Baguio is located in the Northern part of the Philippines, Northern Luzon to be more exact. If you aren't familiar with our country, the Philippines is really a tropical country so it's sun, sun, sun through most of the year (except for monsoon season which happens usually around July-September). Since our archipelago is tropical in nature, we have very limited places for you to run to for some cold lovin'. Baguio is the coldest place in the Philippines! To date, if you try to search for newsfeeds about Baguio, it has reached 9 degrees, which is rare for our country.
Anyhoo, enough with the geographical babble ☺
Last February 2008, I was tagged along for a leadership training where you say? In Baguio of course. (Explains the attempt for a tourist-y intro). It was actually kinda spur of the moment because I was only informed by our Division Head a day before the 3-day training.
We left the office at around 4:30 am, stopped over somewhere in NLEX (the Shell station with many food establishments) for breakfast. (Please bear with me as I am trying to recall memories from three years ago.)
We arrived at Baguio between 11am and 12 noon so we instantly stopped for lunch. I remember feeling weird, down with some UTI-like symptoms to be exact so I dragged the whole gang along to stop by a drugstore to buy some UTI medications.
First day meant business. After all, we were there for a training. I'm actually there as a training support admin person; suffice to say, I was not able to document the day with pictures.
Second day was mixed with work and pleasure. Here are some excerpts from an icebreaker for Day 2:
All tangled! =p
And they manage to pose for a picture!
Dr. Quack-quack trying to untangle his 'patients' :D
Evening of Day 2 was meant to be spent exploring the nightlife. We ended up spending some time at Kafe Klutch which is actually a good chill place. Their 2nd floor's pretty interesting, it's like for gnomes because of the headroom and fixtures. Don't believe me? Here's a picture:
While some of us had beer, yours truly together with some ladies tried the Kafe Klutch special (and I'm truly sorry for I've forgotten the name!☹) But it was really good! We spent the night bonding and listening to their featured artists.
Squeezing in for a picture
Us girls
With the performer as background ☺
Day 3 was started early for it was the last day and because the itinerary was to explore the city (apart from going home that is). We stayed at Woodstown and before leaving, we just had to have that almost-always-mandatory-group-picture =p
Spot the one wearing sleeveless! Hahah. And that's why I got sick a couple of days after =p
The group dropped by St. Louis Cathedral for starters. You know how Catholics always pass by a church first before anything else right? Well, this explains why.
Inside the cathedral
Okay, I wasn't ready yet!
All girls
If I remember correctly, we then stopped by Mines View Park. It's really a must for tourists to see because aside from seeing Baguio's landscape (and feeling like you can almost touch the fog from the sky) you also get to do some shopping.
Mighty fog as background!
I just had to have a solo pic. Err, at least that was the intention ;)
By some structure? :)
Idk how he manages to stand the climate wearing just this! (For foreigners who happen to stumble upon my blog, natives from Baguio really wear this. At least, before the technology of clothing came along).
If only he fits my pocket! Just to be clear, I'm talking about the pony. lol!
We then stopped by The Mansion, which is our country's President's version of the Malacañang Palace in Baguio.
We also dropped by Good Shepherd which makes some of Baguio's delicious delicacies. While some of them were buying, I opted to stay inside the van.
(Through the looking glass, hahah)
Last stop was PMA (Philippine Military Academy) which is the school for those aspiring to be part of our Military. Here are some of the pictures we had inside PMA premises:
I love this last shot I was able to take because it appears like I just captured 2 soldiers cooking up a conspiracy. Hahahah.
This trip to Baguio is a first in two ways. First, this is the first trip I went up to Baguio having officemates as company instead of family. Second, this is the first trip to Baguio that I didn't throw up while going down the zigzag road. Yes, I vomit. Hahah.
Blogging about Baguio makes me miss it (even if I puke =p)! I wanna go back there!
Allison♥
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