Peanut Butter Jam and Melancholy Blues: The Cold is Warmth

Panagbenga Festival 2011 (Baguio City)

BAGUIO CITY, the Summer Capital of Philippines had its Panagbenga Festival for the whole month of February, it is a month-long annual flower festival.

Let me share you a short history about the festival.

The term is of Malayo-Polynesian origin, meaning "season of blooming"^.The festival, is being held during the month of February, and it was being celebrated as a tribute to the city's flowers and as a way to rise up from the devastation of the 1990 Luzon Earthquake. The festival includes floats that are decorated with flowers, street dancing, presented by dancers clad in flower-inspired costumes, and an Ibaloi dance of celebration that came from the Cordillera Region.

So since I was fascinated by the festival's charm, I decided to go to Baguio--alone. The first time I went to Baguio was last 2006, I was chosen to represent our school for the Student Supreme Government and we had our stay at Teachers Camp.

Victory Liner, EDSA Taft Terminal

I packed my bags alone. At first, I'm carrying 4 kilos of baggage excluding my hand-carry of shoes (loafers and topsiders) and both shoulders are in pain since it took me 1 hour and 30 minutes to alight the bus.I bought the 3:30pm ride to Baguio, 445 pesos one way via Victory Liner in Edsa Taft terminal. All in all, it took me 6 hours and 30 minutes on board (including stop over in Pangasinan and Tarlac) and not to mention the traffic jam in Monumento and partly in NLEX. I shared seats with an old man who lives in Baguio, he's amiable, and he really likes watching DVDs on board. haha

the BAGS

Touchdown Baguio City at exactly 10:30 pm and my first mission was to find a place to stay on. I walked and walked as fast as I could (do you still remember my bags?), slope of roads, up and down and the works of walking on the streets, fogs coming out of my mouth whenever I ask someone and the feeling of seeing the smoke clearly as it flies on the sky. Majority of the hotels are all fully booked, well it's festival in the city and what to expect (and also I cannot afford to pay 3 grand per day! haha) so still, I convinced myself to walk again amidst of the frigid weather and texting my Mama in between though it's hard to type in message on a qwerty phone. Mama was so worried since I'm on a chunky farm flung and she said that If I cannot find a place, better to go home. (okay, so how's the 6 hour ride going here)

I went to Teachers Camp and unluckily, it's fully booked too, too bad since their per day is only 180 pesos. I decided to rest and smoke since I'm so consumed with all the bags I'm carrying and started to feel hopeless. The lady who sells merienda on the facade of the building offered a transient house for me to stay in. She approached me nicely so why not give a try. Again, as I was expecting, major walks happened. It was a transient house located at Lower Cabinet Hill, beside Teachers Camp.