To the North! To the North! – A Travel Diary (Part 1)

After a series of meetings, online searches, phone wars with our Transportation Dept., cancelled reservations, hunt for the most sought after signatories, and holidays I spent mostly by watching rented videos, the much aspired strategic planning of our office finally pushed through. Fact is, of the 3-day itinerary, only 1 hour was genuine planning session. *Cheers!*

April 10, 2007, Tuesday. We were at the assembly place before 2AM, but departure had been delayed as usual so I decided to visit the newly opened MiniStop^® nearby. I might have underestimated the shop as a convenience store but aside from being open 24 hrs, I didn’t expect to find glow in the dark stickers and out-of-the ordinary condoms! I find it amusing that next to flavors, manufacturers had ventured to texture. There were contoured condoms, dotted condoms and another I-forgot-what type…oh well, talk about an early morning discovery. Anyway, I just bought distilled water to formally conclude my visit.

We rolled from Subic Freeport at about 3:00AM aboard a company bus which is spacious for us thus even our personal stuff were on the seats. Few already gulped down Bonamines^®; good enough I brought extras that kept my fellows going. As expected, a chilly early morning travel was spent chatting or sleeping except for the big guys who rushed into getting the bottoms-up that early. They were tipsy halfway our first destination though none is violent, just naughty and noisy. We only had to stopover for breakfast somewhere just two hours more to La Union but we had some 6 other quick stops to let the other guys pee.


LA UNION

The sun is shining high when we entered the province of La Union located in the northern part of the country. Despite that I had passed through it for several times already (the last was when I went to Vigan in February), I have to admit that it’s just during this trip when I got interested with the place because La Union is a big province similar to Tarlac and it gets me impatient counting how many towns/municipalities we had passed by and yet we’re still within its bounds. You could doze off and you’ll wake up only to find you’re still within its realms *Sigh*

Since entering San Fernando City, almost everybody became keen navigating the way although nobody might have matched Ms. Jing who I think didn’t sleep throughout the trip and made a good job tracking the very informative signages all saying “Straight Ahead” – period.

Three left turns from the main road, we finally arrived at Puerto de San Juan Resort. What caught my attention initially was the theme park directly opposite the resort’s entrance. Unfortunately, it’s open during weekends only. The front area of the resort resembles a developed subdivision with units lining both sides of the way leading to the main hotel. Once parked, we stepped out of the bus and made a quick survey of the nearby surroundings. Doth and our boss took charge of the checking-in while few made a short visit to the small chapel adjacent the parking lot. Nomer and I took snapshots in front of the chapel with his hip camera.

We’re all settled before 10AM. Our unit has a sala, a kitchen, a common bathroom, and 2 bedrooms; I shared one with Nomer while the other was occupied by Jhong and Sir Jeff. The units across ours, such as the one occupied by the ladies, have no kitchen but has a larger receiving area and a bathroom in each of the 2 bedrooms. One bedroom has 2 double-deckers while the other has a big bed. Even so, our unit served as the headquarters where all our baons were stored and the meals were prepared (and consumed too!).

Turned the TV on… sandwiches for snack… pictures taken… *Bell ring* LUNCH IS SERVED! Few minutes rest after having our full, we lathered on the trusty sun block and strolled around. At the back of the main building are the swimming pools, a small playground, and not far from there is the beach. We sat a while on a roofed area with benches and a table while convincing ourselves not to risk braving the waves of the beach. Fact: La Union beaches are renowned for surfing, not for silly frolicking.

After which, we returned to our units to have our siesta. The upper deck of Ms. Jing’s bed was vacant so I slept there until Jhong awakened everybody to say that Sir Jeff decided to hold the strategic planning by 5PM.

I went back to our unit to wash my face and change for swimming. We returned to the benches overlooking the beach and had our planning sessions.

*** Silence. Meeting in Progress ***

The sun had set and we’re done. Next agendum: dinner. Our diligent manangs brought out the marinated meat to be char-grilled while most of us got ready to swim. I surprised err… shocked my officemates with my trunks. (Sorry guys. I myself was shocked when I first wore it in Villa Escudero last year; I failed to find my short-type trunks). So much with the bikini, we had a lot of fun bathing in the hot spring-warm pool and chasing the camera.

Shower…dinner…and pre-bedtime rites… I slept at about 11:30 after watching the final episode of “Princess Hours” while switching once every while to Fashion TV. Our aircon was set to low cool yet it was still very cold. The single comforter wasn’t just enough for us. Too good I brought with me my convertible pillow.

No much interesting activities the next morning. Just had our breakfast then packed our belongings and of course, made the most of our last chance for photo ops. I just bought four post cards of the resort since I haven’t found anything else very interesting in their souvenir shop.

By noontime we were moving back to San Fernando where we were supposed to visit few tourist spots in the area. Unfortunately, our drivers seemed to intend playing deaf to our navigators’ directions thus keeping us from getting to places. (Hang yourselves you mold-covered, stinking kill-joys! Grrr!)

The remaining place that we may visit before proceeding to our next destination was Agoo; still within La Union. We dropped by the small town’s museum and the curators were kind enough to let us in although it was actually closed for lunch break. Based on what I saw in the museum, I realized that Ilocos was among the provinces vastly influenced by Catholicism during the Spanish era. (Oh well, I wasn’t paying much attention in my history class) Enclosed in glass displays were priestly robes and religious images. However, my favorites were the “kalapiaw” or “aninga” (traditional raincoat made of nipa leaves) and a shelf full of dolls portraying Philippine folk dances.

Across the road and a stone’s throw from the museum stands the Basilica of Our Lady of Charity. I quickly read the front marker and learned that the edifice had already undergone major renovations yet it still has that ancient ambience. I joined my colleagues although I’m not a Catholic just to see what’s inside. Its dome was majestic and on the way out, I glanced up the choir balcony and saw a rather interesting pipe organ.

We’re having lunch while on our way to the next destination: Baguio City.


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