Intimations of Mortality redux

Without dwelling too much on the what should be and might be's, I hopped on a decrepit bus off to Baguio, right after attending a media conference in Holiday Inn @ Clark Pampanga. The bus left Dau around 930pm that Saturday night. Five hours later, I arrived in Baguio and I was simply the happiest person on earth.

The air was as fresh and as cold as I wanted it to be and the city was just as... well, sleepy and quiet as I expected it to be. I just didn't expect many people to still mill around Session Road at that hour, mostly the young ones.

Without any sense of urgency, I spent the next two hours in finding a suitable lodging. But being the height of the festival, naturally all the rooms were booked, even the sleazy ones in the City's nooks and crannies (don't ask me how I knew that). But nothing daunted me --- I was even prepared to sleep on Session Road, like the many I saw that dawn, never mind the cold.

A kindly taxi driver, among Baguio's truly gentle souls, helped me find some place to stay but in the end I contented myself in bunking on a 5-in-a-room dormitory at Baden Powell. Before managing to sleep around 430am, I made a mental note to wake up a few hours later to catch the Flower Festival parade...

Unfortunately, the flesh was weak (and tired from all the travelling) --- I woke up late at 1030am, hurriedly dressed, ate the Baden Powell's free but uninspired breakfast and hurried off to Session Road a few meters away to catch the parade.

I did manage to catch its last 30 minutes though, but the best parts were all gone already. Still, this did not stop me from sporting a crazy grin while walking around my favorite Session road, which just disappeared in a sea of people.

I managed to find a suitable transient room (with my own bathroom and cable tv at that) within walking distance to the city center. I savored the cold water of my first Baguio bath and soon after was off to hang out and pound away on my trusty laptop and finish my writing backlogs.

In Baguio, there are several places for me to stay while working on my stories, articles or simply just pouring out my mind --- the Figaro @ the Filling Station @ the Camp John Hay's entrance, the Starbucks at the Camp's Baguio Country Club end, the Figaro at SM Baguio's 4th level, @ the Tamawan Village, @ the Zola Cafe @ Session Road and my old time favorite, @ Cafe by the Ruins.

But hanging out in the places I mentioned do not come cheap though... But then again, no place is cheap anymore these days, especially in Baguio during Panagbenga.

Still I had a good time, was able to write a lot of stuff and caught up on my cable viewing too. I was extremely happy to catch Hotel Rwanda on HBO and watch the underrated but superb Don Cheadle.

So I just spent my time in Baguio doing simple things --- I wrote a lot, walked a lot, slept a lot and watched cable tv a lot. Surprisingly, I had a mild appetite --- I contented myself in eating street fare I would normally shun in Metro Manila, like my favorite one day old chick (3 pieces for 18 pesos, deep-fried with their bile taken out) at the Burnham Park area. I also attempted to check out the Mabuhay wag-wagan area but simply gave up after an hour --- I never did have the patience to do ukay-ukay shopping.

What I did not fail to do while in Baguio though was to have coffee at every imaginable cafe and surf the internet at ridiculously low rates --- part of the city's discount giving spree due to the festival.

I especially tried to cram a lot of mundane activities as the time for me to leave the city came near. Eventually, I reluctantly left at a very late 230am on Tuesday morning, with my class obligations to start 8 hours away, with a 6hour trip to make and two more to get to school.

Oh well, what's the use in living if you can't feel you're alive, right?