I was surfing the net and accidentally opened the tiger airways website. They have a "piso fare" promo for Manila-Laoag trip. Without thinking, I booked for a flight bound to Laoag.
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| Ilocos map |
The first time I visited Laoag, it was a work-related visit so I was not able to freely see the place. And now here I am again, wanting to visit laoag and the rest of Ilocos without thinking that I only have 31 hours to explore it. I want to visit also pagudpud and vigan. But how can I do that??? My flight schedule is Saturday 1:00 pm and the expected arrival to Laoag is 2:10 pm. Sunday evening, I should already be in a bus bound to Manila. Well, this is the what I did.
I wanted to go solo but I'm not yet ready for that so I invited a friend to go with me. It's my first time to fly with Seaair and also my first time in NAIA Terminal 4. we arrived early at the terminal. It was a Saturday before the monday election so I was not surprise that there are many passengers. We sat beside a group of foreign passengers and they talk nonstop which really annoys me. I told my friend , " ang iingay naman ng mga ito". So when they were called for boarding, i smiled and thanked god. But another group came, they are all filipino. Their voices are louder, laughing and talking nonstop. Nabingi yata ako sa kaingayan nila. We just decided to move to another seat while waiting for our flight. It was delayed for 15 minutes.
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| Inside NAIA Terminal 4 |
We arrived at Laoag International Airport around 2:20 pm. Good thing, there's a shuttle bus from laoag airport to city proper for free. We registered and asked for a Map of Region one. It was almost 3:00 in the afternoon when we reached the city. We had our lunch in a small eatery near the sinking bell tower, which is a tourist spot in Laoag. Because of the limited time, we skipped touring paoay-batac area.
We had a walking tour around laoag and then proceeded to bus terminal bound to Pagudpud. We made reservation to Arlyns homestay for a fan room which cost php500. We were lucky to have the front seat behind the driver. While waiting for the bus to leave, my friend bought empanada. I love this food. It has egg, longganisa and papaya, as what the tindera told us.
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| yummy empanada.. love it |
It was a two hour bus ride to Pagudpud. We were dropped off in Pagudpud market and hired a tricycle to Arlyns homestay. The room is in the second floor and has two beds. But there is one BIG PROBLEM, we have to ask them first to open the water supply everytime we go to CR. WHAATT....
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| homestay |
Ms. Arlyn is ok but there's another lady in that homestay who accused us that we left the faucet open.She said in a loud voice " wag nyong iwan na bukas ang gripo, bumaha sa CR". That's a common CR in the first place and we are not the only guest in that homestay. It's the tone of her voice that irritates me, she could have said it in a polite manner. GGRRR... enough of that.
Through the help of Ms. Arlyn, we had the pagudpud north tour and bangui windwill for php1,000.00. We We started the tour early. The driver fetched us before 7 am. Because of the limited time, we just visited our chosen tourist spots.... Patapat viaduct, the blue lagoon, kabigan falls, and bagui windwill. When we reached burgos, we were transferred to another tricycle for kapurpurawan rock formation and the burgos lighthouse for a fixed fee of php300.
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| Burgos Lighthouse |
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| Blue lagoon |
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| Patapat viaduct |
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| Kabigan falls |
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| Kapurpurawan rock formation |
We finished the tour race around 3 in the afternoon and waited for a bus bound to Manila. It took us half an hour waiting. It was already 4:00 pm when we board a bus bound to Manila. We ask the driver to drop us in Bantay to have a look at Vigan's famous calle crisologo at night.
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| calle crisologo at night |
The time is just right when we arrived in Vigan, it's already 7:30 in the evening.The place was awesome. After 2 hours of roaming around and buying some souvenirs, we hired a tricycle which brought us to Partas bus terminal. There are many passengers and the person in charge in ticketing gave us number 178 and told us that only 2 buses will arrive from laoag and we are not sure of the seat, we're just a chance passenger. We really wanted to go home, we chartered another tricycle and told the driver to drop us in Bantay. The chance of riding a bus is greater than waiting for Partas bus. Lucky, he suggested Viron Transit. we were able to get the front seats again. Fare is php. 493
After 8 hours travel time, we reached Cubao.
