The aftermath of the long weekend

Highlights of the long weekend

Travelling by bus can be torture. Or worse. Deciding on the friday bus ride to Baguio was perhaps the smartest decision we made for the weekend. Apparently the rest of Manila had the same idea --- go to Baguio for the weekend, enjoy the cold (?) air, make like thieves in the night and take the friday bus. We arrived to the chaos that was the bus terminal at 1045, expecting to get an 11pm ticket. How stupid of us not to consider it's a long weekend (and payday at that!) The line was atrocious, and we ended up getting a ticket for a bus that was leaving at 3am. Whoo-pee doo.

Have a plan. Have more than one plan. Had we waited for Sonic and friends to go to Baguio, i think we may never have made it there. They have been eeriely silent despite my nth message re: when and where we were going to stay in Baguio. Luckily, my cousin Aumer got us a reservation at one of the rooms in her place --- asteeg!it's big, clean, quiet and yup, cheap. Best of all, my cousin knows the owner, so we got to have a lil' bit more freedom when it came to using the facilities.

Make like a toursit and do the sight-seeing bit.We opted to do the "tourist" thing and check out the spots --- walking was a good exercise, despite the growing pollution problem (what do you expect, Manila peeps with their cars and vehicles were doubling the pollution). Fantastic sights at the Butterfly place in John Hay, as well as interesting stuff at the Commissary, and yep, we had to go through Narda's for the required look-see of bags, et al. hehhe. And of course, since we were staying near the grotto, we couldn't resist a trip to the top --- in less than 5 mins! :-) whoo-hoo! (Not bad for a couple who haven't been exercising for a couple of months)

Food, glorious food! The two days and one night that we were there was perhaps a lesson on food 101. We were staying near the famed Salud! resto, so we had a scrumptious dinner. Cheesecake at the John Hay Manor was heavenly, as was the dinner at Cafe by the Ruins (we were hoping to grab some lunch there, but had to move since they were sooo many people). A little bit of caffeine dose at the local coffee place in Legarda, as well as Ruins tea topped off our meals.

Wake up and Smell the coffee! Checked out the public market for some take-home goodies and ended up buying some fruits, coffee and --- yes--- more coffee!! We had some whole beans (as well as ground beans) from the local coffee shop (Kape Umali) which pereked us up all throughout the time we had them.Yes, they smelled great, but after a while they just began smelling. And smelling. hahaha. On the way back the bus started to smell like coffee. :-P

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Divisoria, part deux

On the afternoon of Monday (a holiday declared by el Presidente Macapagal) Mary, Jason and I trekked to Divisoria via the MRT. Twas a a nice afternoon and yes, i got to buy the stuff i needed for work. We got to check out the lovely yest people-packed Tutuban Center for items and decided to move to Quiapo to source out some martini glasses i needed.

What's amazing about Divisoria is the extreme variety of everything found in one crowded place --- all sorts of items, sold from the cheapest price, to the most expensive; people, from the richest to the poorest, all in one giant market; the roads disapppear as carts and carts of items stop in the middle of the road, consuming the space meant for vehicles; selling and buying everywhere; Oh the madness!!!!

Jason and I decided to take a pedicab to Quiapo. (Mary opted to stay in Tutuban, checking out more goodies.) Anyhoo, we arrived at the famed Public Market, where we bought food for dinner (and get the martini glasses ordered!) and yes, sample the local goods the place had to offer. Jason splurged on his fave shakes (Php 6 a glass) and some pomelos (heheh) while i ate some corn on cob and looked over some of the street food that looked oh-so-yummy. :-)

After a tiring day, we managed to get back tothe MRT and head off to Katipunan. Ahhh. It feels soo good to get out of Manila!

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