"You are crazy for planning a trip up to the last detail."
Here goes another echo from Geo, yup! The ex almost-lover that pushed me to travel without an itinerary. Imagine how terrifying that is for an INTJ! Geez, I can only recall!
Remember my climb in Mt. Pulag, the country's third-highest mountain? My entire 10-day solo backpacking didn't stop there, we went down to Baguio where we parted ways with my newfound friends after dinner. Then all of a sudden it sunk in: I had no place to spend the night.
I haven't found this alarming until we were trying to get a cab for everyone to take them to their respective hotels/hostels. Right there and then, I asked Ebib, also a Cebuana, if she could adopt me just that night. She had a prior reservation at a hostel nearby. Told her we'll just split the bill to which she agreed.
In a matter of minutes, I found myself in 3BU Hostel in Baguio City located a few meters from Session Road. The hostel had unique accommodation as we stayed in Teepee Hut-inspired room. I just don't like them as each room doesn't have doors.
Finding my way
The following morning, it was time to say goodbye to Ebib. She had other plans and I'm determined to reach Baler which is 236 km away (roughly 147 miles) from Baguio City. That's 5 freaking hours of bus ride!
I had to drop my dirty, heavy, and unuseful stuff at LBC and had it shipped back to Cebu. Who needs a winter jacket when I'm heading to the beach! I passed through the normally bustling famous Session Road of Baguio. It was still early so it was not that crowded yet.
If there's something I hate about Baguio, it's the fact that during Summer people from the Metropolitan parts of NCR and other Provinces travel here and the place becomes crowded. The narrow streets filled with private cars and traveling via foot will take you easier than taking any vehicle, maybe except motorcycles and bikes.
Although I didn't have firm plans, I did a little research enough for me to at least know important places such as where to get a ride that will take me to Baler. When I arrived there, they told me there were no trips to Baler that day! That sounded horrible in all ways possible. But one guy tipped me off that there's another terminal a little farther away from the City that I might want to check out. After listening to his instructions, I walked following the directions he gave and reached the terminal in a couple of minutes.
I asked around if there's a trip to Baler that morning. Luckily, there's one left. The only problem I had to face was the van wouldn't leave until all seats were filled. I'm in no financial position to buy all the seats; I'm on a strict budget that should last until the 10th day of my backpacking. Waiting game! So instead of leaving before lunch, we left at around 1 PM.
And oh, one more thing! I had no place to stay in Baler. What an exciting turn of events indeed. Ebib might have saved me once but I think she saved me twice. This time she recommended a hostel Go Surfari House which I contacted via Facebook.
And the long and winding journey to Baler began. At around 4 PM, we had a quick stop in Margie's Kitchenette in Pangasinan. This meant we're 3 more hours away from Baler.
It was one of my favorite long rides. Everywhere I looked, we were surrounded by rice fields that looked like they were about to be harvested.
Honestly, I don't know what happened but we've traveled more than five hours. The van dropped me off at the Baler town proper at 8:55 in the evening. I just had to walk a few meters to reach the hostel. I'm not particularly happy spending the entire day traveling and not exploring Baler but in places like this when trips are not scheduled, it's not surprising really. For now, time to rest!
Burning Bridges in Baler
I woke up to the fact I'm already in Baler but I don't know what to do, where to go and how to go to this town's tourist destinations. You see, this was the first and the last time I'm traveling without any preparations!
As I mentioned earlier, I did research a bit and from that research, I had a list of possible people who could tour me around. I contacted one who had the most positive reviews from previous clients. Thankfully he had no tour that day; after breakfast, he showed up ready to take me to the best of the bests of Baler.
I've been talking about Baler since this blog's opening spiel, but where is Baler located?
Baler is a third-class municipality and the capital of the Province of Aurora located in the eastern part of Central Luzon.
You may have never heard of this little town the way I'm about to tell you. Why? Because Baler has always been famous for surfing. Professional as well as amateur surfers dream of surfing in the waters of Baler especially in Sabang. But there's more to Baler than just surfing and all those things, I'll try to share with you in this series.
Since there was no itinerary to follow, I left the planning to my tour guide/driver. He's been doing it for a while so he'd know where to take tourists like me. After fetching me at the hostel, we drove to the outskirts of Baler. We reached this hanging bridge called Tibag-Sabang Bridge.
We don't have one like this at home; well at least not one as beautiful and surrounded by clean water like this. This bridge wasn't meant to be an attraction in the first place; it's just a bridge that connects one small barrio to mainland Baler. But later on bloggers, vloggers and even random visitors posted photos on social media which then led to new tourists to include this place in their itineraries when visiting Baler.
And of course, what a fine day it was without letting my tour guide/driver and now photographer took a few memories of me on this bridge.
My tour guide should be awarded best in photography (You'll see in my next posts! 😁) for his tricks just like this panorama with me in it. I barely breathed the entire time he was taking the photo haha!
There were no pretty much to do in this hanging bridge unless you want to cross to the other side and explore the small community there or if you stay and chill, perhaps read a book and listen to music all day until the sun sets. I'm not sure but it might be a great spot to watch the sunset.
We're back on the road heading to our next destination which is an important part of Baler's history. What could it be? Find out in my next post! 😁
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