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Published: February 1st 2008
-gorgeous vivid green rice fields in the valley of the mountains
-cows (with or without a tether) on the roadside. They hang out in the sun or in the shade, a lot more cows were seated than I’m used to seeing.
-roadside wood carvers and their “shops” of wood
-colorful laundry on clothes lines
-terraces built/carved into the mountain side of rice, sugarcane, etc.
-bumpy, windy hairpin turns
-school children in uniform playing, walking, resting (mid-day on a Tuesday)
-waterfall down a mountain
-little huts/houses made of concrete block or bamboo or thatching with palapa-style roofs, and the occasional large mansion-type home
-roadside street basketball courts with boys playing hoops
-huge banana leaves (trees?) and palm trees and all sorts of other green - sort of a jungle feel in the mountains
- trikes (motorcycles with a side car attached), more Jeepneys (including the first ones I’d seen called “top loaders” which really only means that people pile on top and hang on!)
- The villagers would walk in the middle of the road, and drivers just honk at them but no one really gets out of the way - as a driver you just swerve around all the obstacles, whether
that is a person, a rooster, a group of cattle, trikes, slower cars, etc. When you’re headed face first into oncoming traffic with nowhere to go, it seems normal to just honk and both drivers proceed in a nice, friendly game of chicken.
-cock (rooster) huts
-incredible mountain/valley views complete with azure skies and rolling fog/clouds
-banners hanging on wires above and criss-crossing over the streets in tiny villages to celebrate “fiesta” - one town had blown up plastic bags connected to a wire above in a makeshift banner look
-signs seen: Angelina’s Junk Shop (I can only imagine what’s in there), “Mix Junks” and “Piglets for Sale”
-horses, cattle, goats grazing; lots of roosters
-vibrant flowers in red, yellow, pink, orange, white, peach, lavender, magenta, purple, etc.!
-stray dogs and cats
-the temperature changes from cool, breezy, sunny to pretty damn hot as you get down the mountains of Baguio
-people of all ages and both genders carrying colorful umbrellas to shield the intense sun
-ads painted on buildings for Coke and Tide. Lots of Tide. No seriously, so many Tide-painted huts, shops, buildings that I wonder if Tide sent out a rep to roam the countryside and paint
as much as possible with their logo and branding.
-things (trash? leaves?) burning along the road/out in the fields
-Catholic churches (and I saw one Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints church as well)
-a corn field, then many, many more cornfields
-a motorcycle shop
-a larger city (town?) Urbanetta with a nursing college (students in white nurse outfits, little white hats and all!), Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds, a couple wireless hot spots, a Sitel training school (they train potential agents for free, educate the area about their call centers, then offer jobs to those who pass certifications). Urbanetta is a city but I find it hard to call what I saw a full-blown city.
-a pile of coconut shells
-Outside Tarlac City we were stopped twice in 10 minutes by the police (lots of them in CHIPS-style tall black boots over the pants!). Rene my driver said they are checking for a “trip ticket” which is proper documentation justifying why you are where you are. Rene had to get out of the car while the searched the whole van, looked at my luggage, and looked real serious for too long for my taste. And then we were
stopped again outside Manila by another police officer. I did not enjoy these stops - my nature is to envision the worst. Luckily it was just more of a nuisance than any severe delay or worse.
-and more of same. Enjoy the photos and please keep in mind they were all taken out of a moving van…
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Soohiang
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Baguio to Manila
Interested in visiting the terraced rice fields in Baguio.....Banae(I think). Can I join a tour? If so which company do i join? How does one travel from Manila to Baguio? By air or by coach? which budget airline? which coach as I am more interested in the comfortable coach for tourists and not the local bus. W Which time of the year is best?