Cloudy or Foggy?

Zero visibility. Inside the car, the kids were having a lil' argument regarding the white smoke that seemed to envelope the mountains and the roads. One girl said : it's fog, it's so cold so there's thick fog. From which the other girl stressed : No! It's not only fog, we were too high above, it's some kind of cloud.The first layer.

And where do you think we were at that point? _ Great Wall of China??? hahaha! feeling. . . :))). .I wish.

click.click.click. I was inside the car, window closed and taking photos while the vehicle was moving through the foggy/cloudy zigzag road of Marcos Highway, on our way out from Baguio City. Husband doubted the success of my photo ops. He advised me to roll down the window so the lens would have an easier time. I did but closed it back right away. It was windy and cold and very noisy. I continued with my blind clicking.

Hubby is right beside me now. He's looking at my pictures and well he's a tad surprise about the end result. Not bad eh! A lil' darker but they came out ok, right? Look at the water cascading from the hidden upper parts of the giant mountains.

I lke this one. Green still visible inspite of the cloudiness.

Many of my friends had asked me the location of these 2 photos when I posted them in my private fb account. They said they wanted to visit it too when they go up to Baguio.

It was actually at Marcos Highway. The bar is called Biker's Den. We didn't know it was a bar. We thought it was a restaurant cos we were hungry and wanted to eat. It was the only food establishment we saw on the road. We went down without reading. When inside, only then we realized that it was a bar and would not be open until later at night. No food!!! We look around and saw their beautiful hanging den with the sky surrounding us. I also saw lots of Harley Davidson motorcycles inside the place. I wanted to take photos of them but hubby hurried us to go.



On the lower part of Marcos Highway, the road started to clear up. I like this road better than Kennon Road.

6 Minutes = The Mansion and The Botanical Garden

We stopped at The Mansion for 3 minutes. You know just to check if there was something new.

But apart from this Christmas scene manger - ( I think it was beautiful, I don't know if the maker of this manger had intentionally placed it at this exact location, where the sun threw its early morning light to baby Jesus. It was like replicating the Chrismas story, only it happened at night and the light supposedly came from the brightest star as the source .),  we saw nothing but the old white grandiose mansion. Still closed to the public.




Secretly, I always hope that The Mansion would be open to the public, the way the Malacanang Palace in Manila is. I'm bored with photos forever taken at the facade of this presidential vacation house.

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We then proceeded to Botanical Garden for another rushing 3 minutes. It was our first time to get down here. When passing by, we usually saw people at the entrance of this garden taking photos with authentic Igorots wearing their authentic clothes. That morning was no exemption, local tourists still flocked at the gate doing the same.




Yes the garden was beautiful the way most of the gardens are in Baguio. I wonder whatelse could we see here aside from the obvious pretty flowers and greens.




Remember we were here for 3 minutes so we could only afford to enjoy those visible by sight without much commitment to motion.

We saw this but failed to grasp the significance of the structure. I'm sure, it has to do with war history. Must be an important one to deserve a center stage location in Botanical Garden.




There were Igorot huts replicas but we didn't have time to check them out. Maybe next time.

Kids at Mines View Park

I couldn't remember a time we didn't drop by to Mines View when got to visit Baguio. I guess most of us do. It's another of those parks you frequent, you're not actually expecting to see something new, you just want to breathe its familiar air. Then you feel good and then you go.

Well, as I expected, nothing was new in my recent visit. I didn't even bother to go down to the view deck the way I usually did in the past visits.

I wish I could share the enthusiasm of these girls ( younger daughter & her

cuzin' ) whose number of visits here is still less than 10. They were as excited as their first time to go down and play with vernaculars which I think they rented for minimal fee.
So I followed them and watched how they made their nth time visit to old Mines View Park with giggles and laughters bubbling with fun. 




For only P10 each_ they rented the Igorot clothes and had fun role playing as ones.

Hey, we (the elders) thought we'd do the same. corny? But real fun to do it with the whole group. We all had a good laugh of each other.

I had already guessed that the girls couldn't pass with a photo ops with the St. Bernard who seemed to be borne as a model dog. It's amazing how this dog has been  trained to pose infront of the camera with strangers. That was also for a crazy P10 fun.




Ofcourse our more matured ladies joined the fun.




Energy going down? haha.

. . so we sat too, what would be next? ( remember the kids led, the elders followed on our pursuit to enjoy this nth time visit to this old beautiful park as enthusiastic as the kids were ). . . only to listen to the kids whining that they were already hungry.

Time to hit the street foods _ corn on sticks-steamed and grilled, grilled squids, banana cue and ofcourse the




famous strawberry taho see here. We actually didn't like the taho in Mines View. The strawberries were too much crushed, almost no texture at all. We had better cups infront of  The mansion.

Mines View Park Hotel

When you frequent a place, it becomes too familiar. Similar to a  more than 15 years marriage. Everything becomes routine and monotonous. But does the marriage doom to end for that issue alone? No! The couple finds ways to add spice and re-create to ignite the relationship based on the foundation of marriage which is love. I wish I could share you some from my personal book, but hey this is a travelogue. Sorry, that would be in another blog.
So I love Baguio. Many of us from the lands below this mountain city, I'm sure feel the same. So how do I keep my enthusiasm towards this uberly familiar place. I find ways. I re-create. I go to places, do things, eat food, I missed during my last visit. I re-discover, or take another shot of the things I enjoyed on my last visit.

We usually stayed in the downtown Baguio simply because it's near to everywhere else. Come to think of it, Baguio in any angle is actually near to everywhere else, hahaha! Anyway, we just want some change this time. So when the chance to stay at the upper Baguio was on the table, we grabbed it.Since it was all our first time to stay at Mines View Park Hotel, we were all excited.

The kids particularly enjoyed the ride going up to the garage lobby of the hotel. It was quite steep and they were shouting as if riding one of the carnival rides. The hotel was  near right  the Mines View Park. so you could imagine a little isolation at night.

my family's room

cousins' room

Each room was rightly for 4 pax. The rooms actually look bigger in the photos than they actually were. Yet they got everything we needed.

Coffee & tea facility - check. * these were inside the cabinet,why? Mini bar/ref - check. Safety deposit box - check.



LCD t.v. with cable channels - check. Wi-fi - check. * the signal was strong on the daytime, at night, the girls had to go down to the reception lobby to get connected. View - check. * over our window, thu' we're only on the 2nd level,  it was already fantastic. could be maximized if the glass windows were bigger. in my cousins' room, they see nothing but the roofs of the lobby building. choose your room location if you could.

Complimentary fruits - check. * fruit basket would be aptly for this cabin lodge hotel. Baguio has lots of  beautiful handcrafted baskets in all sizes. these lonely 3 fruits would make the guest feel extra special if served in a a little basket instead of the hospital feel of the disposable white plate. Spa - check. * we had not visited the spa of the hotel but there was. instead my too tired hubby opted for a room massage service. quite expensive for P700. most hotels charge only P500 for the same treatment.

When we entered the room, I had noticed that the room was not fully prepared for us. The comforters were not even placed on the beds yet. No towels. But everything was set right when we went back at night. The beds were made. with comforters_yes. Towel arrangement on the beds with complimentary goodnight drinks.

The girls enjoyed the hot choco before they went to bed.



They super love the weather here in Baguio especially in this upper woods side, it was much colder x nth times.

We were satisfied with their food at the resto cafe and the ambiance was nice. But I think it was small.

When we were about to check-out, there was a large group having a lunch buffet at the patio.

We were asked to transfer our car from the down below our room  garage to the front of the hotel. Moving our luggages to the car outside was a tad inconvenient. There was a nice hotel staff who assisted us thu', thank you very much!



Among all of these things, the view was the best treat ever. Heaven was just a glance a way.

And more than the place, it's actually the people you're with that makes a stay extra special.