the lonely planet speaks very highly of baguio city. and we realized that in order to get to the famed rice terraces in the north, we would have to pass through baguio, so we decided to make a two day trip of it.
for once, the lonely planet is wrong. we arrived at night after an 8-hour bus ride and stumbled around with our bags trying to find a hotel that was within our price range. it was dark and crowded and seedy. the hotel we finally found was ... not very nice. but we were so tired and so we took it. both of us took one look in the bathroom and refused to use it and realized we'd be leaving first thing in the morning. on our way back from dinner, someone tried to pick brad's pocket (well, backpack). freakin' wonderful. it was the first time that i'd felt actually uncomfortable traveling here and afraid of being robbed. i'm always aware, but not necessarily paranoid. i was paranoid in baguio. (we switched to a hotel only a few blocks away that felt MUCH safer and was cheaper and had .... hot !! water showers. hot water. mmmmm)
that aside, baguio is a really interesting city. the whole time we've been travelling, both brad and i have been making jokes about the christmas decorations because they have fake pine christmas trees – and this is the philippines and tropical and surely there are no pine trees here. but we stood corrected – there are pine trees in baguio. it's up in the mountains and cold (well, i thought it was cold. apparently i've been here too long. but it does explain why we had hot water showers) and has a real forest feel.
after switching hotels, we showered and then walked up to a place called camp john hay. we went in a back side gate and all of a sudden were out of the philippines. seriously, it was like stepping into another country – forest, green, quiet, no traffic, no one around. we stumbled onto an "eco-trail" and followed it through the forest. we could have been in colorado.
we finished the eco-trail and went to visit the "historical core". both of us were just looking around in shock wondering what this place actually was – there was a paint ball area, camp-like houses, arcade sort of games. we felt like we'd stumbled across a summer camp or something straight out of the states. and then there was the "cemetery of negativism" – a fake cemetery with pun-ish, clever headstones. the inscription at the entrance says it should remind you to be more positive, but really it's just very odd. most of the headstone engravings use the same play on words over and over or don't make any sense at all, but some of them are kind-of clever/cute. like this one ...
how odd. why would someone create a fake cemetery?
the rest of the historical core is actually historical and quite interesting because it tells a lot of the history of the american involvement here in the philippines during ww2. turns out that camp john hay is, in fact, a summer camp. or was, when the US military was here – they used it as a summer get-away for soldiers. signs were even arranged chronologically and offered good, complete explanations – US influence is readily apparent.
[bell amphitheatre]
it was really nice to get a bit of the history surrounding the US, since it's ignored so completely in the states. i must say though, that the golf course/country club and victorian style houses just made me sad – i mean, this is the philippines, there is no reason to try to turn this area so completely into the states. the store even listed prices in US dollars. i really hate stuff like that – sure this place is historically american, but that doesn't mean you should black out all signs that it's actually in the philippines.
in the afternoon, we visited a great museum with a lot of information about the northern tribes and their traditional lifestyle. the owner even opened up the case with all the musical instruments and showed us how to use them. the nose flute is, by far, the most impressive. sadly, no cameras allowed, but the traditional artifacts are really beautiful. and good to read about since we were headed off to the rice terraces next!
really i don't have too much more to say about baguio. nice parks, good corn on the cob. the view from the mall was awesome. isn't that depressing?
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