Baguio City – The Detailed Account

Securing the rental car:
We had breakfast at our hotel. They had both American and Filipino food options. It was buffet style. I tried a little of everything. No complaints.
Interestingly enough they had a dining room dress code: No cut off shirts for men. And no pajamas or slippers. LOVE THIS! Wish our hotels also had dining room dress codes!

In the Philippines, their Uber equivalent is called Grab. Being the tech savvy people we are (not so much – but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out), we acquired a Grab ride to our rental car company location. The reason why we went with this Avis location, versus a rental company at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, is because they allowed for a car to be rented from their location and returned to a different location without tacking on a large fee. AND the reason why we chose to return the car to a different location was because, pending traffic, Baguio City is a 4-6 hour drive from Manila. Clark International Airport is somewhat in between the 2 cities, AND it is a smaller airport. We thought that both the shorter drive to the airport and navigating a smaller airport would be less stressful for us and less wear and tear on Dad.

Baguio City is the location of CP’s seminary. We had discussed taking a bus, but then were not sure how we would get from the bus station to the seminary. Additionally, from our research, it did not appear that any of the buses ran from Baguio City to Clark International Airport. So we decided to rent a car and caravan with the family we are traveling with (they had to rent 2 cars in order to fit 6 people and their luggage, and because of the large fee to return the cars to a different location other than the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, they are returning their cars to the airport in Manila).

The location of the Avis car rental company was literally in the middle of what I would call slums. In fact, when we pulled up to the address listed, I didn’t even see any building that resembled a business of any kind. In fact, our driver had to ask 2 people where to go. It was a very sad state of affairs – as my mother would say. RBC and I were looking at each other speaking without words, “What have we gotten ourselves into?!” It reminded me of a “rental deal” that I reserved for a family trip to Miami, FL. On that trip we ended up giving the car back after driving 2 blocks and the engine check light came on, taking a shuttle back to the airport, and renting from a different company. This particular Avis car rental company gave the same vibe. We struggled through the paperwork – possibly paying for renters insurance twice? (I had paid for car renter’s insurance online? But we could not tell if their paperwork was reflecting this insurance – since it was pre-selected? Oh well…). We reviewed the car together, signing off on all the marks and dings the car had before we drove it away. We were given a copy of the paperwork, but then as we were pulling out of the warehouse, a security guard? asked to see the copy of the “ding list,” and check that everything was in order. Then he waved us on – and kept the paperwork (hmmm…did we need that?)
Silver lining… because we needed a particular license plate to drive in Baguio (some sort of curfew thing set up by the government to try and limit how many cars on on the road in every city) they gave us a van with automatic transmission. The only van that was available when we reserved our car online was one with standard transmission. This was absolutely a gift from the Lord – keep reading, you will understand why.

I was the driver. We had decided before we left for the Philippines that I would drive the Manila to Baguio City stretch. I was confident in my manual transmission driving skills (I owned a Nissan 240SX after graduating from nursing school and drove it for many years before needing to trade it in for a more baby friendly vehicle) AND I have a tendency to get car sick. So we decided that I would drive and RBC would navigate. After watching the driving on our way to the hotel from the airport and again on our way to the rental car company, I prayed that the Lord would keep us safe and give me the confidence I needed to drive these roads. It is a literal free for all…lanes are a suggestion. Motorcycles and scooters drive in between the lanes and weave in and out of cars to get to where ever they are going as quickly as possible. There aren’t really any traffic lights and for intersections that have really heavy traffic they have “traffic directors” that rotate holding off one group of cars / motorcycles and waving on another. There are moments when cars on either side of our rental car are L.I.T.E.R.A.L.L.Y. INCHES from touching our vehicle. It gives a WHOLE new meaning to “reach out and touch someone.”

On our way: We made it back to the hotel from the rental car company in one piece. I am thinking to myself, “Okay, that wasn’t too bad.” (Hmmmm, just wait RRC, you thought that was challenging… you just barely scratched the surface of driving in Manila, wait to you see what driving in Baguio City is like).
We checked out of our hotel around 10:00AM and our little caravan of 2 vans and 1 car hit the road to Baguio City. The drive out of Manila wasn’t horrible – it was as I described above. We were the last vehicle in our caravan and there were times when the first 2 vehicles had to pull over, put their emergency lights on, and wait for us to catch up, but for the most part we were able to keep together.

Once out of the city, the drive in the country was much more “normal.” As we passed vehicles, both my husband and MC both commented how our little group was our own version of “the fast and the furious.” As we began the literal climb in elevation and winding roads up the hillside into the city of Baguio, we WERE the fast and the furious. Passing cars, vans, and buses…yep on a 2 way road, sometimes not a whole lot of room to spare. My husband said that I made him nervous a few times…once when I passed on the right hand side of the road. Hey, what happens on the road in the Philippines, stays on the road in the Philippines. No lie. Having an automatic transmission was an absolute gift from the Lord – so many times we were stopped on a steep incline. I would not have wanted to added stress of trying to keep the car from rolling back down the mountain!

We followed our traveling companions to their hotel, so that we would know where they were in comparison to the seminary, where we would be staying over the next several days. At this point, it was around 6:30PM and dark. We decided to part ways – each group to do supper on their own, and us navigating our way to the seminary.

We decided to head to the seminary first, get settled, and then find a place to eat. On our way to the seminary, we took a wrong turn and needed to turn around. It was dark. The street was very narrow, but I thought I had found a reasonable place to turn around. It was one of those drive forward, back up, drive forward, back up moments. During the final back up, I hear a scrape of the back of the vehicle. Not good. Whelp, no time to check things over, a car is coming. On to the seminary.

Once there, Charis met us and showed us where to park and walked us to our rooms.

We had reserved three, 2 person rooms. They were dorm rooms. I was surprised to find that they had no air conditioning – I thought that I had confirmed this prior to reserving these, but maybe not? So hard to know when there are so many moving parts to planning a trip like this. My husband took the first room, MC and I took the next one, and my dad settled into the third one. Thankfully it was not hot there. I would guess temps ranged from 70s to 60s while we were there. There was a breeze coming in the window, along with all the sounds of the neighborhood. After “parking” our bags in our designated rooms, I must confess, I walked into my husband’s room and was in tears. He gave me a hug and said it was ALLLLL going to be alright. No time to weep. Charis was waiting to take us to supper.

We walked with Charis to a local “restaurant” for supper (back home, we would call it a hole in a wall”). Dad and I had chicken sisig, and MC and RBC had beef sisig. The best way to describe it is “an interesting rice dish.” CP also ordered “egg roll” for the table – not what I was expecting, it was like a baked egg omelet that was cut into slices for each person to sample. The best item of the meal for me was my drink – watermelon water. It came in a clear plastic can that looked like a regular soda can. It was very refreshing.

The other best part of our meal was the walk. It was good to be on solid ground after the stressful drive up the mountain to the city of Baguio. Both driving in Manila and Baguio city was challenging, but each had their own challenges. Manila had many more motorcycles to watch out for. Baguio city’s steeply pitched and curvy roads threw a literal wrench into contending with other vehicles on the road.

Once back on the seminary campus, we glance at the car. Looks like there are some scratches underneath the back fender. There is nothing that can be done about it, but to wait and see what the rental car company has to say upon return of the vehicle. I worked at moving past this potential added cost to our trip.

At the dorm, I checked in with Dad and asked how he was doing. He said that he was doing just fine. Back in my room with MC, I am thinking, “Maybe we can check with JS tomorrow morning and see if their hotel has any rooms available?” I decide to take a shower before bed. I think, “Surely this will help me sleep better and I will be cooler after having showered.” I start the process, but apparently there is no hot water out of the faucet? There is a bucket with “a scoop” in it on the floor of the shower stall (looks like a small cooking pot inside a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket) “Hmmm, maybe that is what this is for?” (for scooping water out of the bucket to pour over oneself) “Oh well,” I think to myself, “Get over it. You have done this in Indonesia (For one year after high school, I lived in Indonesia on the island of Borneo with my aunt and uncle, who served as medical missionaries there.) You can do this here.” So I take the “scooper,” dip it in the bucket of cold water, and poor it over myself with an audible, but non-verbal “you can do it” cringe. Before I know it, my shower is over, and I am definitely cooler. As I climb into the top bunk, I am reminded, grateful, and humbled by how blessed we are in the States, and I asked the Lord for wisdom regarding how to best to proceed tomorrow.