Let’s Go On An Adventure
(VIGAN, The Philippines)
by Miko Chato
The hardest thing about going on a three-week break to travel the world and experience a new culture is when it ends and you have to get back to reality. You know, get on track with whatever you were previously busy on. You’re left alone with this attachment to the place that you can’t just shake off. Your body still desires to travel and still begs to see more things. Wanderlust, they call it. It’s definitely frustrating. And I definitely still have it.
A couple of weeks ago, my family and I flew back to the Philippines to spend Christmas and New Year’s with my sister, who’s busy studying there for university. My family and I prefer spending the holidays outside of Saudi Arabia mostly because the vibe here is not exactly exciting and Christmas-y during the December-January months since it’s a Muslim country. Anyhow, this year, we decided to go on a city-hopping adventure for about two weeks to discover a little more about the Filipino culture and have quality family-bonding time.
After twelve hours of exhausting travel and a stopover in Singapore, we arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila around 4 in the afternoon (I think, I honestly can’t remember). The best thing about the whole thing was that we were on a Singapore Airlines flight, which right on means 10/10 entertainment system and A+ food selection. I bombarded my eyes and ears with three almost 2-hour movies, one Family Guy episode and Trey Songz latest album and I was bombarded with delicious dinners and a variety of drinks. I can’t recall if I ever slept on that plane.
We stayed in Manila for a couple of days, meeting some relatives here and there, going to the malls and eating a lot of pork (since pork is illegal in Saudi). The best thing about the Philippines is that even though corruption and poverty are literally just in every corner except the commercialized areas, the people still become very festive around the holidays and still try to give off good vibes. The shops there literally begin selling Christmas decorations and New Year fireworks when the month of September starts. It was freaking exciting.
My parents have been planning this trip for quite a while now and have been making itineraries with subheadings and little notes on a notebook of where they want us to go. To summarize everything, we were going to visit three cities, not counting Manila, in the country: Vigan, Baguio and then Cebu. I’ve never been to any of those cities before, unlike my parents, and was quite thrilled to take on that journey.
The first leg of our Philippine escapade was Vigan — known to be the one of the only cities in the country who still has kept and who has restored the Spanish influences from over a century ago. We planned on staying there for only two nights since Vigan isn’t exactly that big. Also, Vigan doesn’t have any airports so if tourists want to see the city, they would either have to drive a car for about 8 hours from Manila OR ride on a bus for 8 hours also from Manila. Seeing that we didn’t own a car, we took the latter and treated ourselves by booking these deluxe seats at this bus company (called Partas) and man, the seats were amazing. Who knew there were different seats on a bus?
Since it was only a bus, there was not much entertainment given to us although they did show a cheesy Filipino film during the first two hours. After that, I just entertained myself with some music. The bus trip included three bus stops, where you can use the bathroom and get something to eat for about 20 minutes each. Eight hours later, we found ourselves in the heart of Vigan, the infamous city of the Ilocos Sur province. The bus trip wasn’t bad at all — quite different from long hours of traveling that I was used to but it was bearable.
Welcomed to Vigan with a warm nice weather around 5 in the morning, we first checked in at the Metro Vigan Regency Hotel, which was interesting. Let’s just say that we’ve been in more welcoming and more hospitable hotels. Since we were only sleeping there for two nights, we stayed and dozed off for a couple of hours. After having regained some energy and recomposed ourselves, we got out of the hotel and hailed one of those tricycles to go to Calle Crisologo (which translates Crisologo Street).
Calle Crisologo is basically the most frequently visited tourist spot in the whole of Vigan. This is mostly because of the Spanish-influenced houses and apartments lined up on its sides, the horse-drawn carriages which charges 150 pesos (3.41 USD) and of course, the cobbled stones that are laid out along the street. It’s one of those postcard-like and Instagram worthy places in the Philippines that is often featured on advertisements created by the country’s Department of Tourism. I might sound rather pessimistic about this but I actually loved it. There were so many things to look at. The historical landmarks and architecture all around me gave my artsy farty heart palpitations. Aside from what I mentioned above, there were also souvenir shops and cafes lined along the streets.
Interesting story: when I was checking out some of the shops, a group of uniformed musicians with their snare drums and trumpets turned around the corner of Calle Crisologo and paraded along the street. Thinking that it was some sort of cheery fiesta-like event, I started to take a Snapchat of it. Moments later, I spotted a casket being pushed along at the end of the parade. I lowered my phone and I was speechless because of the scene that I was experiencing. I didn’t expect to see anything like that there and I didn’t know that this was how the people of Vigan mourned for the dead. It’s interesting because it’s a different way of looking at the concept of death. Instead of taking it as negativity, these people chose to promote positivity. This made me more excited to see the rest of Vigan.
About 42 selfies, 20 snapchat stories and 1 (just one!) Instagram post later, we hailed another tricycle to take us to Bantay Bell Tower, an ancient spire sprouting atop a hill. To be honest, when I was there, I knew nothing about the bell tower. All I knew was that its rustic Spanish architecture looks incredibly majestic against the pale blue backdrop. It was situated next to a church. There wasn’t as much tourists as there were back in Calle Crisologo.
We climbed to the very top (where the bell was located) and man, the view was breathtaking. I could see the rest of Vigan and its neighboring cities like a messenger looking out for incoming trouble. Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure that was one of the purpose of the belltower: to look out for any enemies; they’d ring the bell as soon as they see anyone charging towards them. That’s why it’s called Bantay Bell Tower, right? Bantay means “to guard” in Tagalog. Please don’t quote me on this.
Since my mother loves churches not because of the “architecture” but actually because of the religious and holy connotations associated to them, we went to the church next to the bell tower. I’m not sure if I was allowed to take photos but I didn’t anyway, out of respect. It was also quite grand, like the tower outside. The details of churches have always amused (and distracted) me as a child. Every time I had go to church, I wouldn’t pay attention to the priest but would rather follow the lines and shapes that the church’s walls and columns make. Also, the windows in every church I’ve been in are very distracting especially with their colors reflecting the light from outside.
It was about noon when we decided to head back to Calle Crisologo to get some lunch. We first stopped at this museum/house on the way, though. Apparently, it was the house of one of the famous Crisologo personalities. Again, I wasn’t aware of the history of the place when we were there. I only found out that “Crisologo” was a name when we got to the museum but based on my research though, the Crisologos are a family of politicians in Vigan. What I really liked about the museum was how it was run on voluntary work and donations. It’s amazing how the community are actually putting all their time and effort on something that probably won’t even give them anything close to the value of minimum wage but they’re still doing it just to preserve history and artifacts.
From black and white photographs, newspaper clippings dating back to the 60's and uniforms used during the Spanish colonial era, the people of Vigan has really recovered numerous relics. The old photographs were the ones that I deeply paid attention to; they gave me chills down my spine and I was so attracted to them. Some of the figures in them looked quite emotionless and something out of a low-budget Filipino horror film.
The ground floor was dedicated to these artifacts that give the audience some sort of history of the city, along with some vehicles used in the olden days. In the floor above, that was where the actual “house” was set up. The layout reminded me of houses we would see in Filipino history books back when I was in elementary school. This opportunity gave me the chance to look at the past; I felt like I was transported decades back. The house itself made me think of the lifestyle back then, how everything was so simple and mundane. Back then, though, it was probably normal. Despite feeling like my stomach was about to eat itself due to hunger, we stayed there for a while, admiring the aged household pieces.
When we couldn’t take it any longer, we set forth towards Calle Crisologo. There, we saw this tiny hole-in-a-wall restaurant called Cafe Leona. Man, the food there was delicious. From pork to chicken to fish, we ordered a lot of authentic Filipino dishes and talked about the things we just saw. Yes, it’s quite normal for Filipinos to have lunch with so many different dishes all at the same time as long as we have rice. Rice is life. After having lunch, we spent more time in Calle Crisologo.
Around 5 in the late afternoon, we went off to Plaza Burgos, a park dedicated to Padre Burgos, one of the three priests accused of mutiny and hanged by the Spaniards during the 19th century. It was a good place to meet the locals and not just bump into tourists. The park was surrounded with trees and Christmas lights while the centre is composed of a statue of Padre Burgos. There were food shops here and there, where we shamelessly stuffed ourselves with Vigan food once more.
As the day officially come to a close, my sister dragged us to the Dancing Fountain, which was walking distance from Plaza Burgos. The Dancing Fountain is a water/lights show near the Capitol usually played with Top 40 songs in the background. When we went, the show was played with a mix of Christmas tunes. Even though it felt quite repetitive, it was definitely impressive.
To wrap up the night, we walked back towards Calle Crisologo. You can definitely tell how much we loved that street. This was the time when we realize how most of the tourist spots were near each other and how we really didn’t have to hail any of those tricycles earlier. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves and checked out the street at night. It looked as impressive and awe-inspiring as it did in the morning, with its cobbled stones and side shops lit by artificial yellow light.
It was tough leaving the city of Vigan behind. The city has left us with an attractive impression that we weren’t easily willing to let go. Even though we only stayed there for a short amount of time, we still had an amazing time. Would I want to go there again? Definitely but next time, I would also visit its neighboring villages and the other cities of Ilocos Sur besides Vigan. I loved everything about the city and I’m glad I could finally check it off my bucket list.
Next leg of the two-week journey: Baguio!
