Ironwulf.net: En Route – The Philippines, Travel, Photography Blog

It’s one of those trips that I just said yes without knowing exactly where I was going. I was yearning for a downtime after a somewhat busy week that I was ready to escape anywhere. It was an invitation to check out a resort in Batangas but I only knew of the details that day when I got into the car onto a road trip down south. We were going to Balayan, a town virtually out of the radar among four of us in the car. So following a crudely drawn map, a series of instructions and some pictures landmark as puzzles, we rolled on with a sense of adventure to find the resort named Blue Dolphin.

As always, the first step when coming in to a new country is adapting. And this process can be an ease or a struggle depending on our initial encounters with the locals. And it couldn’t be any easier when the place you’re staying is already used to foreigners like Motherland Inn 2 in Yangon. It’s like a backpacker’s haven in this part of the country since most foreigners go here and there’s a good reason why.

As much as I like Rock Inn in Sagada, we moved to town center for a much cheaper option on accommodation. We were also going to leave early the next day back to Baguio so it pays to be close to the Bus Station. Since it’s a market day Saturday with not much tourist crowd yet, it’s much easier to go around town and look for places to stay. We decided on George Guesthouse a few meters down from the center. It’s a nice 4-story road side inn that was of very good value.

It was an unusual welcome that after a few meters walk from the Sagada main road down the scenic rocky pathways lined by trees, the first creature that welcomed us in Rock Inn were dogs. Not that I’m complaining but it was quite amusing to find them wagging their tails upon oue arrival instead of barking. Do they still remember me from my last visit a month ago with Karl Grobl and his group? That certainly seems to be the case. I’ve always thought that places who loves animals whether be a dog or cat or any other pets, are ran by really friendly folks. Hey if they can take care of their pets well, I think it would be the same for their guests.

We heard the weather up in these parts is usually gloomy with occasional showers but it was a bright and sunny welcome when we arrived at the town of Claveria. Immediately we went to Casa Grand Inn just beside the boulevard facing the sea. We already booked our accommodations here in advance and was pleasantly surprised how spacious and comfortable our room was. On the first part of the day we did some walking around to get familiar and orient ourselves with the place.

For a moment, I thought I was lost in Bali as I stepped out of our hotel building. Having checked in past midnight coming from a night of entertainment at Balay Da Blas, our sleepy heads and droopy eyes were longing for a nights rest just gave our surroundings a passing glance. But now waking up, seeing the manicured garden, neat pathways and Bali inspired casitas and structures made me knock my head off why I didn’t take a moment to stop a moment in Currimao whenever I pass by the road from Vigan to Laoag or vice versa.

We reached Laoag in the evening, that’s a couple of hours drive with a few stops coming from Adams. For dinner in Laoag, we were honored to join Mayor Farinas at the Laoag City Hall. It was my first time to enter that nice looking terracotta building which I used to admire outside. Presentation while dinner over tasty langonisa, chicken and bagnet was about the Tourism in Laoag and a short presentation from Cebu Pacific which is one of the sponsors of the Lakbay Norte 2 tour. We took an empanada each on our way to our hotel after dinner.