First Times and a Man-Made Lake | Adventures around Baguio City

What's up, Hive!

It's 2024 and let me start my year here in Hive by sharing with you a recent trip I had with my family. In the second week of January, I traveled to Baguio City with my parents, my brother, and his friend. This was a trip months in the making. Last year, my brother told the family he wanted to treat my mother on a birthday trip. Our whole family celebrates birthdays and special occasions by going out together to a restaurant or a mall. We're quite a big family, so having everyone outside the house and enjoying our time together is always fun. But we haven't tried traveling far away for a family trip, so this trip was a first time, a lot of first times actually.

First times

My parents haven't been to Baguio City before. It's a city in the northern part of Luzon. It's dubbed as the Summer Capital of the Philippines. The name is a misnomer. People don't go there to enjoy the heat of the summer, but to escape it. Baguio City is one of the few places in the country with temperatures below 15°C. The Philippines is a hot country, so people would take great lengths to escape the heat, be it soaking in the beach waters, crowding inside large malls, or going to Baguio City to feel the cold.

The trip required taking a flight from Cebu to Manila and driving to Baguio for at least 5 hours. My father hadn't been on a flight before, so this was going to be his first and so was my brother's friend, Mark.

The last and first time I went to Baguio was in high school. It was all fuzzy, but I still remember the cold. The morning shower was the worst part of my day.

I decided to rent a car for us to get to and drive around the city. I volunteered to drive, and it would be my first time driving up north toward the Cordilleras. I'd been told the drive would be long and difficult, but I was determined to bring everyone to our destination with all the comfort they deserved, especially my parents.

Drive to Baguio

We arrived at the airport a bit late. We were complacent because we live not too far away from the airport. We were inside the plane in a matter of minutes. I wasn't seated beside my parents because I booked my ticket separately from theirs, so I didn't see how my father would react to the takeoff. I was also very tired. I didn't have a lot of sleep the night before. After plopping on my seat, I closed my eyes and dozed off.

The flight was uneventful. We arrived at around 8 in the morning. I asked my father how the flight was, and he said it was okay. He looked unfazed. I thought it was good for him. I remember my first flight experience. I was so scared. It didn't help that I was with someone who was also flying for the first time.

After having breakfast at the airport and picking up the car, we made our way out of Manila through the expressways. The drive was long, but it wasn't that difficult. The views were nice, and it was such a good feeling driving my parents towards a travel destination. After more than 6 hours of driving, we finally arrived in Baguio City. It was already late afternoon when we checked in to our Airbnb. Our itinerary for Day 1 included going to a park in the middle of the city.

Burnham Park

I was told that parking in Baguio was really bad. I had my first-hand experience when looking for parking when we went to Burnham Park. It's the main park in the city. When Baguio was discovered by American troops long ago, they decided to settle here and make it a base. That's why a lot of places in the city have American names. They also didn't think that the place would be a popular tourist destination in the future. The roads are small and crisscrossing. It would be impossible now to widen them because too many buildings and houses would be affected. This also meant parking spaces were limited and quickly filled up, especially during the peak tourist season.

So there I was, looking for a parking spot in Burham Park. I had to line up to get inside the parking area. We were all waiting for other cars to come out so that we would have space inside. I told my passengers to head to the park while waiting for a parking space.

Finally, I was able to park and it was getting dark when I looked for my companions. The activity we were there to do in Burnham Park was the boat ride at the man-made lake. My mother's brother came to the city to see us, together with his wife. All seven of us donned our life jackets and got in one by one to the small boat. My brother and I were seated by the paddles, so we navigated our way around the lake.

I wanted to stop in the middle and enjoy the moment. It was getting chilly, and it was good that we all had our jackets ready. We couldn't stay in one place because the other boats would come near and bump us. We splashed around until it was dark and lights around the lake were turned on.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, except for my father. He was anxious that the boat might capsize. He's not a good swimmer and our life jackets did not look reassuring. I know how to swim, but I also did not want to go into the water because it looked murky and brown. And the smell, it smelled like piss. It was a man-made lake after all. My uncle said chemicals were added to treat the water, but it was still stagnant and treatment could only do so much.

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It was getting late and we were all hungry. We paddled the boat back to the jetty and headed to the famous street in Baguio City, Session Road. We had dinner there. I was quite anxious about the food we ordered because of an ongoing gastroenteritis outbreak in the city due to contaminated water. My brother said not to overthink about it anymore.

Some alone time

After dinner, I had some alone time because they all went grocery shopping for the food we would stock up for the next few days. I went back to Burnham Park to get the car.

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On the way, I sat on one of the benches and looked out the lake. I opened my phone and wrote a journal entry:

January 12, 2024, Friday, Burnham Park

I am Burnham Park. It's nighttime. The lights make the place romantic and the cold makes the place somewhat cozy... It would be nice to have someone close by in this cold. I'm back here in Baguio. My first time here was in high school.
...
Are they springing back up because having them unresolved is causing me some of my present challenges?

After enjoying my solitude by the lake, I went to get the car and picked them up before heading back to our Airbnb.

That's it for Day 1 of our trip to Baguio City. I'll continue this travel series in the next few days. I'll share our experiences in the Strawberry Farm, the other parks in Baguio City, and our gastronomical adventures. See you in the next one. Cheers!

_{He’s a dreamer and a thinker. He tends to sensationalize a lot of things. He got that from his mother. He's also a bit melodramatic. It must be from his father. Bear with him as he shares his thoughts and experiences about his travels, dreams, and the variety of things he's trying to learn and improve (personal development, writing, cryptocurrency, fitness, etc.). If you like this article, please give it an upvote, and if for some reason you're interested in more future content, please don't hesitate to follow.}