A Break-up Adventure in Baguio. First stop is Burnham Park!

"Where do broken hearts go?"

When people ask you this here in the Philippines, their main answer would be BAGUIO. A famous indie movie in the Philippines called "That thing called Tadhana" made it possible for Baguio to be a hit destination for broken-hearted people.

Joining the bandwagon, it wasn't hard to come up with a decision to head to this place when I decided to end a connection with someone years ago. But don't expect this will be all tears and melancholic storytelling about our romance. It's all about the places we (me and the guy) went to in Baguio. It would be a shame not to write about them. And oh yes! You heard it right. We decided that the ending to our love story won't be a sad one and that our last memories would be good and fun. And so off we went to Baguio.

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There are many ways to get to Baguio. The bus was the most viable option for us. It was a grueling 8-hours trip but I can't complain since I already experienced a 24-hours bus ride when I was solo backpacking in Vietnam to Laos. Anyways, we left Manila City around 11:00 pm and so we arrived in Baguio by 7:00 am. And damn, I wasn't ready for that cold crisp air hitting my face when I got off the bus. I knew I should be used to the cold by now but adapting to cold temperatures is not my strong suit.

Our check-in was still around 11:00 am so we still had time to spare. We had our breakfast first before hitting down the road. To be honest, I didn't have concrete plans made as I usually do but I did rent out a motorbike for us to use on our short excursion here as the tourist spots are a bit far from each other. However, while waiting for the vehicle to be available we went on a short walk to the nearest tourist site - Burnham Park.

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BURNHAM PARK

Exploring Burnham Park was a whole different experience as my initial impression was being in a foreign land. It was a modern or urban park with wide walkways, a lake, a football field, botanical gardens, and recreational spaces. It was by far the biggest park I've been to in my country and I wasn't expecting that. There is much history behind Burnham Park which I won't dig into but it does worth mentioning that the park was designed by an American architect and city planner Daniel Hudson Burnham.

By the time we arrived, there were already a lot of locals minding their own business. Families enjoy their time together and doing fun activities like biking and riding those pedal go-karts. Some were enjoying their leisure walk and others tending to their children at the playground. There were a lot of stalls selling food, drinks and other goods. I was able to finally taste their famous "strawberry taho" and I loved every bit of it. It was a pleasant atmosphere to be in and it did make me jealous a bit - not having a park like this in my hometown.

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BURNHAM LAKE

We continued our stroll towards the center of the park where Burnham Lake was. It is a 100-year-old man-made lake. Unfortunately, it's not those lakes with clear waters but it was sort of brown or muddy. There were a lot of people riding swan boats across the lake. I'm not a fan of these kinds of activities but I do appreciate the locals have fun things to do here.

But it was the Jailed Bottlebrush trees surrounding the lake and the walkways that captured my heart. It made the place a bit romantic. The trees were beautiful to see at a distance or even up close. It also provided shade and others were simply happy to sit on side benches and enjoy the scenery.

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BAGUIO ORCHIDARIUM

We stumbled upon this beautiful spot full of plants and flowers at the far end of the park. At first, I thought it was a garden but it was a place where locals are selling all kinds of plants. It felt like walking into flower paradise as everything I saw were varieties of flowers I don't get to see elsewhere. There wasn't another soul venturing this side of the park and so it also felt we had the place to ourselves even just for a short bit of time.

There was a store selling bonsai plants which I've been wanting to have for a very long time. Then there were orchids, succulents, hanging plants, and other beautiful ones whose specific names I don't know. I spent more than an hour admiring the flowers and at one point I just sat at a bench and simply took in the beauty in front of me.

I kindly asked one shop owner if they do ship to other places and they said yes but haven't tried sending to Cebu. She said though that most flowers like the ones they grow only survive cold weather and doubt would survive a long trip so it was such a shame not being able to buy the ones I like to bring back home. But still, I enjoyed walking around and admiring the gorgeous flowers in Orchidarium.

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Time past by so fast and we didn't notice it was already 10:00 am. Our rented motorbike was now ready for pick-up and so we left Burnham Park as soon as possible. But it was a beautiful day and a great way to start our "break-up" adventure in Baguio. 😁

So have you been to Burnham Park? Did you like it too? Or were you able to visit the Orchidarium and got mesmerized by the beautiful flowers there? There are still more places here in Baguio I will share to you soon so stay tuned!

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