North of Metro Manila, the Baguio Convention Center is considered to be the most modern and most spacious facility of its kind . It is often used for conventions, programs, conferences, graduations, and other types of indoor gatherings or activities requiring a large seating capacity.This imposing Center is located in the southern part of the city and is within short walking distance from the Baguio Tourism complex and the Baguio campus of the University of the Philippines which is just across the street. The Center, which was designed with an Igorot motif, initially gained international prominence when it became the venue of the 1978 World Chess Championship series between two Russian grandmasters – Anatoly Karpov and Victor Korchnoi. President Ferdinand E. Marcos inaugurated it during the opening of this championship match on July 17, 1978.

The Lourdes Grotto is another Catholic shrine and place of meditation in Baguio. It is located on a high hill in the western part of the city where you will find the image of the Lady of Lourdes.

The grotto is a favorite pilgrimage site during Holy Week most especially during Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Access to the top of the grotto could be made by climbing the 252 steps or by driving a light vehicle through a winding, narrow and steep asphalt-paved road. Devotees who go up to the grotto to pray usually light up a candle at an altar below the image. There are also vendors at the shrine who are willing to light up a candle for you and say a prayer for whatever personal intentions you might have.

As it is in many other similar shrines, the grotto was constructed to commemorate the numerous visions of the Virgin Mary by a 14-year old French girl named Bernadette Soubirous. This happened in 1858 from February 11 to July 16 in the town of Lourdes which is in southwestern France. The visions were declared authentic by the Pope in 1862 and this also led to the authorization of the cult of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Between Burnham Park and the City Hall of Baguio is a rectangular piece of city property known as Rizal Park. The park was erected in honor of Dr. Jose P. Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, and is similar to numerous other parks found in towns and cities all over the Philippines, which are also named in his honor. It is on this site that the annual celebration honoring Rizal every 30th of December is held. Rizal was an academician, a linguist, historian, writer, a scientist, and a medical doctor. He wrote a book titled “Noli Me Tangere” where he depicted the condition Filipinos were living in under the hostile and oppressive rule of the Spanish friars. His books were banned by the Spanish friars in the country at that time since it sought to expose their corruption and greed. Rizal’s second novel was the “El Filibusterismo” which was the sequel to his first book and where he clarified his political ideas. Rizal is said to be one of the greatest Filipinos who ever lived. At a time when the Philippines was under the oppressive rule of the Spaniards who came to colonize the country, Rizal’s brilliance and dedication to his country served as inspiration for the Filipinos to fight for their independence. Rizal was a believer in the potential of the Filipino to seek the greatest heights amid adversity, and he lived a life that proved this.

The Bell Church is located north of the downtown area of Baguio along the road leading to the town of La Trinidad, Benguet. Within its compound are intricately designed arches and buildings adorned with flags, bells and dragons. It has a pagoda, and beautifully landscaped gardens. There are some artifacts about Buddhism that you will find at the Bell Church as well as some literature about the history of China. It is during the Spring Festival or what is more commonly known in the West as the Chinese New Year that local and foreign Chinese tourists flock to the Bell Church. Like all Chinese festivals, the date of the New Year is determined by the lunar/solar calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar. The observance of the holiday falls on a different date each year and it usually varies from late January to the middle of February. This Chinese public holiday is usually observed for 3 days although the festival traditionally starts with the new moon on the first day of the New Year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the New Year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

Visitors should find time to buy at least an item or two to take home with them. Bringing home a souvenir like a Baguio broom, a jar of Ubi, peanut brittle, choco flakes, a wood carving, fresh strawberries, assorted fresh vegetables, or even a lei of everlasting flowers seems to be the usual way of letting others know that you have been to Baguio City and have something to share. Test your bargaining skills at the public market where there is a wide range of products and brands of souvenirs to choose from.

Buses to Baguio from Manila and buses from Baguio to Manila have a bus station a short distance from Session Road. Baguio bus choices are non-aircon, air conditioned, and deluxe which has wider seats, a snack bar and a washroom (no more stop overs = shorter travel time). A bus from Baguio to Manila would range from P380 to P 460. Buses going north from Baguio are located along Magsaysay Avenue or near the Baguio market. These buses are in fairly good condition but do not have washrooms, aircon, movies or anything luxurious. But they are cheap.

Jeepneys in Baguio are plentiful but routes around and in the outskirts of the city are a bit confusing. Terminals of jeepneys bound for areas farther from central Baguio are found in Burnham Park and near the City Market. The minimum fare is about P7.

Flying to The Philippines, cheap air ticket, cheap flights, Asia air tickets, last minute flying. Following the hype that it’s better to wait with booking your ticket in the Philippines until the last minute I did exactly this. It worked for me perfectly fine in the past and the price of the ticket was going down the closer the date of my travel was getting. All happy and excited because of my travel back to Europe for three weeks I’ve checked the prices on my favorite flight comparison site: www.kayak.co.uk and to my surprise the price was unusually high. The Philippines Airlines are always a bit more expensive than the Cebu Pacific, although both of the prices were circulating in the region of 9000 peso for a flight from Manila to Hong Kong. Being a cheap skate with apparent jewish ancestors I went for the Cebu Pacific ticket which is always a tiny bit less expensive. And than I’ve encountered another problem: on Cebu Pacific website you cannot book the tickets for the travel for the following day. It happened to me before few times and even an Travel Agent encountered the same problem while trying to book a ticket for me. My last resort was going personally to Manila and booking the ticket manually, so I did. You have to go to Domestic airport and go to it’s right side. There you’ll find both offices of the Cebu Pacific and The Philippines Airlines. The Cebu Pacific’s ticket office is open 24 hours, Philippines airlines are opening at 9 in the morning and closing at 5pm. You can also find their ticket office in the international airport. That office opens at 2am early in the morning. The Philippines airlines office is not so crowded. Although Cebu’s is always, guaranteed. I have this situation before when my friend was buying ticket with them. It’s perfect environment for hordes of tauts that are hustling you to follow them to their Travel Agent Offices where they can sell you the ticket without the cue, but with hefty interest on the top. I got there just before 5pm. Cue was tailing out long outside the office. I took my number: 267. Number on the screen: 44! Fortunately for all of the passengers planning to fly in the next 2 hours there’s express counter inside. Unfortunately for me all of the tickets for the day were sold out. I went to the Philippines Airlines office, the same situation and the price for the next morning wasn’t necessarily the cheapest one. Well, I thought to my self, let’s eat something, waste some time and see how the situation develops. I went around, stumbled across some local canteen and had some native snacks. I wasted some time by reading copy of the Economist that I stole from the Philippines Airlines office and thought to come back to Cebu Pacific office. The number on the screen was 60. It must had been at least an hour from the time I’ve checked the screen last time. I had a word with the security guard on the door, he advised me to come back in 1 hour time. I came back in 1.5 hour time and the number on the screen was 73. Crowd of the people waiting outside started to be a little bit smaller. It was getting dark. Travel Agents touts were still cruising around in the hope of a prayer. I thought to my self, this is going to be long night. I remembered all the time that there is a nice and cosy business area in the International Airport that you can have a little nap, have a free drink and snack free of charge and what most important: It has free Wi-Fi. All for only 800 pesos. Before going there I had to still wait to buy my ticket. I decided to go to one of the nearby restaurants. I set my self up with the laptop and kept being patient. Being a budget traveler you can often make observation that you are not able to make by rushing to be the first in line. Sometimes sitting down and observing locals is very pleasant and entertaining activity. In between checking the number on the screen, having another tea and ice cream I hanged out for a bit with locals, had a balut or two. I was improving my skills of getting rid off the local hustlers in the polite way. I had a friendly chat with a Police officer. I Chatted to a seamen that visited my country while on a sheep. In this idle moment you I’ve tried to grasp this Philippiness of locals a small bit. The thing that I very much treasure and love in this country. Simple happiness from the life as it is. Coming back to my ticket: I eventually managed to put my hands on the ticket at 21.00. It was a ticket for next morning for 8am. I went straight to international airport NAIA with a taxi and learnt there that I can forget about my comfy business lounge. My check in was starting at 5.30 and before that if you don’t have a valid boarding pass your only option is to use bunch of the ancient metal chairs available inside the airport building. Geez, they must be most uncomfortable chairs I’ve seen at any airport. And the biggest problem is that there’s only about 20 of them. You’ll be lucky if you manage to lay down stretching yourself, although I’ve managed to do that having 5 hours of napping in embryo position. Next morning at 5am the crowds of passengers willing to get the fly out of Manila started to slowly make their way inside the terminal. There’s always crowd at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The deficit of luggage trolleys had been solved by some German company sending transport of new ones. So now at least this hordes of passengers don’t have to fight each other for the trolleys. I embarked my plane, we took off. I had a glimpse at Manila starting it’s everyday fight for survival. I’ve looked again after a while and I clocked Mount Groto in Pampanga. Friendly staff started to serve snacks. After the meal there was time for a game. It’s a Cebu Pacific trademark, they are happiest airlines I’ve traveled with. During every flight you can win some gadgets and souvenirs branded by Cebu Pacific. The game might be a song recognition competition, game of speed where you need to show some object as first or simply a quiz. My impression about the Philippines doesn’t change: These people are poor but happy. The place is shabby but funny. You wait a lot but manage to have a laugh between. This are the things that keep me coming back here. In these place people know a lot about life and are good at living. This place teaches you how to cope with problems having a smile on your face. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Keywords: flying to The Philippines, cheap air ticket, cheap flights, Asia air tickets, last minute flying, discount air travel.

By Joseph Gorka

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Baguio with all its natural beauty, offers the luxury of modern living and more. Imagine yourself on a mountain top standing in awe feeling a gentle breeze refreshing your skin while pine needles dance in a wind carrying the scent of fresh pine. In the valley below, sunflowers lean toward the warmth of the afternoon [...]]]>

Baguio with all its natural beauty, offers the luxury of modern living and more. Imagine yourself on a mountain top standing in awe feeling a gentle breeze refreshing your skin while pine needles dance in a wind carrying the scent of fresh pine. In the valley below, sunflowers lean toward the warmth of the afternoon the sun.The cool climate, the chirping of birds, the colors of flowers and the smiles of the people around , these are a few of what Baguio has in store for you. Baguio is a place that offers you both nature and city in one, a place you can simply call Home Sweet Home.

Taxis in Baguio are generally very safe for tourists. Drivers are usually very honest, abide by the meter, and return loose change down to the last peso. You can hire a taxi for P250 per hour and they will wait while you visit the attractions and shopping destinations.