Now on to Baghio!
We hired a driver to take us north into the high mountains of Luzon Island. It turned out to be a much longer trip than we expected. It took us nearly 8 hours to get there, but SO worth the trip. After the din of the city of Manila, Baghio was beautiful and relatively quiet!
We were exhausted by the time we got to Baghio so we went straight to our hotel. I need to note at this point that it was the last weekend of the Baghio Flower Festival, complete with parades and activities, so our hotel selection was limited. Very...very...very...limited.
We arrived after much difficulty in finding the address to a dodgy looking, grimy hotel. I have to say, in my brother Jim's defense (he made the arrangements) that he had very little to choose from and thought "how bad could it be for just a few nights?". We were to soon find out.
First of all, they gave us a suite instead of two rooms, as requested. In fact, they had 2 suites reserved for us. It remains unclear how they came to expect 20+ people instead of the 3 of us, but I digress...All my inner flags were waving like crazy, so we asked if we could see the rooms. We chose the least offensive of the two. (Keep in mind, we have no real choice because of the festival...everything is booked.) I'm telling myself over and over, that it's only for two nights, right? I like to think I'm a very pragmatic person. My niece Jessica is fuming and trying really hard not to blow up. The "He-should-have-let-me-help-and-get-reservations-months-ago" type of fury that is only of value in hind sight pulsing in her eyes. Brother Jim is mortified, but trying as hard as I am to see the silver-lining...using the "it's only for two nights...right? We were looking for an adventure....right?" line of reasoning. I knew his Pollyanna-ish stand was teetering when he just looked at me after a short amount of time in our suite and said simply "this is unacceptable'. He got on the phone (no easy task) and called the hotel we had reservations at in a few days. After a little begging, they determined they could have two room for us the next night, but we were stuck for tonight. I think we might have been better able to struggle through with our little trauma if some of our Filipino friends we met with a little later that evening, when finding out where we were staying said "Oh, we wouldn't stay there because of the Rats?"
Oy vey.....!!!
I have no doubt that rats were a problem in this hotel, because there were open areas all over the place. They had a sort of internal chimney-like system (for lack of a better description) that was completely open with windows opening in what I believe was used as a primitive air circulation and cooling system. Plus there were fire-escapes that were open as well. There were bars on the windows, but no screening - easy access for any rodent worth their salt. Another issue with the internal 'chimneys' was that noise from all the other rooms was magnified and "shared". I'm pretty sure I heard many things I had no business hearing. The was a table with several chairs in our common room, several of the chairs were broken. The toilet room at least had a toilet that flushed, but the washbasin was outside the room and didn't work anyway. There was a shower room next to that with a bucket and dipper in case your water stopped suddenly (I'm guessing). There was a kitchenette with rat droppings behind the hot plates. There was a small frig, but the black mold made me a little nervous about even trying to use that. The two bedrooms had several beds in each. We each laid claim and started our nightly ablutions. After checking out my bed, I had a flash-back to a tv program I saw once on bed bugs. There was no way in heck I was going to lay my head on that pillow and use those sheets and dodgy blanket. They were probably clean enough, but I wasn't taking any chances. I ending up using my travel pillow (you know, those u-shaped things) and laying out my airline blanket (they mean for you to take those...right?) to lay on. I covered myself with my sweater and jacket and made myself lay completely still. Did I mention Jessica and I were afraid to turn off the lights because of the rats? We were, so we slept all night with the lights on. (I used a sleep mask...light doesn't bother Jessica) We both refused to shower until we got to our new hotel.
When we left the next day, the owners were very concerned and asked what they could do to make our stay more comfortable. There really was nothing we could say! They were clearly doing the best they could with what they had, but to say the place wasn't up to our American standards sounds so hollow! We just hemmed and hawed around and left in a hurry.
Our next hotel was lovely in comparison. Nice plumbing, clean sheets and screened windows! What more could a girl want?
This area is very agricultural despite the rugged terrain. Terraces are used to farm on the steep hillsides, so big machinery that we would use here in the States are unusable due to the difficult accessibility. All work must be done by hand. Hard work is a way of life here. Small farms dot the hillsides and you rarely see a huge mega-farm like more industrialized areas might have.
We made a trip even further up the mountain to the family farm. It sits at nearly 7500 feet in elevation, so the potential for cold is very high. As we were sitting and visiting in the family home, I glanced outside and couldn't even see across the road! I was puzzled for a moment until someone told me it was just a passing cloud and to wait a moment. I did, and it passed. The sun was back in no time. The people we met were very charming! The children and some of the adults in the area came to see "the Americans"! Most of the adults understood at least some english, and many speak it very well, but the small children didn't and looked at us like we had two-heads. It was fun to make funny sounds and faces and to see the children react. One little girl even sang "Jingle Bells" for me!
Baghio is known are the "Summer Capitol" of the islands because the temperatures there are so much cooler than most of the area. Flowers are grown all over and the colors are amazing. At the family farm, flowers are grown in large green houses. I was allowed to choose my favorites and we left after a lovely meal with several huge bouquets! We kept those flowers in our rooms for the rest of the trip, even carrying them back to Manila. If we could have figured out a way to take them on the plane they would have come home with us.
More on Baghio with my next post.
