Rumaragasang Baguio 1

Let me begin with a longish -- but necessary -- prologue-slash-premise. The week before the Baguio trip had been hell at work. We were preparing for the crazy hectic albeit successful client party at the NBC tent. The morning before the party and the Baguio trip, I had to pack for both... the party and the Baguio trip. So I was lagging way too many bags for a typical Friday.

At the end of the party, I was too tired and too hungry to even care that Dennis Trillo was mere inches from my face a while ago (he was whispering something to me.... unfortunately, non-erotic). And I was also really close to cancelling my whole trip with (and remember, these will be their codenames for the rest of the blog) my friends: the girlish Spaghetti, the massive (and the only male) Pan Fried Chicken, and the plump Cheese Pancake. I was, after all, a text away. And all I had to say was "Omigod, my feet hurt, I haven't eaten, I haven't slept, please, please, please, don't make me go to Baguio!"

Which is another thing. I'm not too crazy about Baguio. My previous trips have been obligatory. I was, in essence, dragged around my nose for both trips, not being able to decide where and when to go. So when they said "Baguio", I wasn't completely sold on the idea.

But on the last minute, I said "Damn it, I deserve this trip. I have to get away from the city. And I need to not care about work for a while"

So when the party ended, I slung my three or four bags and headed for our meeting place.

Day 1
Forgive me if I fail to document the first five hours of Day 1. As my prologue had explained, I was practically a zombie by this time. All I remember is having to listen to "Careless Whisper" about three or four times, thanks to Spaghetti and her 80s CD. I also remember swearing a lot.
By the time I got to my senses, we were already at Hacienda Luisita for a quick coffee stop. There's an old train on display there so we took a quick photo op. I think.

When we were back on the road, I offered my mp3 collection of 90s songs which included great classics like The Sign by Ace of Base ("And it opened up my eyes... I saw the sign!"), End of the Road by Boyz 2 Men ("It's so natural .... you belong to me... I belong to youuuuu"), and every girl's favorite, the Wilson Philips classic "You're In Love" which Cheese Pancake said is best sung while crying. ("You're in love.... and I know... that you're not in love with me.... T*ngina!").

Our next stop: Razon's. I had arrozcaldo while my friends had halu-halo. At 9 in the morning. Which is completely against my principles even before I had started dieting. I don't know. Breakfast is just for hot food. I've always believed that.

You know you're already in Baguio when you've stopped at the Lion's Head. Of course, we got off the spanking new Honda Jazz that Pan Fried Chicken had been driving for hours, and posed beside the Lion's head for yet another photo op. But the monument was so massive that you can't have a picture of the whole head without us being reduced to mere centimeters in the picture. So instead of snapping a photo of the lion's head on our background, we got pictures of the lion's cheek, the lion's mane and the lion's nose.

When we got to Baguio proper, we did what every tourist would traditionally do --- get lost. We drove around town looking for our hotel, Pines View. "Malapit lang sa Session Road" the Pines View contact said over the phone. "Malapit" in Baguio lingo, is apparently equivalent to 10 kilometers. When we got to where Pines View was, it was obvious that the hotel was really near Session Road ---- by flying.

It was a good thing that Pines View Hotel didn't disappoint. Our room was spacious and clean with an awesome view of the city (and Session Road). The first thing I did --- since it's my job --- is to check if the reception of GMA is good in this area. And it is. When I went around the city the next day, a quick inspection showed that many of the people here are proud to be Kapuso.
Back to the hotel room --- my only qualm is that the bathroom had no tub. What a sacrilege! A hotel room without a tub!

After driving around Baguio for an hour, we decided to ditch the jazz and take a cab around the city. We had decided to have lunch at Behrouz which we saw on our way to the hotel. We had estimated that we can walk to the restaurant so we did.

When we got to Behrouz, it was closed. Wonderfrickingful.

Our alternative proved to be worth the Behrouz-disappointment.... Cafe by the Ruins. Cheese Pancake had frequented Baguio so the restaurant was at the top of her list of places to go to.
This lovely restaurant is, in fact, built on a ruined building. For appetizers, we had basil bread and camote bread, both of which were wonderful with the cheese and strawberry spread. For the main dish, Cheese Pancake, Pan Fried Chicken and Spaghetti had the tapa while I had the Ole Nick Open-Faced Tuna sandwich. One, because I didn't want all of us to have the tapa like college freshmen on the first day of school, and two, because of how the dish was described --- the great Nick Joaquin had invented said dish. It was a simple pan-fried bread topped with tuna sauteed in tomatoes. With a side dish of mustard, it was a healthy and filling little lunch.
As much as I was enjoying my first few hours in Baguio, my body was about to give up on me, screaming "Go to sleep, dammit!". So we went back to the hotel room and I passed out for a few hours.

Whatever happened during those hours, you can just ask those three...

Day 1, Night Time

We had debated whether to go to Camp John Hay in the dead of night after this morning's run-around so we decided to have dinner at the restaurant downstairs and have beer delivered to our room. As it turns out, keeping it simple can be a lot of fun.

The restaurant was wonderful. We had traditional fried chicken, really good chopsuey, brocolli in oyster sauce, and fresh fruits while playing the first game of the trip: Deal Breaker.

Deal Breaker is simple: Pan Fried Chicken (again, the only male) gives a guy's characteristic and we answer whether we would still pursue a relationship with this guy if we discovered said characteristic. Some of the options where the following:

1. If a guy is too rich
2. If a guy is too poor/a bum/has no money
3. If a guy has had a sexual encounter with another guy (we all agreed... get him checked first)
4. If a guy had been married
5. If a guy has childish hobbies like toys and comic books (sigh. we've all had that guy)
6. If a guy is a cheapskate (we all responded "No way!!!")
7. A foreigner guy (which we're okay with as long as he takes a bath)
8. A short guy
9. A guy who continues to be friends with his ex
10. A guy too good-looking for us

We took the game upstairs where we had beers.

Now, Pan Fried Chicken not only had the pleasure of introducing Deal Breaker to us, he also had the rare opportunity ---- being the only hetero male --- of answering a question every single girl is dying to ask: "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH US"

The discussion proved pretty long, having to dig up stories about our past relationships while talking about our current pseudo- ones. In summary, Pan Fried Chicken concluded the following:

What's Wrong with Spaghetti
1. Her father still takes her to/fetches her from work.
2. She lives really far

What's Wrong with Cheese Pancake
1. Her plumpness
2. Having a small circle of friends with no eligible men in it

What's Wrong with Me
1. I have a son
2. I have bad posture

There was one thing that was common among the three girls: "Magaling kayong mambara".

Well, ain't that a revelation.

But Pan Fried Chicken was quick to make a positive comeback via the Bozo Bit.

Now, what the hell is a Bozo Bit?

A bozo bit, according to wikipedia (that ever reliable source of information --- can you smell my sarcasm?), means completely disregarding the opinion of a person, a "Bozo", meaning whatever he says, even if it makes sense, you would completely disregard it just because of his reputation. I can name many people at work worthy of this tag.

Anyways, Pan Fried Chicken said "I can never think of you guys as a bozo bit". Which is a compliment --- if you get to know him --- that only Pan Fried Chicken could give.

We retired early, at 11 am, taking advantage of the nice cool Baguio breeze as I settled into the first real sleep I've had in days.

And then there's Day 2.