first stop was the BenCab Museum on the outskirts of town, devoted to the artistic works of Benedicto Cabrera. The architecture of the building itself was as fascinating as the works of art it houses and the beautiful landscaped gardens out the back. The views out over the narrow valley and to the mountains in the distance were also lovely. We even scored some nice morning tea in the cafe. I'd thoroughly recommend a visit if you are ever in town.

The "Rainbow" building

Next stop was the Lourdes Grotto, which sits at the top of 252 steps. Not that we were looking to light any devotional candles, but from the top there are also good views of the city's rooftops. They reminded us somewhat of the slopes of La Paz city. We noted one building where each floor was painted a different bright colour.

Holy wires Batman!

We have also noticed the proliferation of wires on the street poles in these parts (in Manila too), and wonder why it is so. Is it the result of ad hoc additions of extra capacity over time?

From there we went on the longer than expected drive up Mt Santo Tomas - a number of times we thought we were almost there when around the next corner there was another rise. Eventually we reached the area where a number of viewing platforms were within easy walking distance. We were not the only ones - about a hundred other vehicles lined the road, each carrying loads of  passengers. The views from the two lookouts we visited were pretty good, so we didn't bother tackling the two hour walk to the actual top of the mountain. We could see the city far below ringed by mountains and the terraced fields all around us.

Baguio and terraces from Mt Santos Thomas

After being driven back down into the city we had Ferdinand drop us at the Baguio Museum, arranging to meet at 8:00am tomorrow for the drive up to Sagada. We checked out the museum, which included the history of the city from its establishment as a summer hill station in 1904, through WWII when it was pretty much demolished, up to recent times.

Once we were finished at the museum we embarked on some exploration of the centre of town on foot. Along the way we saw a number of jeepneys that looked much more like the postcard stereotype than any we saw in Manila. The other thing I noticed about the transport here is that there are no tricycles, unlike everywhere else we've been in the Philippines where there seems to be thousands. I can only guess that the many steep roads here are too much for them.

A Baguio jeepney

There was a massive shopping mall on the hill nearby which also had large terraces that provided a view. The contents of the mall were pretty standard, but the large supermarket came in handy for supplies. We also went for a walk down to the boating lagoon in the very centre of town, which was doing a pretty good trade judging by the number of boats out on the water being rowed with varying degrees of competence. Along the way we noticed the walk signs here - they feature an animation of a man walking when "green", but as the lights are about to change the animated figure starts to run. Cute!

The busy boating lagoon

That pretty much wrapped up our exploration of Baguio, apart from later finding a slightly better place to have dinner than last night. We also managed to book a nicer place to stay when we are back in town on Wednesday night, since that will be our last night's sleep in the Philippines before our overnight flight home.