12 New Things To Do This Christmas '08

Although this year's Christmas holidays have the longest non working days ever, our family hardly had the time to schedule a long vacation. Some friends even invited us to go to Ilocos but we had to respectfully decline due to conflict in schedules.

We had an opening on the 29th so we decided to leave for Baguio for an overnight stay. This time around however, we tried to do things that we haven't done in this summer capital. So I'm listing some new things that we did this holiday season.

1. First on the list would be visit Baguio this Christmas season. Yep, we don't usually go out during the holidays, but this time we did -- even for just two days.

2. Eat breakfast at Star Cafe. I haven't had the chance to bring my family here where my father would bring us when we were young. We left home early at around 4am and went straight there to have breakfast. We are lucky to visit it first because the next day it was close while we were hoping to bring home some of those yummy cinnamon bread as pasalubongs.


3. Hmmm... Burnham park, Wright Park, been there, done that, so why not check out Crosby Park? It's one of the lesser known and least visited parks because of it's proximity from the city. But for me the lesser the crowd, the better. The surrounding's also still pretty much green and clean and the air also cooler. It's more of a campsite though with it's obstacle course and we did find some campers up on that mountain.

4. Do the Balatoc Mines tour - Benguet Mining Corporation opened this first and only actual mining site tour in the Philippines. We learned about it only now considering it was opened in 1997. The tour guide said that foreigners claim it rivals if not top most the the mining tours in the few other countries that offer it because you can try and really experience some actual things you do inside the mines. I've put a little teaser here...

5. Ride a train inside an actual gold mining tunnel - imagine Indiana Jones!

6. Hold an actual dynamite then hear and feel it's blast within the tunnel. The blast demo used just half a stick. Imagine all 30+ full size dynamites blasting a hole all at one time. ABAAH! BOH!!! (sound effect ala Combat TV series during the 70s)

7. Visit the Baguio Cathedral at night time. Nice shot huh!

8. Buy sweet Camote from a lola along Session road at night. She panicked over the flash when I took her pic.


9. Visit Tam-Awan village. See artworks from local artists where Ben Cabrera now retires. The artworks are great and you can also have your own portrait or caricature made by the artists here. Ifugao huts are also available for rent so you may try to experience living the highlanders way.

10. First time ever great lunch/dinner combo at Isdaan resto along Gerona, Tarlac. We just pass this place everytime we go north but this time we decided to stop over and had lunch (at 4pm?) Suzette treated everybody and we had a great time with the great food here notably the Tinupig na Manok and marinated inihaw na liempo. The all-veggie kare kare and Hototay soup were also superb! From the national road the frontage is inviting but somehow you just pass thru it because you want to get home soon. But once inside, you would want to stay longer. We did stay for nearly two hours here but it's not a waste of time.

11. Had fun things at the Isdaan resto - Marvel at the sculptures all around and the floating dinner tables. The kids tried the Tacsiyapo wall. This is where you shout Tacsiyapo and hurl procelain (or buy an old TV set) against the wall. Guaranteed to release tension. Kids can also feed large Kois that looks like hungry Piranhas coming at you.
There's even the San Kilo bridge challenge where you can bring home a kilo of fish for free if you cross the narrow footstep without falling on the pond of Piranhas, er Kois.

12. Use the SCTEX highway going home. This new highway is a breeze !!! Glad we took it because we saw the traffic jam on the old highway and it took us only about 30 minutes to link to the NLEX again.