Baguio Been

Trip. The Victory Liner bus left the Cubao station on time, but it was only out of EDSA after about an hour. Traffic: very uncool. But what's cool is the bus had free wi-fi service, courtesy of Sun Broadband. I was able to test it out during one of the stop overs, and the verdict: Connection is good and the speed is fast enough. We finally reached Baguio at around 1:30am, or after seven and a half hours of being on the road.

Taxi. The taxis in Baguio don't have air conditioners, as these are very unnecessary. That makes the ride cheaper: flagdown is only at P35.00 with P2.00 increments. We took one to get to where we stayed for the night. We finally were able to doze off and rest at around 2:00am.

Been. After some setback, we were finally able to explore Baguio in the afternoon. It was still drizzling a bit, but the sky thankfully lit up soon after. With only limited hours in our hands, we were able to go to Burnham Park (where I learned that I suck at rowing), Mines View Park, the Mansion House, and Wright Park, as well as a quick stop at the front of the Baguio Botanical Garden. We then ended up at SM City Baguio, before we headed back to base. After a good night's sleep and a good breakfast, we headed early to the Victory Liner terminal for our 9:40am return trip to Manila.

Chokepoint

So one thing I learned on our trip to Baguio was that aside from checkpoints,

there are also what we call chokepoints. We passed this one on our way back

to Manila; I'm just unable to determine the exact place where it's located.

Touchdown Manila!

Airplane. On the plane, I initially enjoyed looking at the window, seeing the city lights. But as we moved farther away from Cebu, all I could see was the dark night sky. So I decided to take out the book lent by Godsend Debbie and read some Freaky Fact or Fiction: World Records. I also actually kind-of anticipated for an in-flight game, but as I found out, not all flights have one.

Airport. At NAIA, while waiting for mom who was on a later flight. I decided to see if they got free wi-fi services. Well, there were two public networks I could connect to, but none could provide internet access. I wonder why that is. Once mom arrived, we stepped outside only to confirm that the immediate exit to the terminal only had fixed rate and yellow cab taxis. Since Mom was rather in a hurry (and hungry), she opted to just take the more expensive yellow taxi to get to our next destination. To find out how to get a regular white taxi, check out this post.

V. Luna. The V. Luna General Hospital is quite relaxed and peaceful, unlike most hospitals. Maybe because it's exclusive for military personnel and their families. We went there to see my uncle (who is confined, but now fine enough and on his way to recovery) and aunt. We had breakfast at the hospital's canteen before going up to my uncle's ward. Where I could say that some hospitals may give you a feel that you'll get sicker staying there, this really is a place where one could recuperate. I was even able to take a comfortable short nap on a reclining chair (not sure how it is called).

Bus Terminal. We went to the Victory Liner bus terminal in Cubao after lunch. There was a long queue! (It doesn't help that we are lining up along with fellow passengers who will be going home to their provinces for Undas.) After more than an hour, we were finally able to secure 6pm bus tickets for Baguio. Since we had time to kill, we spent it at SM Cubao, before heading back to the bus terminal at around 5pm.