Manila-Baguio-Hundred Islands-Manila...

Baguio - always have been the best place to side-trip while in Manila... This time, we (me & labsy) got company...

We were with friends, my colleagues.. I had to be in Manila for a dance with my colleagues, we call it The Malong Dance.. It shows the different ways of using and wearing Malong...

Anyway, I went there ahead July 7, then labsy came later July 9. We went to baguio with friends on the night of July 9... hmmm... slept the whole trip... :D

In going to Baguio, we took a cab from Roxas Blvd, Manila going to Victory Liner, Cubao, we paid around Php 120. Then got tickets to reserve seats going to Baguio!!!! (I think that was around Php 500 more or less). The ride went on for around 6 hours. We arrived there at around 5 am... Krrrrr... quite cold then... went down, took a cab/fx and had an early breakfast at Jollibee.

After taking breakfast, we went on walking from one street to another, embraced the cool breeze and feast on the beautiful views of Baguio. The group rented a jeepney to tour us to some of the tourist destinations in Baguio, if I remember it right, we spent Php 1,200 for that ride... Not bad, with the group's number, it was a good deal...

Anyways, we went to Strawberry Field, St. Lourdes' Grotto, Mines View Park, Phil. Military Academy, Camp John Hay, Good Shepherd, etc, etc... Whew! not so relaxing though, it was like an amazing race... Hehehe... We even went to their Public Market, to buy that colorful big bag worth Php 60 as our "pasalubong" (gifts) container. We brought strawberry jams (3 for 100), ube jams (best at Good Shepherd, though a little expensive, but worth it, promise!), peanut brittle (3 for 100), t-shirts, key chains and a lot more... And in their "palengke" (public market), we were stunned on how inexpensive the vegetables that they have, gosh, i wish...

Well, after all the ins and outs of the Baguio's doors of wonders, we went to their amazingly non-air yet super cool SM Mall, and had our dinner... The rest of the team, went home at around 8PM, back to Manila.... But ME and LABSY???? No way!!! We had a better plan... We're off to the Hundred Islands!!! yahoo!!!!

After dinner, we stayed at Starbucks for a cup of coffee, get a little time to relax and enjoy the moment...

At 10 PM, we started our next adventure...

From Baguio, we took the 12:00 MN bus to Tarlac, and then transfer to another bus at 2:00 AM from Tarlac to Alaminos, Pangasinan... We arrived at roughly 4:30 AM...

We took a tricycle to Lucap Wharf, luckily, this tricycle driver knew a "bankero" to give us our ride to the Islands... So literally, we woke the man up to schedule a trip at 5:30 AM... Sorry Manong...

So, at 5:30 AM, our boat is ready, our driver (Mang Bankero) is prepared and off we went to the sea!!!

We went to the three popular islands, first stop at the Governor's Island (with Big Brother's House). It was the most tiring island trekking but had the most beautiful view of all. We followed the steps up to the island's viewing deck and there we had much fun with each other, the view and the cam...

Next was The Children Island. According to Manong, it's called the Children Island because of the shallow waters, good swimming venue for the kids. They had this long pier like deck where we spent a few minutes taking a closer pic to a couple of near islands.

Last stop was the Quezon Island (known to be the biggest and most developed so far... ). This is also the island where they have a bridge to its nearest island, so you can visit two in one time...

We stayed longer in Quezon Island, where we enjoyed the beach and our lunch (which we bought to the only open kitchenette at 5:00 AM before going to Lucap Wharf)... Manong went off to take care of another group and promised to get us back after lunch, and he did....

We gave Manong Php 1,000 for the tour and got his number for possible future escapades (?)... We managed to buy a few key chains and shirts for us and some friends back home... then off we go to the bus terminal for our trip back to Manila and the following day head to the airport back to Davao...

It was tiring, but had so much fun... If you haven't been to these two places (Baguio and Hundred Islands), maybe you should start checking your schedule and make plans or unplanned getaway...

Hmmm... Where to next?