Monthly Archives: September 2011

Ganduyan Museum Tour with Ms. Christina Aben (Sagada, Mountain Province)

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Ganduyan Museum

Jandy and I were now on our third and final day in Sagada and we still had time to kill before leaving on the 10 AM G.L. bus.  After a Filipino breakfast at Ganduyan Inn’s cafe, we decided to visit the next door Ganduyan Museum, managed by Marina Biag’s mom Ms. Christina Aben.   Since the early 1970s, Ms. Aben has amassed a spectacular and meticulous collection of tribal artifacts with a passionate curator’s eye for quality and rarity, all detailing the rich but vanishing Cordillera Igorot culture.  Wishing to share her passion for unique Igorot art and culture with the world, she placed them all in a one-room, second floor museum which she opened in 1984. Because of the museum’s limited space,  Ms. Aben, with a designer’s eye for presentation, carefully chooses what to display and how to display it.

Ms. Christina Aben

The museum closed down in 1986 and it remained so when Jandy and I first visited Sagada in 1998.  It was open that morning and we were personally met by Ms. Aben who escorted us up the stairs to the museum, removing our shoes first at the stair’s foot before going up.  She’s a cancer survivor and a housewife with a high school education who speaks impeccable English. Ms Aben is also an enthusiastic, erudite and well-informed hostess who loves to share the meaning and importance of every museum piece to anyone willing to listen.

Ganduyan Museum – Display

The museum was a veritable treasure trove of antique basketry, weapons, farm tools, trade beads, jars, wooden items and textiles from the Cordillera region, all offering an insight into the rich culture of the Cordillera Igorots.  Ms. Aben gladly explained the history and significance of each individual item on display, starting with her trade bead collection which came at a time when the Igorots traded with the Chinese, Indians, Arabs and other foreigners from the lowlands.   Beads include alligator teeth and mother-of-pearl shells not found in the Cordilleras.  Beaded necklaces from different tribal groups of the Cordilleras (Kalinga, Nabaloi, Ifugao or Igorot)have beading patterns that differ from one ethnic tribe to another.

Ganduyan Museum – Display

We next moved on to the men’s accessories section.  These include a money belt, a warrior’s purse,  pipes, caps (used as pillow and water cup), woven g-strings, anklets, armlets, spoons and amulets (including a snake vertebra believed to increase the warrior’s physical and internal prowess). Drinking  cups for wine, both for men and women, vary in size and kind. Igorots treated status with utmost importance, from clothing (the rich could wear clothes that the poor could not), kitchenware (made from wood,  metal and, sometimes, animal bone, all  classified by social class) and even in death.  Doors, scarves, table runners, warrior’s shields and other accessories are decorated with the lizard (or gecko), animals said to bring luck and longevity.  The many weapons of head hunters of the Cordilleras on display include shields with concave ends (meant to trap the enemy at the neck before the warrior goes for the kill and chops the head off).

Ganduyan Museum: Poblacion, Sagada, Mountain Province.  Open daily, 8 AM-7 PM.  Admission: PhP25.

Ambasing Road (Sagada, Mountain Province)

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After a short siesta at our inn, Jandy and I now decided to hike the now concreted Ambasing Road.  Most of the Sagada‘s inns, restaurants and souvenir shops, a number of them oldtimers,  as well as a number of tourist spots can be found along this road.   As usual, we brought along our jackets and bottles of water.

Ambasing Road

Olahbinan Resthouse and Restaurant, opened in December 1993, is accessed via a stairway.  It has 2 single, 5 double, 2 large double and 2 rooms with bath, a restaurant and a bar with fireplace.   

Stairway leading down to Olahbinan Resthouse

The relocated Shamrock Café, established in 1956, is still one of the most popular places to eat in town.  It offers basic but hearty breakfast, lunch and dinner and its surprisingly international menu includes the Israeli-inspired breakfast dish shakshuka.  Snacks (including homemade yoghurt) and sometimes, a very informal and folksy nighttime entertainment of guitar-strumming local singers are also offered. 

Shamrock Cafe

The relaxing, half log-cladded Masferre Country Inn and Restaurant, a favorite of Manila tourists, serves a variety of meals and snacks, its walls lined with old black and white prints of the late Spanish mestizo photographer Eduardo Masferre.  Also a pension house, it has one 2-bed, three 3-bed and one 4-bed room with common toilet and bath (PhP100-150/pax).   

Masferre Country Inn & Restaurant

The Sagada Igorot Inn, formerly the Sagada Prime Hotel, was opened in March 1997 and is the town’s first hotel.  It has 16 rooms; 12 with private toilet and bath (PhP1,500) and four (PhP1,000) with common toilet and bath.  It also has a restaurant, sing-along (Moonhouse) and offers shuttle and room service.

Sagada Igorot Inn

The 4-storey Canaway Resthouse has 5 rooms with private bath and hot showers (PhP250/pax); 3 in the second floor, all opening to a common living area with sofa and cable TV, and 2 on the third floor with private balcony.  On the ground floor is a kitchen guests can use.

Canaway Resthouse

The 2-storey Yoghurt House, popular with foreign tourists, serves consistently good food such as pasta, salads, vegetarian meals, homemade yoghurt served with fruits, granola or pancakes or mixed as a salad dressing foe fresh vegetables, and drinks.

Yoghurt House

Across Canaway Guest House, on the side of a hill, is the 3-storey Residential Lodge.  It has 14 rooms, some with private baths  (PhP250/pax) and others with shared baths (PhP200/pax).  It also has large common areas, a second floor fireplace and kitchens on the lower ground and ground floors for the use of guests.

Residential Lodge

Next to the Residential Lodge and past the Yoghurt House Restaurant is the no-frills Traveler’s Inn.  It has 2 rooms with private bath (PhP250/pax) and 12 rooms with shared bath (PhP200/pax).  There is a kitchen at the second floor for guest use white downstairs is a general store and a souvenir shop selling pottery.  

Traveler’s Inn

Next to Canaway Resthouse is the new, 4-storey  George Guest House, probably the most colorful and garish building in Sagada.  It has variety of rooms, all with private baths and hot showers: double with cable TV (PhP600), 6 pax room (PhP200/pax), double without cable TV (PhP200/pax or PhP500 for two).  

George Guest House

Canaway Resthouse: mobile number (0918) 291-5063 
George Guest House: mobile numbers (0920) 607-0994 and (0918) 548-0406.  E-mail: george.guesthouse@yahoo.com. 
Masferre Country Inn & Restaurant: mobile number (0918) 341-6164.
Olahbinan Resthouse and Restaurant: mobile number (0920) 268-3555. 
Residential Lodge: mobile number (0919) 672-8744 (Ms. Mary Daoas).  E-mail: eldone21@hotmail.com and standaoas@yahoo.com.
Sagada Igorot Inn: mobile number (0919) 809-4228.  Baguio City booking office: (074) 442-2622, 444-2734 & 619-5032 (Smart).
Traveler’s Inn: mobile number (0920) 799-2960 (Lope Bosaing).  E-mail: aprilmay_25@yahoo.com  and lopebosaing@yahoo.com.ph.

The Road to Besao (Sagada, Mountain Province)

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The road to Besao

Come early morning, on our second day in Sagada,  the skies were now clear of rain and the sun was coming up. I decided to take a walk up the road to Besao to work up an appetite for breakfast at Ganduyan Inn.  Jandy was still asleep so I went out on my own.  I also wanted to check out what’s changed in the town since our first visit in 1998 (http://firingyourimagination.blogspot.com/1998/04/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html).  I noticed that some of Sagada’s old familiar inns and restaurants were still around.  

Sagada Guesthouse & Resto

One of these is the Sagada Guesthouse and Resto.  Located just past the new municipal hall, they offer a variety of rooms with varying price ranges and amenities: single (PhP150) and double (PhP300) with common bath, 3-pax rooms with private bath (PhP600), rooms with private bath and kitchen and one with cable TV (PhP1,200).  It also has a ground floor coffee shop.

Log Cabin Restaurant

Another familiar Sagada landmark is the Log Cabin Restaurant, a log-cladded restaurant still popular with foreigners. Its broad menu still offers consistently good, reasonably-priced and hearty meals, including exceptional European-inspired pasta dishes (bolognese and pesto), vegetables, adobo dishes and salads, all prepared by the local French chef.

Log Cabin dining area

They also have an impressive wine list (Hardys Shiraz, Doublebay, Jacob’s Merlot,  Loins Chattel Savvingon, Sta. Rita Cabernet, Lindimans Shiraz, Blasseagle, Antaras Chile, etc.) to choose from, a fireplace and a wide selection of recorded music.  For PhP350, they offer a multi-course buffet on Saturday nights.  You would have to book one day in advance and pay a PhP100 deposit.  For guests, it has an upstairs room with private bath and balcony (PhP800).

Strawberry Cafe

There are also new players in food and accommodation.  Across the Log Cabin is the no frills, corrugated G.I and log-cladded  Strawberry Cafe.  They offer fast food such as arroz caldo (chicken and rice stew) and mami (chicken or pork noodle soup), both for PhP45.  Further off is the 2-storey Alapos View Inn, which also has a coffee shop, and Ganduyan Inn 2.  

Alapos View Inn

Past a lane to the left side of the road is the Sagada Homestay which offers 6 rooms, one of which has a private bath (PhP700) while the 5 others (PhP250/pax) share 4 bathrooms. The ground floor has a large dining room and kitchen for the use of guests.  A separate 2-bedroom, 4-pax cottage with bath and kitchen  rents for PhP1,500.

Sagada Homestay

Continuing further down the road, past the town, would have brought me to Lake Danum in Besao but I’ve already worked up an appetite for breakfast and so I made my way back to Ganduyan Inn.

Alapos View Inn: mobile numbers (0921) 327-9055 and (0918) 332-3331.
Log Cabin Restaurant: mobile number (09320) 520-0463 (Dave Gulian)
Sagada Guesthouse & Resto: mobile number (0919) 300-2763.
Sagada Homestay: mobile numbers (0919) 702-8380, (0918) 717-3524 and (0919) 498-2181. E-mail: sagadahomestay@yahoo.com.

Back to Sagada (Mountain Province)

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Ganduyan Inn

It was raining during more than half of our 6.5-hr.  trip from Baguio City to Sagada and it was still raining when our bus arrived at Sagada by 6:30 PM.  From the bus stop, Jandy and I ran towards the accommodation  nearest the bus stop – the 3-storey Ganduyan Inn.

This wasn’t our first time to stay here, having been here 13 years ago (in 1998).  Back then, we stayed in a spartan room without private bath (PhP75 per head).  The common baths then had no hot water.  Still managing the inn were Marina and Hanzel Biag.  This time, Jandy and I stayed in a slightly bigger (though still spartan) room with twin beds and a private bath with hot water (PhP750 per day).

Twin room with private bath

Since the inn’s coffee shop didn’t offer dinner (they only serve breakfast), Jandy and I walked to the basement of the nearby Edward Longid Centrum, an Episcopalian church-raised commercial building inaugurated last January 25, 2010, where we had a delicious dinner of pork asado and roast chicken plus a cup of Sagada’s signature brewed coffee at Cuisina Igorota.

The basement also has 2 other local restaurants (Dap-Ayan Sagada and 7J’s Diner & Snack Haus), all offering various local cuisine at a very cheap price. The town’s pharmacy is also located at the second floor of the building.

Edward Longid Centrum


Ganduyan Inn: Poblacion, Sagada, Mountain Province.  Mobile number: (0921) 273-8097 (Smart) and (0927) 434-0212 (Globe).  E-mail : ganduyan_inn@yahoo.com.

The Halsema Mountain Highway

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After breakfast at the Albergo Hotel in Baguio City, Jandy and I packed just enough clothes for our 2-night stay in Sagada (Mountain Province) and left the rest at the Front Office.  From the hotel, we took a taxi to G.L. Liner terminal at the Dangwa Compound along Magsaysay Ave., fronting the Baguio Market.  We just missed the previous Sagada-bound bus by minutes so we paid the fare for the next bus, scheduled at 10:30 AM.  We spent the next hour at the Baguio Cathedral, climbing the steep stairs along Session Rd. to get there.  Here, we had snacks at the coffee shop within the compound before returning to the terminal.

The now paved Halsema Highway

A few after our return to the terminal, our designated bus arrived and we boarded the bus, sitting up front, to the right of the driver.  Soon, sacks, farm produce as well as luggage and bags were also being loaded around our area, making alighting a problem later for us.  We left the terminal just before 11 AM but, just before the interchange leading to La Trinidad Rd., traffic slowed us down due to road rehabilitation.  After 30 mins., we left the hustle and bustle of Baguio City and La Trinidad and were now on our way on our long-haul, 6.5-hr. drive to Sagada via the Halsema Highway, the highest highway system in the country.

Landslides and road slips are still a common occurence

Formerly called the “Mountain Trail,” this spectacular 146-km. (95 kms. of which are in Benguet) highway traverses Benguet from south to north.  Named after Eusebius Julius Halsema (American civil engineer and mayor of Baguio City, 1920 to 1936), it links La Trinidad and Baguio City with Bontoc, Sagada (151 kms.) and Banaue (196 kms.), cutting through mountain peaks, gorges and steep cliffs.   This highway was originally a foot trail used by mountain folk between Bontoc and the foot of Mt. Data.  U.S. Army engineers improved and widened it.  They also built a new winding road through precipitous slopes and traversing high ridges between Acops and Abatan,  The road reached Natubleng in 1928 and more than half its length (to Bontoc) was completed in 1931. All told, the highway took more than 15 years to build and was finally completed in 1936.

Fog can reduce visibility of the driver

Tracing a circuitous path, this road crosses the massive Cordillera Central mountain range, crossing deep ravines and skirting dangerous slopes. Jandy and I have passed this way before (in 1998), more than half the road then being unpaved, bumpy, rough and dusty. Today, about 95% of the highway is”paved.”  Still, landslides are a constant hazard here and big stones and debris tumble from peaks, especially during the rainy and typhoon season.  Occasional fog can also ruin a driver’s visibility. However, then and now, we stilled passed through some of the most spectacular mountain vistas found anywhere – magnificent, stonewalled rice and vegetable terraces; swift-flowing rivers spanned by hanging bridges; roadside waterfalls; pine-clad mountains; picturesque villages; etc..

Vegetable terraces
Along Km. 40, approaching Mt. Toyangan, we had good views of the 33-hectare Naguey Rice Terraces, along the banks of the Naburgo River (which joins the Amburayan River below Kibungan) in Brgy. Naguey in Atok. These stonewalled terraces are planted with both rice and vegetables.  The Amburayan River runs for about 30 kms. from Brgys. Pasdong to Naguey. Near Atok’s municipal hall, our bus made a highway stopover for a late lunch at Morning Star Restaurant and Fastfood.
 
Highest Point Marker in Atok

About 3 hrs. past Baguio City, we passed (but did not stop at) the Highest Point Marker (Philippine Pali), along Km. 53 (Km. 303), Brgy. Cattubo near Bayangan in Atok.  Here, the road crosses 2,450-m. high Mt. Paoay.  The highest point of all Philippine highways (7,400 ft. or 2,225 m. above sea level), its viewpoint has good views of Mt. Pulag, Mt. Timbac, Kabayan, Atok and the deep Agno Valley to the south (cloudy during the rainy season).

A beautiful, terraced mountainside

Along Km. 63 are the vast Natubleng Vegetable Terraces of Brgy. Natubleng in  Buguias.  Here, neat rows and upright trellises are planted with temperate-zone climate greens such as Baguio beans, cabbage, carrots and other vegetables and root crops.  We also passed the urbanized townships of Sayangan (Atok) at Km. 54 and Abatan (Buguias) at Km. 90.

The township of Abatan in Buguias
After the copper mining town of Mankayan, we entered Mountain Province at the town of Bauko, site of the 2,310 m. high Mt. Data and the Philippine Tourism Authority-managed Mt. Data Hotel, then on to Sabangan, the town before Sagada.  We exited the Halsema Highway when we turned left at the Dantay Junction where the still partly unpaved,10 km. road to Sagada starts.

Baguio City: Our Gateway to Sagada

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Albergo Hotel

It was Jandy’s trimestral break at Asia Pacific College and we didn’t want this week-long opportunity to go by without going on vacation.  I decided to return to Sagada (Mountain Province), a place we last visited nearly 13 years ago.  Just like the previous, we were to go there via Baguio City, staying overnight at the E. Ganzon Inc.-owned Albergo Hotel.

Jandy and I departed Manila on the 1:15 PM Victory Liner de luxe (PhP715 each) airconditioned bus.  The 6.5-hr. trip was non-stop, the need for toilet breaks negated by a toilet on board, plus free wi-fi and some snacks. Part of the time was spent on siestas.  We arrived at the Victory Liner Terminal by 8 PM and, before anything else, had dinner at Maxim’s Teahouse within the terminal.

Room 811

From the terminal, we took a taxi to get to Albergo Hotel.  Once there, we stayed at Room 811 (with its view of SM Baguio).

Check out “Hotel and Inn Review: Albergo Hotel“

Hotel Lobby

Albergo Hotel is also a stone’s throw away from Baguio City’s most popular tourist attractions such as Wright Park, Teachers Camp and Mansion House. 

Albergo Hotel: 1 Villamor Drive, Lualhati 2600 Baguio City, Benguet.  Tel: (074) 424-2620  and (074) 424-7176.Manila booking office – Tel:  (02) 552-0331.  Fax: (02) 552-0083. E-mail: egi.albergo@yahoo.com and albergohotel_baguio@yahoo.com.  Website: www.egialbergo.webs.com.

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