Last time we traveled into different and amazing places. A place to have a silent time and pray. A tourist spot wherein you will find and see nice views and experience the sun rise. And also a place that will test your fear and strength.

I want to show those places and my experiences during our travel.

So let's go!

It will be a long travel, so I have to prepare my things especially clothes and toiletries good for 4 days.

Things to prepare

Clothes good for 4 days
pocket money
Jacket (for cold weather)
Shoes
Underwears and socks (good for 4 days)
Slippers
gloves (optional)
Pants and jogging pants
Toiletries
medicines/ first aid kit

1. MANAOAG

We visited in the Manaoag Church to pray for guidance and also to be thankful for all the blessings we receive everyday.

After praying, you can also go to their store to buy some rosaries, cross, rings, bracelets, novena booklet, and more.

2. BAGUIO

Time to prepare myself for another 3 hours of travel. Baguio is known for having a cold weather and also the strawberry farm in La Trinidad Benguet. It is also the place where you will find a lot of pine trees.

Before reaching your destination in Baguio, you will encounter several zigzag roads that might cause you to feel dizzy. Huge clouds and fogs can also be seen very closely while driving.

It's advisable to go in Baguio as early as you can or you might encounter this kind of situation.
"Traffic"

We arrived at the hotel. Our room is located at the second floor of the building and the view right there was so amazing.
Those lights are from the houses located at the top of the hill. They looked so nice, like a huge Christmas lights.

We rested for about an hour and prepared again to go to the ...

BURNHAM PARK

It's about 8 in the evening, but you can still see a lot of people walking and buying in Burnham park.

There are a lot of things to buy for low prices. Like a jacket for 100 pesos($2) or if you find a promo like 3 jackets for 150 pesos($3). They are also selling stuff toys and class A shoes.

I bought three jackets and after buying we went inside the park to have some fun.

You can ride this kart for 30 mins. It will cost you 50 pesos($1).

We tried racing using our karts which made me feel tired and cold because I exerted so much power to beat my friends and the cold wind is passing in my face. It was tiring yet a great time to have some fun with your friends and loved ones.

MINES VIEW PARK

The next morning...
We went at the Mines View park. A great place for tree/plant lovers. They are selling different kinds of plant like basil, sunflower, cactus, lucky charm plant, and pine trees.

This is also a great place to buy souvenirs and variety of food delicacies. You can buy key chains, T shirts, belts, caps, bags, strawberry jam, strawberry wine, peanut brittle, wood toys, and more.

You can aslo have a picture while riding on the back of the horse, and sit beside that big dog.

Beside the road, you can see some taho vendors. You can try the one with sugar syrup(arnibal) or try their special strawberry taho.

*taho is made from tofu, brown sugar syrup, and sago pearls.

Here is the image of taho

After Baguio, let's go to...

SAGADA

It will took about six hours from Baguio to Sagada. You can go straight if you're strong/tough person especially in driving. But in our case, we decided to do two "stop over" to rest for a while and go to the comfort room incase we want to pee or poop.

While travelling to Sagada we saw the Botanical Garden. Sadly, we didn't have a chance to visit the place because were in a hurry, so I just took a photo of it to have some souvenir about this place.

We're almost 2 hours on the road and we decided to stop over in a 2 in 1 store. You can have your lunch here or buy some snacks like bread, egg pie, and they are also selling some candies, drinks, coffee and more.
We asked one of their staff about Sagada and she said that we need to travel for another 4 hours before reaching our destination. After hearing that, we can't imagine what to feel because 2 hours of travel is so tiring what more if it's 4 hours.

So we decided to go on and start driving. I saw a lot of pine trees while traveling and the view is so beautiful.

Here's a closer look of the pine trees

I'm also shocked to know that we reached the highest point. We get off the car to have some pictures of the nice view.

After the highest point and 30 minutes of travel we reached the mountain province. We stop over there to take some photos again. We didn't stay for too long there, we just took a chance to take a picture then we started driving again.

Finally we arrived, and we stayed at the Pension House. It offers two kinds of rooms; cottage and ordinary room good for two person. We chose the cottage room. It has 3 bunk beds and the design of the rooms were nicely done. The place was also clean.

You can also go to their mini canteen to have some free coffee, buy some snacks, and stay in their entertainment side with chimney and videoke.

these logs are pine trees

you can try this videoke and sing your favorite song for 5 pesos($0.095)

TOMORROW

We woke up early around 4:00 am to go to the Malboro Hills to witness the beautiful sunrise. We parked the car right here and started to walk.

According to our tour guide, it will take one hour to reach the top of the Hill. It is recommended to have your breakfast or eat something before going to this kind of activity, so that you will have enough energy during the hiking. Jackets, jogging pants, and flashlights will be your best friend here to keep you warm and to be able to see the path clearly.
You have to be really careful, avoid the muds, the roots of the trees that will cause you to slip because they are so slippery. It is also great to have a buddy system to guide each other.

As we reach the top of the hill, the temperature is increasing high. I can no longer feel my hands due to the cold weather. While waiting for the sun to rise, I tried to video it and make a time lapse. I didn't manage to capture the whole scene and the result were not smooth because my hands were shaking due to the intense cold weather. I don't have gloves that's why I just kept my hands in the pocket of my jacket.

The sun finally showed up, and we're higher than the other clouds. There were a lot of people who went here to also witness this amazing sun rise.

After seeing the sun rise we took the opportunity to take some pictures. Then we had some coffee that we brought to stay warm. We rested for a while, then started on walking to go down the hill.

the muds that I'm talking about a while ago

We get back to the Pension House to freshen up and change our clothes. We also rested again to have enough energy because our next stop will be...

SUMAGING CAVE

Make sure that you are courageous and have enough strength before going in this cave because you will face different kinds of rocks and obstacles inside the cave.
The first stage is this 200+ steps of staircase.

Before entering the cave, our tour guide briefed us about the things that we might encounter and experience. He also gave some tips on how to pass through those rocks. Another tip that he gave was; he instructed us to shout their names if we need some help or light on our way because the cave was so dark. There were no source of light inside.

Then the real challenge will start. You will encounter different sizes and kinds of rocks. Huge, small, sandy, and slippery rocks.
You have to be really careful or you might put yourself in danger.

This one is the slippery part. You need to have a good grip for this one to prevent yourself from slipping and fall in the deep water. I accidentally slipped on this part. Gladly, my friend was in front of me and he managed to catch and saved me from that deep water. I felt so nervous during that time and I was thinking if I will go on or not.

So I decided to continue and tried to be more cautious on my steps.

For the next part of the cave, our tour guide asked us to remove our slippers. According to him it will be easy for us to walk with our bear foot.

Then another challenge is waiting for me, I have to climb this big rock formation using a rope. I felt nervous while watching the other people climbing because there is a little water passing on this rock and there might be a chance to slide. Our tour guide reminded us to stay in one direction to prevent ourselves from sliding.

some of the rock formation

We were also asked to be silent inside the cave so that we won't disturb the bats.

The last and greatest challenge inside the cave is to climb this one...

It's very high, but I'm glad I overcome my fear of heights. I made sure that I stepped on a solid and compact rock.

Few minutes later...
we can now see the opening of the cave and it was a relief because we made it. I had some scratches and wounds due to the rocks that we stepped and climbed using our hands and feet, but what matters most is the fun and scary experience that I had inside this cave.

After Sumaging cave, let us go to Sagada Pottery

In this place, you will appreciate every pots and vases you see everday because you will know and see how hard it is to finish a single pot.

You can watch an actual pottery making for 200 pesos($4) and you can also try it and make your own pot for 100 pesos ($2).

Here are some of the pots inside the Sagada Pottery

The pot maker explained the process and gave some information on how hard and long process to make a pot. Patience will be a great help on making pot

Next is...

LUMIANG CAVE

In this place you will see a lot of coffin in the cave. The coffins were all made from pine trees and the dead were in fetal position because they believe people should leave the world in same position as they were in a mother's womb. According to our tour guide, this place was hit by an earthquake which caused damage to the cave and some of the coffins.

SANTA'S GARDEN

We were in luck to reach this place because according to them it was their last day to open when we arrived. Then they will close it for a while and think of another theme and materials to use to decorate the Santa's Garden.

It was our first time to visit this place and their theme for this year is to use plastic materials. That's why most of the materials were all made from plastic/artificial flowers. Like plastic flowers, trees, and etc.