To Baguio (A Detailed Account -1)

SUMMARY OF EXPENSES per person : (2 days and 2 nights 2 pax in Baguio)

1st Day              1,235.00        
2nd Day             1,256.00      

total expenses      2,491.00

Here's our detailed Itinerary

Our flight was scheduled at 4:15 am for Manila. I didn’t sleep the whole Night as I was busy preparing my stuff. At 2:30 am we were all set for the trip. We landed 30 minutes ahead of the schedule, at 5:00 am we were already at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminal 3 scouting for food. We ended up eating in Jollibee. 

When we get to Victory Liner a bus was about to leave for  Baguio, so we hurriedly jump in. At 6:30 am we were already Baguio City bound. Thanks to Victory liner wifi we didn’t really notice the passing of time as we enjoyed facebooking aboard the bus.

Itinerary - Day 1

the view from our transient house

*we stayed in  SUSSANA TRANSIENT HOUSE
Call or Text :    ATE SUSAN-  0919 935 5733
#30 Camia Street Along Tacay Road
Quezon Hill, Baguio City (see link)

At 12:30 noon we were already in Baguio. We went straight ahead to our transient Inn in Tacay Road, rested for awhile and went straight to the city to have lunch, where? Chowking! J

After lunch, we took a short walk at their footbridge to get to Bakakeng jeepney terminal. (see link ). The jeepney will really take you inside the Philippine Military Academy. Prepare atleast one ID for the group as you will be required to leave one at the entrance of the gate in exchange of a guest ID.  My suggestion is for you to hire a taxi when you go to PMA, which you can rent for 350.00 an hour. If you are a group of three or two, it wouldn’t hurt your budget much as oppose to the energy and time that you save. 

Philippine Military Academy

For me and my friend, we just took the jeepney and had the hike of our lives all over PMA and   on our way out! It was already getting dark when we finally reached the exit. We took a jeep to SM Baguio but the jeep won’t alight at the mall itself, so we had to walk our way to get to SM again. My knees were all trembling and weak now, I’m not fond of walking really. In SM I spent all my  time just sitting and watching the dragon dance in celebration of the Chinese new year. 

During dinner my friend shared one of her observations of Baguio – she didn’t see anyone smoking in public.  We strategically sat in the open area of KFC but indeed didn’t see anyone smoking. So, I asked the guard, and he said there’s just a designated smoking area in the mall; not all open area is a smoking area, isn’t that amazing? Another FYI about baguio culture, is that during sundays, you cannot ask straw for your softdrinks in food chains – it is a no straw day! Great initiative to start with and who knows they can go for a no straw day everyday to cut on plastic usage. I hope thought that the local government could extend this initiative to the Ukay ukay and pasalubong sellers as they use a lot of plastics too! This initiative I have also witnessed in Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur (no plastic allowed )and hope to see it all over the Philippines, it’s about time that we start caring for our environment after all. At 9pm it was mall closing time, my feet were feeling a lot better now but my body was close to freezing. It was super cold at this time of the day in Baguio that’s maybe why I didn’t mind the walk in session road. We just went ahead walking until we reached the front side of burnham park were Ukay ukay was all over the street. I went window shopping as shopping is not really part of my budget, I found a lot of good deal and thought to myself I should come back with a fat shopping money to buy coats, sweaters and a lot more. 

DAY 1

Actual expenses:

Airport – Victory liner (100/2)             50.00

Pasay – Baguio                               455.00

Bus terminal – Susana (90/2)           45.00

Inn – City Proper                                8.00

City Proper – PMA                            18.50

Entrance PMA museum                    10.00

PMA – SM                                         18.50

Meals (whole day)                            350.00

City proper – Inn (taxi) (60/2)             30.00

Accommodation                               250.00

Total expenses Day 1                   1,235.00

We originally intended to do the early morning walk to Lourdes Grotto but wasn’t able to do it! Man! How can you wake up so early with a weather like that!!! 

Day 2 Itinerary- we were only able to go to PMA on day 1
so Day 2 was a full day

We had breakfast at our Inn and started our tour past 10am. We went straight to the city proper unto the terminal to Mines View. (see link) 

After 15 minutes jeepney ride we reached the famous Mines view park.

We meet Douglas the dog!

picture taking with the pony’s

had the chance to be Igorotas and got a good view of the mountains. 

My friend also did pasalubong shopping in Mines view. Just a tip, you can get more and cheaper deals else where e.g. you can buy 5 for 100 strawberry jams at the stores outside mines view, or 10 for 100 peanut brittle, 14 for 100 key holders at the ukay ukays near Burnham park but the variety of choices especially for sweaters are in mines view.  After few minutes in there we decided to go to Good Shepherd Convent for lunch, we’ve heard of a lot of strawberry delicacies there.

From Mines view we were told to just have a short walk to the convent. What is short walk to them isn’t really a short walk for me but we did anyway.

We just had some bread and organic lemonade with strawberry juice there.

                                                                                                                                                             Outside the convent  you can take a jeepney to wright park which will only take you 5 minutes. In Wright Park you can ride a horse and roam around the place but we didn’t have the luxury of time for that.

I saw a very long stairs and had my picture taken before leaving for our next destination.

 Were already pressed with time, my friend suggested that we hire a taxi that will take us to our next stop, I was hesitant to do that as it’s going to cost a lot and we wouldn’t get to know the place if we do things the easy way. But I decided to give in anyway only because we were running out of time.

From Wright park we passed by Baguio Botanical Garden

took picture of the horror house in Teacher’s camp

On our way to the Lion’s head (see link)we passed by Kennon road view point where you can see the long and winding kennon road, I have learned that buses and heavy trucks are not allowed to pass by Kennon road only small trucks and private vehicles as the road could not stand very heavy transportation. I love the view at the view point and would have stayed much longer if I had the choice.

kennon Road 

My friend had her chance to taste the strawberry taho
as I delighted myself in taking pictures of the Lion’s
head.

The Lion's Head at Kennon Road, Baguio City

From there we went to the Mansion (the official residence of the Philippine President in Baguio). This was the last stop for our taxi, and we paid exactly 350.00 that’s for the one hour tour.

 I was surprised to see across the Mansion is Wright Park, again! 

 Wasn’t it Wright Park, near Mines View? I have learned that that long stairs where I had my picture taken will actually lead us to the front portion of the park, that is across the Mansion, I missed that in my research. We had fun taking pictures of the lovely front view of Wright Park , just across The Mansion, to me it looks like our local version of “TAJ MAHAL”.

To Baguio (A Detailed Account -2)