Unexpected Road Trip to the Summer Capital
The very first weekend of February 2016 was a long weekend because of this year’s Chinese New Year (CNY) fell on a Monday. Everyone gets excited over these long weekends because it usually means they get to travel or at the very least get some long needed rest from the hustle of the work week.
I like to travel but I am not usually fond of road trips and long drives if I’m the one behind the wheel. The farthest I’ve ever driven up north is Subic/Clark and down south would be Batangas. I also like things to be planned out especially when I travel so I actually surprised myself by pushing forward with this unexpected road trip.
My sister Issa and I were hanging out in our condominium’s pool/spa area on Sunday morning (Feb 6, 2016) when we realised that Monday was a holiday. We found ourselves racking our heads for something to do when she suggested that we go on a road trip. I was open to the idea as long as the destination wasn’t Tagaytay because we just spent the previous weekend there for my destination wedding. We ended up deciding to drive out to Baguio, spend the night there and drive back home the next day.
We left Manila around 1:30 pm, grabbed lunch at one of the gas stations along NLEX and headed to Baguio. We reached Kennon Road at around 4:30pm and started our ascent to the highland city of Baguio. This trip was special to me because there were a lot of firsts. It was my first time to go on a road trip with just me and my sister. It was my first time to drive all the way up to Baguio and back. And as far as I can remember this would probably be one of the most spur of the moment travel activities I’ve done so far.
We reached Baguio just a little before 6:00pm and was welcomed with some moderate traffic jam. There were a lot of tourist in Baguio that weekend but it wasn’t as bad as the usual December tourist rush. We were driving around looking for a hotel or hostel that we could check in for the night and we were lucky enough to get a room at the Lindi Hotel. The hotel was okay, it was clean, the standard room was spacious. We found the mattress very comfy. There was no air conditioning unit in the room but you won’t need it in Baguio.
After checking in we headed out for dinner. We walked around and checked out the local restaurants and ended up lining up for some steak at the Sizzling Plate Baguio. The restaurant was packed, the service was kind of slow but I guess that was understandable. The food was average and our overall experience was pulled down because we didn’t like their sizzling sisig. Their “best selling” sans rival dessert did not impress at all.
We then decided to check out the night market after dinner. It wasn’t open until 9:00pm so we decided to get some hot chocolate at a local McDonald’s. We then proceeded to the night market and we were surprised by the volume of people that was there. We walked through the market and found the pathway for customers to walk around was too cramped for our preference. We decided to head back to the hotel and even though we did not get to see most of the market, we did enjoyed the view from a pedestrian overpass.
We planned to wake up at 7:00am and take a morning walk around Burnham Park before getting breakfast. That plan went down the drain very quickly when we were both kept hitting the snooze button on our alarms. We finally woke up and decided to get breakfast first instead. We had breakfast at a local cafe called Cafe by the Ruins. There was a long line when we got there but definitely worth the wait. This is a major tourist spot and a go to foodie spot in Baguio. The prices, I felt was a bit on the pricey side but it seemed to be worth it when the food arrived (Sorry guys no food pics).
We checked out Burnham Park after breakfast. I haven’t been there in ages and it was nice to visit it and take a stroll around the park before heading back to Manila. We bought some strawberry jam and ube jam to take home to our family and took a lot of pictures.
After our morning stroll at the park, we headed back to our hotel room. We checked out before lunch time and started our drive back to Manila because we didn’t want to get caught in the traffic rush.
An unexpected road trip turned out to be a great bonding experience with my sister. We definitely had fun and we’re already looking forward to our next road trip.
