archive of the ‘Baguio City’ topic
Filipino experts in poor customer service in 2008 and 2009:
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Ace Hardware in SM City mall in Baguio City
Air 21 in SM City mall in Baguio City
2Go in Patria de Baguio building in Baguio City
C. A. Optical beside Mabini Street in Baguio City
Columbia Digital Sales Corporation
Curamed pharmacy – west side of Session Road in Baguio City »→
Between the presidential mansion and Mines View Barangay, I found kids sliding down streets on plastic scraps, including a broken personal computer case, a broken computer monitor case, and a cash-register drawer tray. I made some photos of the gleeful street-sledding kids then joined them in sledding three times.
China welcomed a new calendar year at 3:56 p.m. GMT+8. This afternoon, boy scouts, girls scouts, and elementary school bands in Baguio City paraded down Session Road to celebrate China’s new year. I don’t know why. China has never ruled the Philippines. Filipinos aren’t descended from Chinese. Baguio City isn’t in a Chinese colony.
Rather than watch a pathetic parade in Baguio, I walked from downtown to Camp John Hay’s Eco-trail then past the Country Club, past The Mansion and into Itogon to home, as I’ve done about twenty times. On the Eco-trail I saw more trash than ever, people sleeping (camping?), Korean tourists lounging and snacking …
Today I spent $162 donated from some parishioners of Saint Dominic Parish to buy reference books and story books for Baguio Gold Elementary School in Tuding, Itogon. The principal, Nestor Asiong had written a wish list, and the librarian had phoned me to come to the school to get the list. »→
If you need to go to the Bureau of Immigration field office in Baguio City, Philippines, note that it has relocated to 38 Military Cutoff Road, south of Panagbenga Park and Camp John Hay. The building in which the Bureau of Immigration rents space bears no Bureau of Immigration sign, of course. The building does not show the number 38, either. Welcome to the Philippines. »→
Yesterday I walked from Vizco’s to, then up Mount Santo Tomas, Kubayao, Tuba, Benguet. I spent two hours, fifty minutes to reach the top, as I knew exactly how to get there, unlike the first time, and I wanted to arrive before nightfall. I saw the city lights this time, as darkness fell while I admired the view from the summit. I didn’t take a camera, though. »→
When I went to Baguio City for Christmas eve Holy Mass celebrated by the bishop, I did not expect to hear heresy spouted from a lector/commentator before Mass when I wished to pray in peace.
“Sambuhay: A Pastoral Service of Pauline Priests and Brothers,” is a four-page, pulp-paper, weekly missalette published by the Society of Saint Paul’s Philippine-Macau Province. In the Christmas edition is the following:
“Introduction (Read before the start of the Mass) … Tonight we are witnesses to an event that no one ever dared to imagine. The almighty and powerful God divests himself of his divinity and makes himself small.” »→
Today I walked the streets of Baguio City to revisit The Jeepney magazine vendors. Afterward I decided to walk to home in Tuding, as is my custom lately (the past two weeks). I have three routes. Today I walked south on Session Road to Camp John Hay, then I ran on the Eco-trail. That was fun. Jogging uphill was quite challenging in some places, because I’m not very fit, Baguio City is at altitude with humid air, and the trail was steep. I recommend walking the Eco-trail to everyone who can, and I’d encourage runners from the lowlands who visit Baguio City to run Camp John Hay. It’s less-polluted and more picturesque and peaceful. You can go too fast downhill on the Eco-trail, jarring your knees, or you can slow to a jog or walk downhill where it’s steep. It reminded me of running in University of Tennessee’s arboretum in Knoxville.
Months ago, I ate pesto pasta with chicken several times in Pizza Volante of Baguio City, but I had not tried it in Vizco’s until last week. I love it! I like Vizco’s pesto so much more than Volante’s, and the fresh bread is also delicious. I have dined on this several times last week and this week. Now, the chicken atop the pasta (optional) is battered and fried irregular scraps of meat — not elegant. In Pizza Volante it’s neatly-sliced, almost uniform strips arrayed across the top of pasta on a dished oval plate. In Vizco’s, the pasta is served in a bowl, and it’s so delicious. I heartily recommend it.
As I walked through Baguio City today, I saw one of the preparations for dinner at Teachers Camp as I walked past on Leonard Wood Road’s sidewalk. I almost lost my lunch (from twenty minutes earlier) when I saw a black dog’s severed head and four legs and two men butchering the dog. Dining on dogs is reportedly common in the Cordilleras region. But I didn’t expect to ever see so close a chopped-up dog.
Though it’s not a pedestrian-friendly city, I’ve walked for many miles through Baguio City. I see litter strewn almost everywhere, dog feces and horse feces on roads and sidewalk, smog belched from poorly-tuned diesel trucks, buses and jeepneys, wood smoke, graffiti, heaps of garbage, garbage bags hung from trees, gates and fences, acrid smoke from garbage fires, reckless, lawless drivers … This is not a civilized, reputable city that’s pleasant for visitors. Now the sidewalks and malls are choked with frenzied Filipinos trying to spend money before December 25. I can hardly walk to a restaurant, post office or church without being bumped by dozens of persons, any of whom may try to pick my pockets. Sagada, in Mountain Province, is so much more agreeable.
Baguio City is rife with thievery, according to the newspapers I read and the news on the internet. On Tuesday morning, after Holy Mass, though Our Lady of the Atonement Cathedral was ‘surrounded’ by Baguio City policemen, it was robbed. Someone (or more than one) stole 50,000 pesos (US $1087) which had been collected at Mass from the church’s office across the driveway. Supposedly someone observed the money being transferred to the office after Mass, and somehow got the tithes. I guess that it wasn’t in a safe. Maybe it was an ‘inside job,’ like many other thefts in the Philippines.
Today, in a span of two hours, I readily gave money to four sidewalk beggars, remembering Matthew 25. In Session Supermart and U-Need groceries, I couldn’t get a large bag of peanuts, so I walked over Magsaysay to the north sidewalk then along it to buy a large bag of nuts. »→
Today, as two weeks ago, Esmond (from Britain and South Africa), Analyn, and Randy (from Massachusetts) hosted a patio party on a balcony near Tam-Awan Village in Baguio City, overlooking Luzon’s coast and the sunset on South China Sea. We didn’t have as many folks as last time, but we enjoyed conversation and ate imported steaks tilapia, chop suey, white rice, chips and dip, rocky road ice cream… “A good time was had by all.”
……A Filipino who has been arrested seven times since 2001 for trucking dogs from Manila Capital Region to Baguio City to sell them to butchers, has been busy again since leaving jail on bail. His employees were caught driving the same Mitsubishi L300 van, loaded with 70 dogs, toward Baguio City! Too bad the Quezon City Police hadn’t impounded the van previously. Too bad they let Palanca continue to employ people to capture and transport pregnant, ill and injured dogs, bind them and truck them to meat markets here in the Cordillera Region. »→
This morning I took Rose* and two of her neighbors to Baguio City to eat lunch in a Jollibee restaurant and ride rental tricycles and a pedal boat in Burnham Park. I have wondered in previous outings if a pedaled boat would be preferable to a rowed boat, so today we went to the concessionaire who had royal blue-and-yellow pedal boats and row boats. I picked an open-top boat. »→
