Thursday, October 15, 2009

My Date with Pepeng in Baguio

I was in Baguio that few days Peping decided he had a tour of the North Luzon provinces. It was insane up there. We didn't go out for like 4 days. Well there was this one time we had no choice but to walk for blocks down to buy some "loathe bread." (My cousin Jj was punished in school because when he was asked to use loathe in a sentence, he said... "My favorite merienda is loathe bread.") I wonder what a loathe bread would look like? Haha

Going back to Peping. He was just all over the place. I needed to come back to Manila come Sunday. Fortunately, come Saturday, it was so hot in Baguio, parang walang nangyari. We decided to go site seeing...

Minesview Park



The huge dog with sore eyes and strawberry choker.














Not so sunny part of Baguio.















You can never leave Minesview without trying out their Strawberry Taho. It's like the new Inihaw Corn.










Loakan Airport

There was literally nothing in the airport except for this helicopter. Bilang usi ako...
N: Kuya saan kayo punta?
K: Ay mag dedeliver po ng relief goods ma'm.
N: Woooow ang cool niyo naman! (pause) Kuya pa picture muna!!!!!

Hahaha

Kuya was nice enough to give me a ride to Manila. Joke. haha


At around 3PM we heard in the news that Marcos hi-way was already passable, but you have to cross a make shift bridge to cross the landslides. The moment I heard that two words came to my mind, "Gora na!" My uncle drove us down Marcos hi-way. Alas! This is what welcomed us halfway down the zigzag.








Only half the road was passable for a most curved part of the hi-way.









And for the semi-grand finale...





Uhm... I thought it was passable? Only at this sight was I able to feel the gravity of the damage Peping has done.











This is the view from the other side of the road. If you would look closer, people had to walk a thin path at the side. Wala kang makakapitan. The only thing that would get you across is your balance. I almost slipped 2 meters from the final jump to the other half of the road.

A kuya who was transporting potatoes tried to overtake me. Eh the path can only accommodate one lane, my shoulder bag was too heavy because of that freakin' Ube Jam. So slipped to my right and screamed!!!! Everybody in my lane also screamed! Mega paanic!!!!



The only thing in my mind that time was, if i'm going to fall, I'm going to take someone with me. Hahahahah Para hindi ako lonely sa ravine.






When we got to the other side, we had to fall in line for a jeepney ride. 3 km down the road is another pitstop in this leg of the race. Haha Kiddin' There was only 2 jeepneys and 1 small red pick-up, stuck in that 3 km road between the two road bumps. We paid P7.50 each for that ride. Quite worth it. Others tried to walk down the road, but as we rode pass them, things got muddier.











I didn't get to take pictures of the second road "opening," because I was in sheer panic that we had to climb up this and walk on mud up there.










Before... We were advised by some people to remove our shoes because the mud was too slippery for any kind of shoes. Not even an Islander daw. Haha














After...
Parang nagpa foot spa lang aketch.
Also at one part of the long walk on mud, I was accidentally stepped in an area where the mud was knee high. My right foot slowly descended on the mud. Then my left foot followed, but this time, I stepped on something.. I stepped on a hand at the bottom of the mud. I panicked and started shouting, "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!" And everyone around me started pulling me up, and telling me to calm down. "May natapakan ako! May natapakan ako!" But the locals just ignored me, calmly helped me step on a stone far from where I had that encounter. The whole way down, I was thinking why didn't they react. I realized something, if they dig on that place where I stepped on "something," there wouldn't be anything left in that area to pass. :(





There was some running water from the mountain after the trail. We cleaned our feet as fast as we can, jumped on a jeepney to Agoo, the trip lasted for an hour with nothing but pitch black outside our windows. We were in the middle of nowhere in Agoo as me and my cousin Joan tried to rest in Jollibee. I was soo shaken from the mud experience I didn't even get to eat. I almost cried when I saw a bus with a Cubao sign. Although our bus looked more like an evacuation center. Kebs na! I was glad I got on that bus. Reached Manila around 130AM.

The journey from Agoo to Manila was long and dark. You literally can't see what's outside. It felt as if I was in Zombie or End-of-the-world movie. I'm sure more people experienced more than we did. But this would definitely go down in Janoah Mae history.

Piz awt!

PS. People are still in need of help... of your help. Many of the Ondoy victims are still stuck with flood water and food shortage. Let's not give up on them. Let us also not forgot our brothers and sisters in Northern Luzon.

Red Cross is also in need of blood donations for the victims of leptopirosis. Please call PNRC (02) 527-0000