It is a Thursday and so let’s begin a series of Thursdays where I will be writing about our past trips as The Nomads. This one is about our getaway to the Philippine’s summer capital – Baguio City.
The Plan
To be honest, we didn’t plan this trip properly. It is just that I have been to Baguio City for a scholastic competition and fell in love with the city instantly. And so I decided to take the family there once we had the time and the budget.
The window of opportunity came with the Christmas vacation that means I will be off from work for about two weeks. Armed with my thirteenth month pay, and full of anticipation, we hopped on a bus and off we went to Baguio City.
First Night and the Teacher’s Camp
Our bus arrived at the city late in the afternoon. We are traveling on a budget so we headed directly to book our first night of stay at the Teacher’s Camp. I am a proud public school teacher so I am entitled for a big discount in the camp. We were given a room that is big enough for a family and we can say that it is such a nice place to stay. But not after Bossing read some ghost stories from the Internet…
On the next morning, we packed our bags and searched for a transient home that is not so famous. One that will not be worthy of ghost stories that will spoil our stay. Luckily, we found one easily and so let us go on and talk about the places that we visited here.
Burnham Park
This is one of the most famous places in the city and of course we won’t miss this one. The park is named after Daniel Hudson Burnham, an American urban planner who laid the plans and design for Baguio City. We spent our time riding a paddle boat on the man-made lake.
We also had our picture taken while wearing the traditional dress of the natives of Baguio City, the Igorots.
Baguio Botanical Garden
This place is just at a walking distance from the Teacher’s Camp and so this is the first one that we were able to visit. We spent our time enjoying the scenery and the beautiful plants and flowers.
The Philippine Military Academy
We spent almost a day exploring the Philippine Military Academy, where the galant soldiers of the Philippines were trained. There are lots of interesting things to see like the old planes, canons, tanks and artillery that were once used during the war.
If you are looking forward to seeing the cadets do their drill, going there during the Christmas vacation in not a good idea. We can say that we are partly fortunate to see the cadets do the drills. The good thing is that we were able to watch the future soldiers parade the ground and do their training drills. The bad thing is we were able to see freshmen and sophomores in the camp. We came to know that the juniors and seniors are allowed to join their families for Christmas festivities. It would have been nicer to see some senior, snappy cadets march around and do their drills.
The Other Places
We also visited these places:
- Strawberry Fields
- Benguet Trading Post
- SM Baguio
To Sum It All Up
Our tour of Baguio City is really worth the time and the money. The place is cool and the people are all so friendly and honest. Transportation is easy because there are lots of taxis around.
We visited Baguio in a time when we are just beginning to spend on tours and adventures. If given another chance, we would definitely come back and spend more quality time enjoying the summer capital of the Philippines.
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