Baguio 2024! All the pet-friendly places we went to + how much we spent for 5 days!

Two weeks ago we went to Baguio for a quick getaway (5 nights, I knowww, bitin! haha) and man did we miss it! Especially that Manila heat is proving to be unbearable for weeks now! Since we got Koomi we haven’t been able to go on staycations as much because it’s more expensive to bring a pet with us plus there’s not much options for pet-friendly hotels around. But most importantly, we just couldn’t find the budget anymore lol.

This trip was special for a lot of reasons, the most important one being it’s our first time to bring a car (at least for me this was a milestone). It was my longest drive ever at 264kms! I only drove on the way to Baguio and my husband drove around the area and back to Manila. We have always commuted by bus going up but since we have a dog it’s difficult to use public transpo and get around on taxis.

We were hesitant to bring our 8-year Toyota Vios because we think it’s too old. It’s a matic car with a decent 1.3L engine with manual modes so the only issue really is with the driver (me) lol. But after asking a car group about tips on driving up to baguio with the car that we have, I gained confidence and became pretty excited about the trip!

Turns out it was a great ride. 3hrs out of the 4.5hrs we were on the road were spent on the expressway which was mostly smooth. After exiting TPLEX, we gassed (??) up and stretched a bit at Shell TPLEX Rosario before starting the ascent. Our full-tank was halved by the time we had to climb.

We checked-in at an Airbnb at Bristle Ridge Condo. It’s a DMCI property and it’s pet-friendly! It’s almost like we didn’t leave home cos the amenities look the same except it’s 10deg cooler lol. We were fantasizing about this before, teleporting our unit to different places so we didn’t have to travel and nest haha. How I’d love for that to be a reality lol.

Anyway, I’ll start making lists now hehe

The route

Pretty straightforward coming from Metro Manila.

ESDA -> NLEX -> SCTEX -> TPLEX -> Marcos Highway -> Baguio!

Between Marcos Highway and Kennon Road, the former is what everyone suggested we take because Kennon is usually closed and open only to locals, and when it rains it’s more dangerous.

They say Marcos Highway has wider roads because it’s what trucks and buses use. You’ll be sharing the road with them so there could be a slow down in some parts. But I realized after driving up that trucks are usually very kind to private vehicles, they would give way and give you a hand signal when it’s safe to pass them. The buses are more aggressive so be careful around them!

We left home 9:30AM and arrive 2:30PM. So that’s 5hrs with one stop, following the speed limit ah!

Gas | ~₱4,500

Initial full tank – ~₱2,000

Consumed half a tank traversing the expressways.

Top-up at Shell Rosario TPLEX – ~₱1,200 (half-tank)

Consumed another half-tank going around Baguio

Top-up heading back to Manila at Shell Rosario TPLEX – ~₱1,300 (half-tank)

When we got home we still have around half-tank left so our actual consumption is really just 1.5 full tanks for the whole trip.

Toll fees | ~₱1,200

To be safe, load up your Easytrip (for NLEX and SCTEX) with ₱700 and your Autosweep (for TPLEX) with ₱500. That 1,200 is enough for going back and forth Metro Manila.

Airbnb | ~₱17,500

We stayed here for 5 nights and it was great ♥

We’re a party of 2 adults plus Koomi our dog and we paid around 3.5k/night.

Koomi loved running around the roof deck ♥.

All the pet-friendly places and restaurants we visited

• Lime and Basil Thai Restaurant
• Located at Outlook Ridge Condo (another DMCI property hehe
• Spent ~₱2,000 here

• SM Baguio
• You can hang-out by the stairs at the sunset terrace
• Most restaurants have outdoor seats where pets are allowed
• Buffalo Wings and Things – spent ₱500 for merienda
• Chaya Japanese Restaurant – spent ~₱3,300 for dinner

• Lemon and Olives Greek Taverna
• Love the view here! And the laaamb dishes ♥
• Spent around ~₱2,800 for lunch

• Mines View Park for souvenirs
• Entrance is ₱10/adult, dogs are free
• Careful of one of the St. Bernards cos one is agressive towards dogs. Honestly though, nakaka-awa sila tingnan. They’re not fun to pet. And we feel like the “agressive” one was actually barking at other dogs for help huhu.
• Spent around ₱4,300 for pasalubong (strawberries, ube jam, shirts, and music boxes) because everything is overpriced here haha.
• Strawberries are small during this season, according to the ates they’re normally big during December to March. Still sweet though!
• Good Shepherd Ube Jams are sold out easily in the morning because the vendors hoard them and sell them with a huge margin sa baba. Unfortunately we’re not morning people so 450/jar na yung nabili namin nung hapon. Original price is 350/jar.

• Choco-Late de Batirol
• Had a lovely lunch here!
• Spent ~₱1,300

• Camp John Hay Picnic Area
• Loved walking around here! Lots of dogs too! Most people bring picnic stuff cos the tables in the park are not free and you’re not allowed to sit on the stumps. There are some wooden benches though. 🙂
• Parking is available but they’re mostly parallel slots

• Mangiamo Ristorante Baguio
• One of our favorite Italian restaurants!
• It’s at Giraffe Boutique Hotel which is also pet-friendly
• Spent ~₱2,000 for dinner

• Lola Joe’s Bulalohan and Kambingan
• It’s one of the restaurants at Mine’s View na may Kambingan so we ate here!
• The adobong kambing was so good!
• Spend ~₱680 for lunch
  

Grand total – ~₱43,000 for 5 nights

I think it’s not bad for 5 nights considering we ate out a lot?! I already included the grocery items I bought in preparation for this trip. You know… chips, eggs, bread, some canned goods, snacks, rice, coffee, etc hehe. That’s maybe around ₱2,000.

Hopefully we could stay longer the next time around cos I swear sobrang bitin pa kami ang init sa Manilaaaaa!!!! I wanna go to other parks and Baguio market too!

Oh I don’t know

My eyes are literally struggling to open, It’s almost 9am, I’m out of sleep and about to embark on a whole day ISO training my manager signed me up for.

It’s 33°C this morning and while I have the fan on full blast the air is still so hot. Urgh.

I already had my coffee but it’s not working because I haven’t slept.

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It’s past 3pm now! I’ve had short naps during breaks but still not fully alive.

I don’t even know what they’re discussing right now. I’ll just dig into the slides when they send it to us. Makes me wonder if I can ditch the whole class since they’re giving the slides anyway.

I’m so exhausted.

Hey Monday

 

Daily writing prompt

What makes you nervous?

View all responses

Oh I get nervous a lot for various reasons. But there’s one thing that always gets me nervous and that’s answering calls from grab food lol. I never want to take calls from them because I’m afraid they’ll tell me they can’t meet in the lobby or that they’ve been waiting for too long. Most of the time (if not all) I give my phone to my husband whenever he goes down to fetch the food so I don’t have to take any calls from them. But yeah, that’s one thing that always makes me nervous. I don’t even know why, it just makes me anxious. I think I don’t want to feel rejected that they won’t meet me in the lobby despite my instruction and that I’d resent them for lying that they’re not allowed in the lobby cos that’s happened a lot.

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Anyway.

It’s a Monday and I’m in the office. I just had dinner at Pancake House. Had House Special Set A, which was the same set I got last Friday lol. I have a new found appreciation for their fried chicken. It has a tang to it that I love, reminds me of Chooks’ fried chicken. 😀

Out of curiousity I bought Krispy Kreme’s 3 new doughnuts – the Ruffles, Doritos, and Cheetos coated ones. I have very low expectations for them because they already look weird to me but I’m also very curious haha. Will try them with my husband when I get home.

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I’m still not done reading a A Little Life. Halfway through the book I was feeling very empathetic about Jude cos he’s got a boatload of trauma he can’t seem to get over with. But eventaully it gets frustrating because he doesn’t seem to want to get better. I’m starting to hate him. But who am I to judge right. What do I know about coping with physical and sexual abuse as a child? Oh well. Still holding on to the hype and the promise that it will make me bawl like crazy.

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I kinda want a new office chair. One with a headrest and footrest that I can comfortably lounge around. My Ikea Alefjall feels too stiff? Or maybe my posture is just wrong. Hehe.

Happy Friday

It’s been a crazy week but glad it’s coming to a close.

✱ My IF pattern isn’t working for me. And I guess I know the reason why. I’m not entering a calorie deficit despite eating only during the 8-hour window because I EAT A LOT. Of course. Goddammit. So I figured, it doesn’t matter what time I eat, as long as I get myself into a deficit I’d lose weight. The reason why IF worked for me before is because I’m actually eating less and eating only during the window. I guess I’ll just go on a regular diet then. I’m 75kgs right now it sucks. That used to be my weight after coming back from the US, and the PH heat easily melted it off. Oh well, wish I had the same metabolism as 8 years ago.

✱ I ordered a new dashcam on Shopee to replace our old one, which died at 6 years, and I’m having doubts about it. I got the DDPAI Mini Pro which is really cute because it’s very small, and doesn’t have a screen. But I’m having trouble mounting it on our windshield cos I couldn’t get it centered. The electrostatic sticker won’t stick cos of the dots on the frits are too rough. Because of that I’ve wasted its original adhesive and I bought a new one which unfortunately sucks because it doesn’t stick as good as the old one and it’s white so it’s very obvious from outside. I hate it. So I just ordered a new adhesive from the same store, so yeah hopefully I get a good quality one and don’t fuck it up. It’s very frustrating. And also the power on sound sounds so cheap it says “HELLO DING DING PAI” which is cringe but also funny so I don’t care anymore. In hindsight I should’ve just bought the same dascham so I wouldn’t have these problems. Oh well.

✱ Jeckie and Koomi are both recovering already thank God. The vomiting (Koomi) and diarrhea (Jeckie) have stopped and they’re just finishing their meds. It’s really not so difficult taking care of my husband cos he’s just lying down groaning in pain all day. The hardest I had to do was give him a sponge bath to lower his fever but generally that’s it. But Koomi is a freaking workout. He’d vomit in several places and I had to clean up quickly after him before he steps on the bloody puddles and makes a bigger mess. It was exhausting. And it’s so hard to give him medicine because he wouldn’t swallow his pills and doesn’t like the antacid syrup. I have to bury his tabs on a banana or squash just to get him to ingest it.

✱ I’m currently in the office thinking of what to eat. I have my brain set on Japanese earlier but I don’t know if I should look around BHS for other options. I want A Mano. Or maybe Jollibee. Idk. I’m heading out.

Worse

So I started the other post saying my husband and my dog is sick. Next thing I know I’m driving them both to the hospital after excusing myself from work.

Koomi has some sort of infection. After a CBC and X-ray he was prescribed an antibiotic, antacid, and something to protect his stomach. He was injected with anti-vomit too and we were discharged soon after. The vet mentioned something abnormal with his hip after looking at his x-ray. A sharp bone like thing protruding from the hip. Says it’s generally harmless but should be careful when sittin down or moving as it may cause pain or early arthritis. This is probably the shortest vet visit we’ve had so far. There was no waiting line. We were out in an hour.

My husband is still in the hospital. I’m already sleepy but I want to wait for him so I can fetch him. At this rate I won’t be able to attend rehab tomorrow. Again. I’ve been missing a lot of Tuesday sessions lately. Hay.

I’m exhausted. Hope they feel better soon. ♥

Oh I’ve been busy

Jeckie is sick, Koomi just vomited three times and I’ve just finished stowing away our groceries and marinating pork for dinner later. I have yet to take a bath and do an alcohol sponge bath for my husband to help cool down his fever. I fed Koomi banana and bread, not banana bread hehe, to ease his stomach. He didn’t eat much last night so that figures. Half of our 13th month just came in, and I just realized I made the mistake of eating a lot and buying so much stuff online that I could only hope to save even half of what I got today. Our dashcam finally broke. It’s been acting up for a while, so I quickly ordered something new. We’re driving out of town this weekend so it’s essential to get it fixed. Overall I feel a bit productive this early in the day (it’s almost 6pm), but not completely because I haven’t done anything work related. I decided to work from home today because everyone’s sick. Looking forward to dinner!

Heya

// Happy for our condo community. They’ve been fighting to get residents elected on the board because our PMO is incompetent and DMCI reps can’t be trusted. Condo’s been operating on a ~50M deficit without a solid recovery plan besides increasing the association dues and collecting special fees. I really have no contribution to this win because I chose to be a bystander. I’m renting through an agent to it’s difficult to get a proxy, plus my landlord isn’t in good standing so there’s that. Hopefully our condo improves. I just really want the elevators to be faster.

// I have a lot of gripes about Citi moving to UB but there’s a feature I’m enjoying right now and that is the ability to download your credit card statement into an excel format. Makes it easier to cross-check my expenses from another sheet that I maintain. ❤

// We finally got the car back today. The damages have been fixed and we paid 2k for participation. We were supposed to get the sidemirror fixed as well but we couldn’t wait til Friday for it, right when there are 2 holidays this week. We badly need a car. Didn’t realize we were so car dependent haha.

// I’m tired trying to fix the template of this site. For the life of me I can’t figure out why the single post looks different in mobile vs desktop. I thought it was just a cache issue but I’ve already cleared it and nada. It’s frustrating. I’m happy to have reached a point where I’m okay with however it looks. It’s just that I know I’d be bothered by it sooner or later lol. But till then, whatever.

// I’m in the office right now for my weekly RTO. Was supposed to be on PTO today but Jeckie didn’t manage to get a leave so I figured I’ll just work then.

// I’m way past my fasting window, it’s been 18 hours, but I can’t decide what to eat. Alright I’ll just go out and see what catches my attention.