Hooker’s Life in Baguio, Philippines

The weather in my beautiful island in the Pacific, Cebu, is so crazy hot. For a tropical island dweller to complain about the hot weather, it is really burning hot… that I can’t help but keep thinking about Baguio.

Let me make a throwback to my first ever trip to the summer capital of the Philippains to hopefully bring in some coldness to this island.

We’d been wanting to go way further up to the Northern Luzon but long bus rides and the bus accident of Tado made me always put Baguio trip down at the bottom of “bucket list” (which I don’t really have one.). Then came crochet, and the idea of seeing Baguio yarns in its original place bumped it up to top of the list. =)

The first thing that I saw when we landed in Baguio was the “Baguio broom.” I got so excited to see my favorite broom, Baguio broom, in its original place! It’s like visiting a friend in his place; I feel so giddy!

I really prepared for this trip. I made a twinning beanie cat for me and the husband, and a sort-of poncho for me in orange shades, my favorite color. And, it was a big mistake so…

PROTIP #1

Please do not ever wear a beanie and a top / poncho / jacket in orange colors; and wear them all at the same time, unless you want to look like a traffic cone.

PROTIP #2

Traffic-cone fashion or whatever, me no care!

We arrived in Baguio so early in the morning so we just roam around the Burnham Park.

Traffic cone in Bloggerpose
Traffic Cone crocheting in Burnham Park
The famous strawberry taho. I was not really crazy over it though.

HANGAR MARKET

The most important thing on that trip was the trip to HANGAR MARKET because YARNS and COFFEE.

YARNS

Honestly, I was kind of disappointed in the yarn department. I think I just did not know my way around that I did not find much that interest me but nevertheless I still ended up with a lot.

The most yarns I found there at that time were the acrylic: the indophil and lanalon. I think the guy in the photo was spinning indophil. I was not able to buy much acrylic because I still had quite a stash at that time. The kilo there (at that time) was P350/kg.

I have not seen much classic straight cotton. They’re probably always sold out, or I did not know my way around.

The other abundant yarns I saw were the Baguio Cotton Kulot / Curly, which was sold at P150/kg. I was not really interested in getting them but these lady has a lot of interesting colors that I ended up with 6 kilos, which was a very wrong decision because I had to ship it in advance via 2GO because we still need to go to Sagada after Baguio. I cannot be lugging around 6kilos of baggage with me. (The prices from online resellers of these yarns can be high but it’s really more practical getting it from them.)

COFFEE

I love coffee. It makes crocheting less lonely; it makes every thing less lonely. =) This was located down below the yarns floor.

Hangar Market is an interesting place. I really wanted to roam around the market but husband was already grumpy carrying the yarns.

HOOKING

We stayed in a Japanese-owned backpacker kind of place, Tala. It was located beside Cafe Yagam, a homey kind of restaurant somewhere in the Mines View area. And, there’s really a big difference when you crochet in a cold weather, compared when you’re in a beach under a blaring hot sun.

It just feels cosy.

Cafe Yagam

 

 

BLOGGERPOSE / TREK

And, the rest of what I did in Baguio was #bloggerpose. =)

Morning walk to Mines View Park. Cold-weather really makes trekking and walking and roaming romantic.

Coffee Harvest Tour. It was timely that the place we’re staying, where an NGO about coffee farmers was based, was organizing a coffee farm tour. We were the few Filipinos in a group of Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese, Chinese.

Baguio has a lot of foreigners, mostly Asian, studying ESL so it’s common to see them around.

The coffee farm was located in Tublay, Benguet.

This woman had a unique baby carrier.

Posing with the women coffee farmers! #girlboss

#Selfie with the coffee cherries.

USA VISA-free trip. I’m in USA… property! =)

We went to Camp John Hay, and trek the Yellow Trail from a friend’s recommendation. Going around the trail, you would find a signage “PROPERTY of USA.” So yeah, that was my first trip to USA… property! =)

And, to culminate our trip to USA property, we had breakfast at a diner. It’s really my wish to eat in a diner, like those in American movies kind of diner.

Mile Hi Diner, Baguio
Then, we moved on to Sagada, which was an endless zigzag to Heaven kind of ride.

PS. I think I lost / left my hook (the one in photo) in The Coffee Library. If you found, kindly love it! =)

This Vietnamese coffee with coconut milk is YUMMM!

If you’re one of those complaining of the summer heat, I hope this brings you a little relief of coldness. 🙂


Please visit / share my crocheted items shop here >>.



LoveCrochet