Take a second to consider this; When you think of this wonderful and diverse country, what is the first thing that comes into mind?
For me, the Philippines is one of the few countries on my travels that I don't know very much about. Maybe it's just one of the places that people can't attribute an immediate connection to. Most will associate Japan with technology, Singapore and Hong Kong with banking, and Vietnam with a fractured and war-torn history, but it's harder to do that with the Philippines.
When you mention this part of South East Asia some people probably conjure up images from it's sporting roots to boxing through Manny Pacquiao and 'The Thriller in Manila' match between Ali and Frazier. Today I was hoping to get a little taste of what the Philippines is all about.
When you mention this part of South East Asia some people probably conjure up images from it's sporting roots to boxing through Manny Pacquiao and 'The Thriller in Manila' match between Ali and Frazier. Today I was hoping to get a little taste of what the Philippines is all about.
I woke up for breakfast this morning at about 8.30am, before eventually dragging myself out of bed at about 9am and heading down to the dining room to get breakfast.
I haven't decided as yet (so perhaps others can weigh in on the debate) as to which of the three daily meals is the most difficult to cover when you're on holiday. Whatever you call it, 'dinner' (or tea to you Yorkshire people) is pretty easily covered, all countries have an evening meal, but breakfast and 'lunch' (Yorkshire translation - dinner) are totally different. In most places I think the difficult thing with breakfast is that is different to what we in England would associate with the first meal of the day.
In Korea, for example, breakfast contains rice, which to many people seems strange, it seems like only Americans and ourselves enjoy cereal in the morning. Lunch, can also be tricky, sandwiches are often an alien concept, and it can be hard not to end up eating something that's too filling that might spoil your final meal of the day. In somewhere like Spain for example, it's hard to get lunch at all because almost everything is closed. Thankfully worldly-wise to all these differences, I managed to book a hotel where they serve breakfast so that takes some of the difficult about finding something to eat.
When I checked in last night, the lady at the desk asked me if I wanted a Filipino breakfast or something else, and unaware what either choice was going to be, I just agreed to sample the local serving this morning.
I haven't decided as yet (so perhaps others can weigh in on the debate) as to which of the three daily meals is the most difficult to cover when you're on holiday. Whatever you call it, 'dinner' (or tea to you Yorkshire people) is pretty easily covered, all countries have an evening meal, but breakfast and 'lunch' (Yorkshire translation - dinner) are totally different. In most places I think the difficult thing with breakfast is that is different to what we in England would associate with the first meal of the day.
In Korea, for example, breakfast contains rice, which to many people seems strange, it seems like only Americans and ourselves enjoy cereal in the morning. Lunch, can also be tricky, sandwiches are often an alien concept, and it can be hard not to end up eating something that's too filling that might spoil your final meal of the day. In somewhere like Spain for example, it's hard to get lunch at all because almost everything is closed. Thankfully worldly-wise to all these differences, I managed to book a hotel where they serve breakfast so that takes some of the difficult about finding something to eat.
When I checked in last night, the lady at the desk asked me if I wanted a Filipino breakfast or something else, and unaware what either choice was going to be, I just agreed to sample the local serving this morning.
Thankfully, breakfast didn't seem drastically different to what you'd expect in most western hotels as I was served with an egg, some bacon, rice and papaya. The bacon was flavoured slightly sweetly, rather than the way you'd expect it to be salty, but once my brain got around that difference my plate was emptied very quickly.
Today's plan of action was to hit three of Baguio's main sights; Session Road - The main street in the city, Baguio Cathedral - More properly known as Our Lady of Atonement Cathedral, and Burnham Park - which my taxi driver took me on a circuit of last night on his way to the hotel.
Before I start with my tales of today, I have to be honest, and brace a very difficult subject. Since returning to Asia, I have noticed a couple of different things about myself; firstly, I'm much less shocked by 'unusual' sights. When I first moved to Korea, I got serious sensory overload from everything that I saw on a day-to-day basis, and would pretty much everything in sight. In an attempt to not be 'one of those people' who takes a picture of absolutely everything (not obvious when I eventually upload all my pictures) there are certain things which I realise that will be very bad at conveying a sense of. Many of the things I expect to see, and experience in Asia, will be more about feelings and emotions than sights. It seems like there's always so much going on with sounds and smells, that it's often hard to keep a track of it all through my blog - I am but one man - and a man who often finds it hard to bring to his readers a sense of the atmosphere so I must apologise if I gloss over any details, or don't properly explain things.
Opposite this I could hear the shrill cries of delight, and the sound of children, indicating that I was getting fairly close to Burnham Park. Around the next corner I saw a large group of people sitting on the park lawns eating family picnics and just generally enjoying themselves in the sunshine. I decided to continue going around the park, not as yet completely clear where I was heading, before eventually finding what looked like an entrance.
Almost immediately that feeling of sensory overload began to return. It has been a while since my last trip to the continent so I had begun to forget some of the nuances which drew me back here once again.
The first thing I was drawn to was the sheer space that seemed to be all around me. Directly in front of me there was what looked to be like a food market so I carefully made my way down one side of it until I reached the end, and found what was actually the park entrance. I later went on to realise that had I just continued walking straight off the street my hotel was on, I would have been there about five minutes quicker.
About half way down the there was a football pitch with what appeared to be a tournament going on. I use the term pitch lightly because they weren't exactly playing at the Emirates. It was more a patch of grass which has the markings on it. In fairness I'm sure driving a tractor across the pitch at half time did the surface lots of favours!
Once I got to the end of the food row I continued to walk straight ahead in the direction of another small looking park area. I took my life into my own hands attempting to cross the road without any support from the natives for the first time which was perhaps the most daunting thing I will do on this journey. I continued climbing up a couple of flights of stairs and eventually came across the town hall building which was a pretty impressive white brick building built at the top of the hill.
I walked back down not quite sure what to do next so I decided that whilst I was there I was going to do a lap of the park to see what else was there. I came across the lake which was filled with a variety of boats bobbing up and down on it. Most people looked as though they were just generally enjoying the sun in the picnic area. Just before I got back to where I started I noticed there was loud music and the sound of fun being had coming from a rather large caged building in the middle. Walking around to the entrance it looked like some sort of arcade or funfair like you might find at the seaside. Around the outside was a roller skating track which had a couple of people making their way round it, and then inside there were table tennis tables as well as a couple of rides including the dodgems.
After taking in all the fun of the fair I decided to head off and try to find the next port of call I'd written down which was Session Road. Not a sight in itself, but the main shopping area which is where I'd heard led up to the Cathedral which was next on the list.
I walked out of the park, up and over a footbridge where I stood for a while and watched as traffic from four different directions didn't move anywhere for at least one rotation of lights. I didn't need a road sign to tell me that this was Session Road with its fantastically coloured Jeepneys, chaotic traffic situation and people weaving in and out of one another on the narrow pavements.
I went completely across the bridge and came down with some of the road still to navigate. This was my first real experience of a high street in the Philippines, and I was surprised how many shops it appeared to hold. It was a surreal feeling because I was walking up a hill, but the buildings still seemed to be towering above no matter how much high the path got. Once I got to the top of the road, there was a sign to the cathedral to the left so I followed the road and there in front of me shining in all it's glory was the very bright Baguio Cathedral. For some reason the image of the cathedral was one that had stuck in my head from my research, so I was pretty impressed to find that it looked exactly as it had done on Wikipedia.
There seemed to be a mass going on inside the church, so I didn't a chance to see the interior, but what did draw my eye was the opportunity for what appeared to be a fantastic view out over the city just next to where the cathedral sat. There were some small market stalls just next to the church which had a cafe in, and there was a sign to say there was a viewpoint within.
Almost immediately it took my breath away and I was amazed by the field of vision you had from there. You could see out over the top of everything, into Burnham Park and down Session Road, the only thing that was preventing this from being a perfect view were the strange clouds which appeared to be descending. Built on hilly landscape it appeared that part of Baguio was suspended half-in and half-out of the candyfloss-like clouds which continued to roll and move for the twenty minutes I stood there and looked out impressed with the view below making sure to take plenty of pictures of what I was seeing. This is when I feel like it's one of those unfortunate times where my description and the photographs I've taken really don't do justice to the imagines in front of my eyes.
Having accomplished my three main objectives for the day it was back to Burnham Park for a snack and then to sit around the lake for a little while. I would really liked to have gone on a boat and eaten ice cream, but instead I settled for half of that as I managed to find some kind of fake cornetto to cool myself down after all that walking. The water in the lake didn't look the clearest - in fact that's a bit of an understatement; It was brown. But looking on I was envious of all those people out there having fun. The mysterious cloud haze which I had seen at the top of the hill next to the cathedral all of a sudden seemed to be getting lower and within a few minutes it was like a scene from a horror movie as everything went really foggy before eventually brightening back up again.
I sat for a little while with my jumper on until my legs started to get goosebumps, and at that point I decided to return to bed. I'd say that my first full day in the city was definitely a success, I only had one more
challenge to overcome which was getting some dinner. I decided to head back in the direction of the park to see if some of those food vendors were still there, and it looked as though the place had actually got busier with more people milling around in a square which now had a fountain lit up in lots of bright and different colours. After grabbing some food I headed back to my room for the evening and attempted to plan out what activities I can carry out tomorrow.
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Almost immediately that feeling of sensory overload began to return. It has been a while since my last trip to the continent so I had begun to forget some of the nuances which drew me back here once again.
The first thing I was drawn to was the sheer space that seemed to be all around me. Directly in front of me there was what looked to be like a food market so I carefully made my way down one side of it until I reached the end, and found what was actually the park entrance. I later went on to realise that had I just continued walking straight off the street my hotel was on, I would have been there about five minutes quicker.
About half way down the there was a football pitch with what appeared to be a tournament going on. I use the term pitch lightly because they weren't exactly playing at the Emirates. It was more a patch of grass which has the markings on it. In fairness I'm sure driving a tractor across the pitch at half time did the surface lots of favours!
I walked back down not quite sure what to do next so I decided that whilst I was there I was going to do a lap of the park to see what else was there. I came across the lake which was filled with a variety of boats bobbing up and down on it. Most people looked as though they were just generally enjoying the sun in the picnic area. Just before I got back to where I started I noticed there was loud music and the sound of fun being had coming from a rather large caged building in the middle. Walking around to the entrance it looked like some sort of arcade or funfair like you might find at the seaside. Around the outside was a roller skating track which had a couple of people making their way round it, and then inside there were table tennis tables as well as a couple of rides including the dodgems.
I walked out of the park, up and over a footbridge where I stood for a while and watched as traffic from four different directions didn't move anywhere for at least one rotation of lights. I didn't need a road sign to tell me that this was Session Road with its fantastically coloured Jeepneys, chaotic traffic situation and people weaving in and out of one another on the narrow pavements.
I went completely across the bridge and came down with some of the road still to navigate. This was my first real experience of a high street in the Philippines, and I was surprised how many shops it appeared to hold. It was a surreal feeling because I was walking up a hill, but the buildings still seemed to be towering above no matter how much high the path got. Once I got to the top of the road, there was a sign to the cathedral to the left so I followed the road and there in front of me shining in all it's glory was the very bright Baguio Cathedral. For some reason the image of the cathedral was one that had stuck in my head from my research, so I was pretty impressed to find that it looked exactly as it had done on Wikipedia.
There seemed to be a mass going on inside the church, so I didn't a chance to see the interior, but what did draw my eye was the opportunity for what appeared to be a fantastic view out over the city just next to where the cathedral sat. There were some small market stalls just next to the church which had a cafe in, and there was a sign to say there was a viewpoint within.
Almost immediately it took my breath away and I was amazed by the field of vision you had from there. You could see out over the top of everything, into Burnham Park and down Session Road, the only thing that was preventing this from being a perfect view were the strange clouds which appeared to be descending. Built on hilly landscape it appeared that part of Baguio was suspended half-in and half-out of the candyfloss-like clouds which continued to roll and move for the twenty minutes I stood there and looked out impressed with the view below making sure to take plenty of pictures of what I was seeing. This is when I feel like it's one of those unfortunate times where my description and the photographs I've taken really don't do justice to the imagines in front of my eyes.
I sat for a little while with my jumper on until my legs started to get goosebumps, and at that point I decided to return to bed. I'd say that my first full day in the city was definitely a success, I only had one more
Parklife
Parklife Nike Football Advert
Blur (1994)
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