The morning after I arrived in Laoag (on the way back to Manila) ,It was Independence day!
I got up early (as is the custom in the Philippines) , around 8am and had a quick look around the centre. The police and army and all the other civil service crowd were are in the city square getting ready for the festivities .As for me, I was looking for the bus stop that would take me ono my next destination , Vigan. This place was onhe of the only places not touched during world war two.Some people say that the general that was ordered to bomd everywhere told his footsoldiers to leavve Vigan alone as his wife was from the area. So, in essence Vigan is a protectorate and looks very spanish still.In fact , if you want to build in Vigan, you have to build such that it blends in with all the other houses!
Anyway, when I got to Vigan,
Entering Vigan (after another rainshower)
It felt like I was staying in a stately home
Bangus (fish) with some Tomato and rice
I was not sure where everything was so I was able to rent out a 'Galesa' (a horse and carriage with a driver) for 150 pesos and he pointed out all the landmarks that i should see.
Giddy up!
The driver brought me on whistle stop tour of the old bell tower, the national museum (in memory of a Father Burgos), the Crisalogo (He was a politician) museum and Sequoia.
The old bell tower which was made over 400 years ago
Painting of some kind of mermaid (Maybe they are inidiginous to Vigan?) at the sequia museum.
A cool 3D Picture in the Sequia museum
And the Cherub says 'let there be light!'
Explanation of 'Vigan' on the left hand side of this pic , which is the entrance to the Crisologo museum
History of Mr Crisologo
Anyway, after the tour, I headed back to the inn for a rest.
Later, I bought some food on a street stall. I think the women selling the food thought That I was a bit simple when I asked , "what was
that"- pork (All the meat were on sticks)
... "and that"-- chicken
... "and that" --pork
... "and that" meat balls..so, I bought one of each while the women were laughing at me for not knowing what pork\chicken\meat balls looked like!
I was a bit disappointed though as there were none of the famous empanadas at this stall !!!! gah!!!!
The next morning, I woke up and 5 am and explored the town at 6am. This is a good idea as there is no heat in the morning
time.Maybe , the locals do this? anyway, it lashed rain so the camera kind of got washed out....I went to the national
museum at 8.30 where i saw more photos of the local tribesopeople and Father Burgos.There were reinactments of the
tobacco laws that were repealed in the region 130 years ago. Previously, the mexicans had control n this areaa. The
local government did not like this so They introduced quotas for each tobacco farmer.If they went below the quota ,
they were fined, if the went above the quota, the excess tobacco was burned!! Ouch!
Here are some examples of Houses in the area
Houses here look slightly different to the rest of the country
This just shows when it rain here,It REALLY rains here!
look at that rain dance of the ground!
I found an empanada store on crisologo boulavard where they sold pork empanadas for 35 pesos.
The infamous Empanada!
A mouth- eye view of the pork empanada, yummy!
If you are ever in Crisalogo Boulavard, find this place and order 10 empanadas!!!
These were the best things that I have tasted in quite a while! After that, I just decided to buy a tonne of drinks such that it
would be impossible for me to be dehydrated.I had some mcdonalds (the excuse was i thought there was wifi thee but
apparently, the wifi only exists in the morning time) so i had to make do with my rice and chicken with no internet
:-( The rice went well with the gravy though!
I found an internet place where I used their computer for 2.5 hours and printed off 2 sheets of paper for 91
pesos. I had to walk back to the bus station.This is where I saw the 5 pm traffic in Vigan.[I have never seen so many
motorbikes in one area. I didn't see any paths though. I am not sure if that is to encourage people to take the
tricycle or just discourage them from walking but i need to walk all the time as i like walking!]
I saws tghe last 5 minutes of the 1st game of the nba finals (between the heat and the thunder). I think I am
warming to the sport although I reckon I could probably warm to any team sports (with the notable exception of tag
team midget wrestling which as everybody knows is more about the individuals!) I found it quite funny when the
basketb al commentator stated that the 'small' LeBron James was giving away 3/4 inches to his apponent.Jebron James
is 6' 6''!!
(In case you were wondering, Oklahoma won the first game.The home crowd (all decked out in Oklahoma blue) sounded
fairly happy though.) If I ever go to a basketball game, I don't think there is enough beer in the world to get me drunk
enough to start chanting 'defence.defence' or 'mvp,mvp' to the local hero (Kevin Garnett in thia instance) when he
scores from a free throw!
Anyway, I went back to the main church and had a quick look inside before walking up the stairs in the bell tower and taking a few shots of the vista of Vigan.
This is one of the biggest churches I have ever seen
View from the top of the bell tower
When walking to the top of the bell tower, always remember that THERE IS A BELL AT THE TOP OF THE TOWER AND NOT TO WALK INTO IT as someone might accidentally have done!
When I was leaving the church grounds, I noticed what I assume to be the 10 commandments written on the walls. I hadn't seen these in quite a long time!
I know either 5 or 7 is thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not steal and there is something to do with coveting in there somewhere
Spanish words observed when leaving Vigan to denoter the (still held) influence of Spain on this part of the country
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