Summer Escapade at the Summer Capital of the Philippines Part 1

Hello, wholesome readers! So, yeah, I decided to call my readers "wholesome readers" to build the connection I wanted to create between me and those who read my blog 🙂

As my first post (after my introductory post), I'd like to tell you about my most recent trip! I hope you enjoy reading, as much as I enjoyed the trip.

Known as the Summer Capital of the Philippines, I and some of my highschool friends, along with their other friends, planned to visit Baguio this year.

It was very exciting for me, I tell you! But before I dive into the main part, allow me to start narrating what happened at the airport and my most highlighted moment, which was the weighing of our hand carry luggages.

Personally, I was very confident that my baggage won't exceed the weight limit because when I travel, I only travel light. But surprisingly, I had the heaviest baggage that exceeded the 7-kilo limit for cabin baggages! I did not book for a check-in baggage because, again, I was confident that I packed within the weight limit.

I honestly did not expect it, phew! So I had to unpack some of my things and let those who did not exceed the limit carry my things for me. LOL. I wish someone was able to take pictures during the struggle, but unfortunately, everyone was busy helping each other out.

_{A few groufies of us at the airport, before the moment of truth 😆}

Our flight from Cebu departed at around 10:30 PM and we successfully landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 12:00 midnight. Since we booked a tour package deal, we were picked up by a van at the airport and went our way to Baguio. If you plan to go to Baguio, I highly recommend you to get a tour package for convenience. We availed the tour package from this agency. Their services were very accommodating; I recommend!👌

_{Boarding time!}

_{Me and my best friend, Georgia - my seatmate during our Manila flight.}

_{A picture of us at NAIA, with tired smiles hidden behind our face masks.}

The travel time from Manila to Baguio proper took us about 5 to 6 hours and the first place we visited was the Baguio Cathedral. Upon getting out of the van, we were overwhelmed by Baguio's low temperature; although we already anticipated it, it is really different when you already experience it firsthand, especially when you're accustomed to the very hot weather in Cebu. On other news, I greatly appreciated the details of the church. Here, I took a few photos of the church's façade.

_{Hello, stranger!}

_{Oh, this looks nice, hehe.}

_{The façade of Baguio Cathedral.}

_{Details, details, details.}

It was still very early in the morning so we decided to take a stroll down Baguio's infamous Session Road. Along the road, we managed to find picturesque scenes and took the chance to strike our poses! Then, we decided to have our breakfast at McDonald's since it was the only store that was open at that time.

_{Strolling down Session Road to find a breakfast place.}

_{Looks like I traveled outside the country 😁}

_{Went back to the cathedral right after we finished our breakfast.}

Since our check-in time at our accommodation was still after lunch and we still had plenty of time before the check-in, we decided to utilize the time by visiting the places off our itinerary. Just imagine going to crowded places all the way from Cebu to Baguio, with little to no sleep! Was it worth it? Read on and find out 🤔

The sun was already shining at 7:00 AM. The temperature was slowly rising but the breeze was still cool. On our way to Baguio Botanical Garden, we dropped by the Laperal White House. It is believed by the locals and most of the tourists to be haunted.

_{The Laperal White House in daylight.}

_{Zoom in to find some spook 👀}

_{Just trying to see if someone shows up on the photo. Did you see something?}

_{The side angle of the house.}

_{A picture of our group, with the house standing tall behind us.}

According to our tour guide, aka Kuya Rowell, the house was built and owned by the Laperal clan. But during the second world war, the Victorian-styled house was occupied by the Japanese soldiers.

During World War II, the house was occupied by Japanese soldiers and was used as a garrison. The troops reportedly raped women, tortured and killed suspected spies working for the United States and their allies.
_Source

_{A group photo of us at the front gate of the house.}

_{Me, standing in front of the house, pretending that it didn't creep me out 😬}

We just dropped by to take a photo and then, headed to our first destination for the day - the Baguio Botanical Garden. The place was such a breather with its variety of plants and trees planted around the park; nature at its best.

The Baguio Botanical Garden is divided into different sections. Sadly, I was not able to walk around all the sections. I encountered yet again another problem: my Instax film camera stopped working (which later on, I learned that the problem was just the batteries duh). Anyway, these were the places I got to visit inside the garden.

_{Dahlia Garden}

_{Japanese Tunnel Walk}

_{Taebaek Park / Korean Park}

_{Mini Bamboo Walkway}

Next off the list was the Bamboo Sanctuary! As its name suggests, it houses hundreds of bamboo and there are hiking trails in between where people can walk on and probably pose for a picture.

_{Asked a stranger to take our group photo at the entrance of the trail.}

We didn't do much activity here but since we got here earlier than most tourists, we grabbed the chance to shoot a tiktok entry! 🤣 Right after our tiktok session, we followed the trail to the exit and headed to our next destination.

_{On the way to the exit of the trail.}

Our next activity for the day was horse backriding! It could have been a fun activity, but I decided not to try backriding. Must you ask why, my answer is simple: the look on the horse's face was too pitiful. It looked very tired already that's why I decided not to put on additional burden to it 😪

_{We all look tired here, don't we?}

_{My new friend, Blessing, riding on the white horse named Naruto.}

Across the horse backriding area, there's a long staircase headed to the Wright Park! If there's one thing I hate about Baguio, it definitely would be the stairs! There's a lot of it here, but thanks to them, I'm able to do exercise on a daily basis (now, I'm exposing my lazy a*s haha).

We reached the top, catching our breaths. Baguio surely is a city with accessible beautiful public parks and I love it! Wright Park has a long pond that would lead to another tourist attraction - The Mansion, which is the official summer residence of the President of the Philippines.

_{The Wright Park at the right time (?). At the end, you can slightly see The Mansion.}

_{The Mansion at a closer look.}

During our visit, Wright Park was having an event where local businesses were showcasing their products at their respective stalls and sell them to the tourists. As much as I can, I try to always support our small local entrepreneurs. And since my sister is such a coffee lover, I bought her premium ground coffee which was locally produced by our farmers in Benguet.

_{Well, I didn't know I was being photographed by my friend while choosing what kind of coffee to buy.}

Onto our last destination for the day - the Mines View Park. To be honest, I wasn't able to enjoy the place that much as it was almost lunch time that we visited and the place was already jam-packed with tourists. They say that the best time to visit the place is during sunrise. Nonetheless, I was able to take some photos but after that, we went to the souvenir shop and bought some souvenirs and goodies to bring back home.

_{The view at Mines view Park. Not the best angle of the place, I'd say, as there were too many tourists crowding the nicer view.}

_{Variety of plants and strawberries at the park.}

Our stomachs went grumbling as it was already lunch time. We looked for a not-so-crowded restaurant around the place, and luckily, there was one, which was just inside the park. We settled in and had lunch with a beautiful view behind us.

After we had lunch, we checked in at our accommodation place. Only half of the day went by but we were already tired by the time we reached our place. So we decided to spend the rest of the day by taking a good sleep (finally, after a very long trip from Cebu to Manila to Baguio).

_{Taking in the view from our place of accommodation. This was after lunch time and it's already fogging up the mountains.}

We ended the day by having dinner at a well-known restaurant in Baguio - the Good Taste Restaurant. But I'll talk about the food trips we had in Baguio on a separate post so stay tuned! 😉

I guess that would be all for this post. On my next one, I'll be talking about our Day 2 adventure in Baguio and the unexpected turn of events in our itinerary.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read. If you enjoyed this post, an upvote, comment, reblog, and/or follow will be much appreciated.

I'll take delight in writing for you again soon. See you on my next post!

Love,
Sam ♡

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