Feb 22nd here in the Philippines already so Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter! I hope you have a great day Lani-know that I am thinking about you and sending you happy birthday wishes from the other side of the world. XO
Still a little drizzly here in Pagudpud but the sun is fighting to come through and we just caught a glimpse of a rainbow over the sea so are taking it as a sign that we are in for a beautiful day. Breakfast of 3 in 1 coffee (Filipino style double double) and a local meal called Tapsilog which consists of beef, rice and egg. Utensils,here are a fork and spoon so you push food onto spoon with fork and eat off spoon. $4 for breakfast.... Not bad! At this rate we are staying on budget - wahoo!
Tricycles are ordered so will pack up after breakfast and make our way to bus stop where we can catch bus to Laoag and then to Vigan (about 4 hours in total)
Till later.....
L & L
February 22nd continued...
If we can continue the way we're going we'll keep to our budget no problem! LOL. Or.....perhaps it is a lucky thing that northern Luzon is so reasonable as my hunch is that we might find prices a little higher once we get to the southern parts of the country.
We folded ourselves up into thirds again this morning to fit into those tiny tricycles ...although this time I got the one that Lynda had last time and I'm certain that it's "door" might have been a fraction of an inch bigger as it seemed a little easier to climb into. However the getting out was just as challenging and anything but elegant! In fact....you know how I said the driver might have to tip over the bike to get me out...well...I almost tipped it over myself at the Pagudpud bus station. I can tell you that it caused some mild hysteria and by the time I had completely disembarked the hysteria escalated once onlookers saw just how ridiculous it was for me to be in that little thing in the first place! On the upside...the trike is sure faster and easier than walking and dragging a suitcase all the way into town. It is about a 15 minute ride so maybe 3 or 4 km.
The travel fairies were with us again today so as we arrived at the Pagudpud bus terminal a bus was ready to depart for Laoag so on we jumped. Our fare for the two hour trip was 70 PHP ($2) and our bus was fantastic. The driver even had great music playing for the whole trip, we were able to have the windows open and once again we both got a single seat on the right hand side of the bus so had all the best views.
We passed by miles and miles of rice paddies, we made our way through what I'm calling the spice zone (as vendors sell mountains of garlic and salt), and we marvelled at the majesty of the massive white windmills that line the coastal road. They are so huge and so close that you cant even get a photo of one as it won't fit in the viewfinder on the tablet!
At our arrival in Laoag we were like locals because we knew where to find the station for the bus that would depart to Vigan. It was just two blocks away and so we made our way there and of course...there was a bus ready to head out right then so on we climbed for another two hour leg of our journey today. This bus wasn't quite as nice as the last one had been and there was no music and it took a little more than two hours (like at least 1/2 hr more) but we still couldn't complain as the cost was 120 PHP (less than $4) so the entire journey from Pagudpud to Vigan including two trikes and two fares on two buses was a grand total of $15 Canadian. I'm pretty sure that same amount wouldn't get us very far in Canada!
The scenery from Laoag to Vigan was very different from the views we'd had on our first bus. There were hardly any rice fields and this leg of the trip had us travelling through fields of corn, acres of tobacco, and even the occasional field of sugar cane. There were some similarities though and the most obvious of those was the speed that our bus travelled! The drivers don't look like they're any more than 12 and there is no doubt for either of us that we reached speeds in excess of 100K on those narrow winding roads very very often!
As we arrived in Vigan friendly Lynda struck up a conversation with a woman sitting on a bench and in no time she had a recommendation for a reasonably priced hotel near the centre of the city. We walked the three blocks to the Cordillera Family Hotel and fell in love with it as soon as we saw it. The hotel couldn't be any more central - it is right across the street from the main square. There is street food everywhere around us so we won't go hungry. The room is massive and the attendant rearranged things so there are now two beds for us. The shower room is separate from the toilet room and the sink is in between the two. There is air conditioning and.....drumroll.....HOT water! Lynda is overjoyed as she managed to avoid the cold water only shower in Pagudpud so she is ready for one tonight. Our room includes a full breakfast and....our room is a very reasonable $2000 pesos ($60) so just $30 each - wahoo!
As soon as we got registered and dropped our bags off we headed out to find some food as the time was nearing 3:00 and we hadn't had anything since breakfast. We followed our noses to the street food stalls at the edge of the main plaza and seconds after arriving were sitting down to freshly cooked empanadas. Vigan is kind of famous for it's empanadas and it is easy to see why....we gobbled down the first one and ordered a second. Inside the paper thin dough there is a little bit of pork mixture, some cabbage, and an egg (mostly the yolk). That dough is folded in half to form a half circle and dropped into super hot oil, fried till golden brown and cooked through and served piping hot seconds after you place your order. You sprinkle a mild vinegar over the empanadas and chow down. We washed down our lunch with ice cold Mountain Dew and when I went to pay the bill....it was well under $5 for the two of us.
It might be interesting for you to hear that today we've only seen two other caucasians and they walked by us right here in Vigan. I'd say from the number of smiles and shy "hellos" we receive that travellers who look like us may be a bit of a rarity.
After our empanadas we wandered around the plaza area and spent some time relaxing in the square with other locals. There were half a dozen young men working in the massive pool/fountain that is at the heart of the plaza. They were chest deep in the water and throwing scoop fulls of chlorine around. We watched them work at it for almost an hour (yes...that is how big the pool is!) and they still weren't finished. I can't imagine what their skin must look like when they finish that job!
While we watched them work we enjoyed a tiny ice cream cone for dessert. It's not that it was too tiny...it was actually just right. It was a cute little sugar cone filled with more than a dozen tiny scoops of ice cream. The ice cream was green, white, and purple. The green was avocado flavoured, the white was cheese and the purple was ode...something that comes from the ground and we have no idea...maybe purple potatoes???
We're now back in the room to cool off (temps here are pretty hot!) and in a few minutes we will head back out to catch a calisa (horse drawn buggy) for a one hour tour which will cost us a whopping 170 pesos ($5). That way we'll see the lay of the land around the city centre and be back in time to catch the fountain show that happens at 7:30 every night. It looks like it will be quite a show too....lots of flood lights and many many many fountains.
We're back.... And we're laughing so hard we can hardly stand it! First adventure of the evening was our ride in the calisa (horse drawn buggy). That poor little horse! Have you ever seen a horse trying to run when all it can get traction with is air? OMG....I'm 99% certain that was our horse tonight! You'd think they'd have some kind of little box for you to climb up on to get into that buggy that is about 100 feet above ground. But no.....they don't so, Lynda pushed my butt asking the driver for help (he responded with an emphatic "no" as he backed away from the danger) while I heaved myself into that buggy. As I sank into the buggy seat the entire world tilted slightly and once Lynda was ensconced as well....that little horse didn't have a hope of being able to touch the ground. There he hung suspended by the buggy braces (at least that was the picture we had in our minds). The driver continually reassured us that all was well and the horse would be fine. We're sure....his reply was in support of customer service - NOT the humane society! The 1 hour ride cost 170 pesos but we tipped generously with instruction to give the horse an extra helping for dinner tonight. The drivers at the calisa station all had a good chuckle...it was reminiscent of the trike in Pagudpud this morning. The buggy ride gave us an overview of the city centre and a highlight was a pedestrian street that as it turns out is right around the corner from our hotel lobby! So....once back at the hotel we made a beeline for this street and found a little coffee shop where we could refresh and recover from our buggy ride. JoAnne (the server there) was a great help for us. We had lots of giggles and then she connected us with her best friend Berto who happens to have a tricycle. But don't worry...the trikes in Vigan are much larger than the ones in Pagudpud - NOT!!! Well....it might be a fraction of an inch bigger but that is it. Bottom line though is that Lynda and I have hired Berto for two days to take us anywhere and everywhere and to give us the guided tour as we visit locations. It is going to be a fun time! Tonight as we left JoAnne at the coffee shop, Berto took us to the 7-11 to get water so we could "practice" on the trike. This practice was critical because while I would be ensconced inside that little contraption....Lynda would be perched atop the back of his motorbike riding sidesaddle....are you rolling in the aisles yet? I was and I was inside that thing. LOL. In the end....the practice was good and Lynda was able to sit astride the bike with her right foot inside the sidecar with me. The downside is that neither of us could see a damn thing! Lynda could only see the back of Berto's head and all I could see was the little plastic bag that was hanging in front of me. OMG!!! What have we signed up for?!
Berto is going to pick us up right after our hotel breakfast at 9:00 am to start day 1. I think our first stop will be somewhere called Hidden Garden where we can have lunch. Not sure how this will help me getting in and out of that contraption. JoAnne almost peed her pants laughing as she suggested perhaps a diet would be in order and here we are planning our lunch as soon as our breakfast is over. Oh dear.....I doubt either of us will sleep tonight as we'll be giggling the whole night through.
I'm not sure how we manage to do it but we've done it again. We were just going for a drink and to recover from the calisa fiasco and before we knew it there was another crazy adventure underway. We are soooo lucky! We just realized we're only on day three and you're all probably already tired of reading about our antics.
Till next time....
L & L
No comments:
Post a Comment