Baguio in a day-May 24, 2009

Another trip from my backlog. This is one of the trips that pre-dates this blog. A day trip to Baguio, and the discovery of a great theme restaurant in Gerona, Tarlac, Isdaan.

One of the driving forces behind The Lakwatsero is that trips need not be complicated. It should be a simple task to just say… let’s go there… NOW!. But for many people, a trip is such a complicated matter.

On the evening of May 23rd, I was having an IM chat with my travel buddy, Jasper Jugan. At around 10pm I said. “Let’s go to Baguio tomorrow, we’ll be back in the afternoon.” And such… as an experiment the idea is to go Baguio for lunch… and back in Manila the same day. In fact, we got back to Manila, before the sun set.

View Baguio – Gerona, Tarlac – Manila in a larger map

I picked up Jasper at around 5:30am, and we were off. We stopped somewhere on McArthur Highway for breakfast.

We got to the Lion’s head by 9:30am.

Mansion House

Camp John Hay

By 12:30 we had lunch at Forrest House, just outside Camp John Hay

Naturally, I ordered steak and mashed potatoes

We briefly went back into John Hay for awhile as Jasper was looking for some pasalubong.

By 2:00pm we were headed back. This time we passed via Naguilan

Stopping at a vista spot

We reach Gerona, Tarlac around 4:00pm, and we eat at this interesting restaurant along McArthur Highway… Isdaan

The place itself is quite a sight… it’s like an Asian-Seafood theme park.

We had a few basics for our early dinner…

Prawns

Inihaw na manok

And a nice glass of iced tea

Isdaan was definitely a fascinating find. I realized when I read the menu that the place is owned by the same folks who own Barrio Fiesta. This is definitely an interesting place to stop if you are going to or coming from Baguio. Be warned… at off hours it was full… what more if it was around Lunch or Dinner time.

Aaah. A great day trip. Back and forth to Baguio. Why? Why not? There is no “sayang ang pagod.” It is all about the trip. Despite this being just a day trip… we accomplished a lot!

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