…why spending Christmas in Baguio is such a hassle.
Horrific traffic jams everywhere. This is Kennon Rd, not EDSA.
Death and Resurrection by BenCab
Since it was my kids’ first time to be in Baguio, they had to see what the great hullabaloo is with Burnham Park. Their classmates had been telling them there is a lake/sea in Baguio City, an information that I corrected. “Darlings, Burnham Park has a pond, not dagat,” I told them. And boating in Burnham was a must-do in years gone by when Baguio was “the place” to be before it got swarmed by tourists and clogged by SUVs.
So off we rode a boat for PHP 150 a trip around the pond. Little Girl 2 cried because she was thinking we were all going to sink.
After the little trip to Burnham, we drove down to Bencab Museum along Asin Rd. When in Baguio, you must visit this Museum. People were raving about it and now that I’ve been there, I was like, “Ok, nice museum.” But it’s not otherworldly or something that defies gravity. But I do appreciate the art.
View outside, from theΒ ground floor patio
Here are some art works that I liked. Sorry, I wasn’t able to document who did what. (Bad blogger)
The following paintings are by BenCab
And then of course, there’s BenCab’s collection of indigenous art—> sculpture of the bulol or rice god.
There’s one gallery devoted to the rice gods but I didn’t take photos that much because they were boring without the annotation on the exhibits.
Somebody save this museum from mediocrity! Have it curated well, please.
In the meantime, have to say goodbye first. Next entry is about the traffic jam along Kennon road and why I would think twice about spending Christmas again in Baguio.
Facebook is toxic. It’s no longer a fun place to be and I realized I can no longer express myself fully there, hence, the need to revive my blog. I plan to do several reviews (I have a number in the pipeline) of products I just acquired or services I availed (and these are not paid reviews, mind you).
Anyway, my family spent Christmas with my mother and sisters in Baguio at Manor Hotel in Camp John Hay (CPH) They have been doing this for years and this is the first time we joined my mom and sisters for the holidays.
It was a new experience for my girls and they loved Santa’s Village and that kept them entertained for a while. But costly for me since activities like horseback riding, go-carts, and jumping on trampolines are at least PHP 100 per 15 mins (for horseback riding).
If I can have my way, I would just have stayed in bed and savored the 15-19 degree C temperatures. But if you have kids, you can’t. Sigh. Procuring food is a bit of a hassle since stores and restaurants in CPH either run out of provisions or are closed, since, hey it’s Christmas! Give the Baguio people a break. I recommend that you bring lots of food with you when you get there because it’s nearly impossible for you to go downtown because of the horrendous traffic jam caused by tourists like us. The traffic jam inside CPH is already que horrible.
Families listening to live Christmas carols early evening.
Rooms overlooking the garden