THE SPANISH COLONIAL TOWN OF VIGAN

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Partas bus from Pasay City leaves at 9pm for Vigan so at 7:30pm I made my way from the hostel, took me a couple tries before a cab agreed to take me, I don't understand this why do taxi drivers here in Manila refuse passengers, don't they want to make money, very annoying, pain in the butt. Took about an hour to get to the station because of traffic. Once there the small station which can fit only 2 buses at a time, is very chaotic, people everywhere with their luggages, I need to queue for ticket as you can't buy it in advance, the queue snakes around the crowd and have to ask people where does the line end so I can take my place, I have carried my pack the whole 1/2 hour in the queue when I finally got to the counter the guy said the bus should be leaving soon just wait for it, this was 10 to 9, paid the $15 fare for a 10 hour ride and waited along with hundreds, buses come and go but our bus is nowhere to be found, my feet were starting to ache, it's hot, muggy, drizzling, noisy, I just want to get out of there. Finally 2 hours later, 11pm the bus pulls up, dropped my pack off, looked for water and found my seat at the very back of the bus.

We got sruck in the Manila traffic even at this late, maybe took another hour to get out of the city, I fell asleep quickly. We stopped for late supper somewhere, I had the balut which I was craving since I arrived in Manila and some junk food. Back to the bus, slept through again though uncomfortable. I was lucky to have awoken when we arrived in Vigan, no announcements I just asked the lady in front of me, she nodded and I scurried out. Tricycle drivers were charging me exorbitant prices to get to Grandpa's Inn, my hotel, normally should be about 10 pesos, one quoted me 50 pesos, a..hole!! One guy sorted things out for me, this trike driver asked for 20 so i gave in it's Christmas why not. He told me there is a better place than my hotel, so he stopped there first and I looked at the prices, it's triple what I will pay at Grandpa's!

He took me back to Grandpa's inn and I got checked in to a nice room for 730 pesos roughly $17 a night
bathroom is outside no tv no a/c, its fine! It has wifi which was acting up but eventually got fixed in the afternoon. I had breakfast at the adjacent restaurant costs is about 95 pesos but it's a meager serving for my standard and for me expensive, next time I find street food. I walked around town and found the St. Paul's catedral, walked around the double plaza, Plaza Burgos and Plaza Salcedo, X'mas decorations in the trees, so much bustle people shopping, there is the evr popular Jollibee and a slew of other fast food places, at florentino street i found street food near the church, that is where I will eat while here in Vigan. I think it was at the municipal office hall where I saw an electric jeepney being promoted by this politician whose photo is plastered on the jeep. Great idea though I haven't seen them on the streets yet.
At the capitol there is a cool Xmas tree on a busy street you can see trikes, jeeps, buses and calesas go by, i waited for an hour to get a perfect shot of the tree and a calesa passing by.

Went back to the hotel to take a nap, when i woke up i resume my walking and this time I went to Florentino eateries to sample the local fare, they have okoy a fried cake like thing with shrimp toppings, delicious and huge! All the while beggars are in force, its a nuisance but it's Xmas and you're supposed to have the spirit, but I gave only to a few. Then made my way to the mestizo district where the concentration of old Spanish houses in the old town are located. According to LP they are actually a combination of Mexican and Chinese styles with a Filipino touch such as the capiz shell windows. This is not the same as the old Spanish towns in Latin america, the architecture is different but I feel the Spanish influence, old ancient houses on cobblestone streets, the horses.. I quite like it because it's quiet not a lot of tourists unlike Leon or Granada or Arequipa where it is full of gringos. The people don't bother you except the calesa drivers but not very insistent. Outside of the crisologo St. the cobblestone main street, there are also a number of ancient hosues only you have to walk around the district to find them yourselves, the houses are huge and tall some look like they are about to crumble hopefully it gets restored before it's too late. the hotel i am staying is oe of the old houses converted to a hotel, very nice, with thick wood for floors, very homey.

Night time was also good to stroll around, the lanterns are lit, but it's not overwhelming, only a few places have them but good enough for me. i had dinner at the street food stalls, very cheap and delicious, I struggle to taste all the local specialities, from the main dishes to the sweets. I went to bed early exhausted.

The next day I went for a stroll in the public market behind a huge cemetery, it is very crowded and I love markets so i walked around for a good hour and had my breakfast there, people selling fruits, poultries, and seafoods, if only i am allowed to cook in the hotel I would have bought some here. The intensity of colors and light made me sick and then I realized i am about to have a migraine as I see auras so i decided to walk back and take a nap not after i went to the bus station next door to inquire about bus schedules to Laoag, they could not tell me the definite hours, annoying. It runs everyday even on Xmas day is all they can offer.

After my nap i spoke to the front desk and they made a call to bus lines and said the same thing, so tomorrow i just have to call in the AM to be sure of departure times. Walked to florentino for late lunch, kids walking around begging, some singing xmas carols for money, one thing though they are not very insistent, they move on pretty quickly. i struggled to find a sunscreen none of the shops sell them or at least I could not find them, I just have to prepare myself getting dark and burned in the northern sun of Ilocos. I bought a specialty here called Royal bibingka, and handed them to the staff of the hotel for being so nice to me. This is what I love about my birthplace, people are so courteous and polite, they greet you with sir or ma'am, I feel uncomfortable being greeted that way but it's part of the culture. There are museums around but I decided to skip them instead I wanted to observe the daily goings on in town, to see how people here live and go about their daily chores.


WIKI INFO:

The City of Vigan (Spanish: La Ciudad de Vigan / Ilocano: Siyudad ti Vigan] is a 5th class city in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. It is the capital of the Province of Ilocos Sur. The city is located on the western coast of the large island of Luzon, facing the South China Sea.

It is a World Heritage Site in that it is one of numerous Hispanic towns in the Philippines, and is well-known for its cobblestone streets, and a unique architecture that fuses Philippine building design, and construction with colonial European architecture.

According to the latest Philippines census, it has a population of 47,246 people in 9,193 households.

Former Philippine president Elpidio Quirino, the 6th president of the Philippines, has a residence in Vigan, the Syquia Mansion.


The area of Vigan was originally a settlement of traders coming from the Fujian Province, China. At the time of Spanish colonisation, the Chinese settlers, whose language was Southern Fujianese (Min Nan, often referred to as "Hokkien" or its Cantonese name "Fookien" by most Filipinos), referred to the area as "Bee Gan" (美岸 ; Mandarin pinyin: Měi Àn), which means "Beautiful Shore." Since the Castillian and Basque Spanish conquistadors interchanged V and the B to refer to the B sound, they spelled the Hokkien Chinese name "Bee Gan" (美岸) as "Vigan", which is the name used to this day.

Vigan's Chinese heritage is still evident from the numerous elite Chinese creole families who come from the area, many of whom adopted Hispanic family names. Others, such as the Sy-Quia family, have retained Chinese-derived surnames, though most, if not all, of the Christian Chinese creole families fully Hispanicised themselves culturally.

The most commonly known source of the city's name is from the Biga'a plant, which once grew abundantly along the banks of the Meztiso River, from which captain Juan de Salcedo derived the city's name (after a misunderstanding with the locals, thinking he was asking the name of the plants).

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Photos

Public market
longganisa