On the Road Again

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So,..... yesterday, after 7hrs and 7000 km on a plane followed by 7 days sitting around in a small room watching downloaded videos, we're on the move. Spent most of the day in the car travelng North along the MacArthur highway from Tagaytay to Illocos and a small historical town called Vigan. I thought it might be worth seeing after seeing a feature on in back home on a cooking show (Island Feast). Any travel blog or travelouge will tell you it's an old Spanish Town with cobbled streets and Spanish Architecture.

Turns out it's only one street, but WHAT A STREET!!! At the risk of sounding just a little cliched, it's a little like walking through a time warp - except for the foreign tourists, souvenir vendors, cameras and motorised traffic crossing at every intersection. Cars etc are banned in the street which is reserved for pedestrians and horse drawn carts or Calesa. Well worth the trip IMO.

On an aside - climate in Tagaytay was actually cool and reasonably pleasant with temps in the mid to high 20's and whispering breezes taking the edge off the humudity (not a typo 😉 ). Vigan is a different story. It's 7:00am as I write this and it's already 27deg C and about 1000pct humidity.

Not a lot of observations on the road trip that would differ from last time except to say that the crops and vegetation are different in the North of Luzon, changing from the ubiquitous pineapples near Tagaytay to sugar and corn up here. I noticed in a couple of towns traffic control signs that were a bt confusing - to me at least.

A white circular sign with pale blue border and pale blue writing saying Slow Down was clear enough, but when exiting town the similarly formatted the had a sign saying God Speed. I couldn't but wonder just how fast that was - couldn't see it on the speedo.

Going to stop now before the sweat dripping from my brow shorts out my Tablet.

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Photos

Voice of America
Saw these on the way - no explanation necessari I guess

P1020203
you gotta wonder

Local SUVs?
Apparently you attach a self propelled rotary hoe to a trailer and Bob's your uncle

Speaking of Bob
Local plumbing supplier making a delivery

Streetscape
The "main drag" in Vigan

Building 101
When the actually used real bricks in the Philippines

National Trust
A Korean consortium bought this place and wanted to barrel it to build a new hotel . . . . .

National Trust 2
... fortunately the locals had a different ides

Mr Ed
Looks really happy doesn't he

P1020430
Can't help but feel sorry for the poor bugger

Empanada - a local delicacy
A lot like Cis (Polish) really. Meat in the pastry, the difference is they add a little veg and a raw egg before sealing and deep frying

Comments

[Kaibigan ni Juan]

Those bastards! They probably thought they could grease some official to allow it ... it may still happen and what a sad day that would be.

[Kaibigan ni Juan]

I sincerely hope you had some! They are awesome!

[Kaibigan ni Juan]

NICE!