Philippine Travel Notes

All I could murmur was “OMG Why?”! This was just the town of Cabugao (Ilocos Sur), still about 50 kilometers to Laoag (Ilocos Norte). Something like 6 or so more towns. So why slow down from this point all the way to Laoag? Then I looked again hehe, the “to Laoag” is a bit smaller font than the “slow down”. Meaning? “Slow Down because you are entering the busy town center of Cabugao, Period, Carriage Return, Next Line, this way to Laoag”! Makataros?! Oh well, the "funtastic" signs of our times!

Goodbye Laoag and goodbye Ilocos! As if it’ll be long till I come back hehe. Some folks were actually against my taking the long bus trip again, this time to return home. But I needed to do this for the experience. Plus, taking an airline flight is actually more inconvenient for me – Quezon City is very far from the airport that it takes even longer than the flight itself to/from the airport to my abode. And the cheaper fare airline flies at such an unholy time. So Maria De Leon was it! Why did I have to go back to Laoag for this trip when I was already in Vigan earlier in the afternoon? Ah, I already explained that on first paragraph of the previous story! Besides, I really wanted to get more of this Maria De Leon thingy. From Vigan, it would have been Partas, which requires a separate story, therefore a separate roundtrip! I merrily did the leisurely walk again, this time from Hotel Tiffany towards the capitol, then the city hall and behind it, which is the Maria De Leon Bus Terminus...

Alright, the trip going back from Vigan to Laoag was uneventful. Beautiful sunset amidst the countryside as we passed along those many towns in between. This was my last day in Ilocandia and departure back for Manila was set for the night. You may be wondering why I still had to go back to Laoag which is farther north, when I was already in Vigan that should have been a bit nearer to Manila. The reason, I made Laoag as my base, where I left my things in the hotel as I roamed. Why did I do so? I knew my roam of the Ilocandia involved a lot of combination rides like jeeps, trikes and buses. The backpack, small as it may be, would have been a bit cumbersome in many situations ESPECIALLY that this region seems to have the smallest and lowest of tricycles. When the driver stands on the ground, his trike’s roof is just by his chest, so imagine where you would be hehe! I was back at Hotel Tiffany by early evening, taking my grand time to repack everything prior to dinner and eventual departur...

Ehem! There is supposed to be nothing to blog about my second nite in Laoag City. This was supposed to be a private dinner with friends who were staying at Fort Ilocandia but were driving around the Vigan and Paoay area for the day. They tried to retrace my roam yesterday. They were happily out and about. Even went to places that I did not anymore go to, like the Malacanang of the north and so on. But alas, they had what I did not have – the convenience of their own car, which turned out to be the bummer for the day! Hmm, that affected me incidentally. Why? I ended up alone (again) at dinner. Hmp! I should have stayed overnight at Pagudpud! Argh! Anyway, as if am not used to this hehe, I caught myself at the agreed venue, La Preciosa, on a reserved table for 4 but I was all solo! Good that my friends who reserved the table did not pre-order the food, otherwise I could have been out for a night of gluttony (again) hehe. Where were my supposed dinner companions? Out and lost on a desola...

From a bit of research on the web, my Lonely Planet book, Mack, the drivers and conductors over at Maria De Leon’s Manila Station, I learned that my hotel was just nearby and an easy hop via a tricycle. Although some of these “references” indicated I could actually walk to it, they were unanimous that it would have been a bit of walking. Then I said to myself… I walked 7kms going up to the Dambana Ng Kagitingan in Bataan, so why can’t I walk the maze of this quaint little city? And walk I did as the first order of the day! I had to walk around and start roaming the city until noon since I knew from a previous call that I won’t be allowed to check-in at my hotel until that time anyway. With my weekend pack comfortably on my back, camera strapped to my right hand and a lighted cigarette on the left, I started walking towards the city hall. I know that the center of town is always a nice place to start and in this case, it was just one corner bend away anyway hehe! At 0749H ...

Interesting "touchdown"! As the bus sped through some lovely early-morning sights of the countryside, I gathered from Mack that we were already in Ilocos Sur. Yey! There were snippets of the sea to our left while faint sunlight slowly revealed foggy, misty plains and mountains to the rig ht. For whatever it was, I caught myself catching a very deep breath and exhaling with a muted sigh. Was I excited? Probably! Our bus made its last “stop-over” at a clean and new building with a big pasalubong s tore called Marsha’s . While lighting up my MarlLights, I just realized that virtually everyone on the bus did come down and got a thing or two or more from the store. Even Mack was h a ppi l y lining up! So I told myself “geesh, this must be the Goldilocks Bakeshop of Ilocos”! And I think I thought I was right, even until now! Why did the whole busload come down, grabbed something fro m the racks or ordered things from th e sales ladies then patiently waited it out at the cashie...

Long weekend, three days off, nothing to do. And I said to myself… “why not re-visit Ilocos?”… so off I went! The place Well, almost every Filipino knows that there is an Ilocos Norte and an Ilocos Sur and that both provinces belong to Region 1 located on the northern-most part of Luzon Island . I know too from my various travels that this is home to the most industrious Filipinos and that many of them were the first to roam the country and the world seeking out businesses or employment… and many of them have prospered. But I remember the Ilocos countryside, its cities and its people to have been great experiences in the few times I’ve been there. So, I told myself… go back and go forth to re-live the experience! Preparations On a Wednesday night prior to the long weekend, I made up my mind to go roam Ilocos. Firm decision! Grabbed a few brochures from the many travel trade encounters/expos I have attended plus some quick and even f rantic rush-surfing through the web. A...