Baguio is known as the summer capital of the Philippines, because in the summer it offers the coolest climate. In the winter though, it is colder than a witch’s tit. But the customers dictated we go there, so go to Baguio we did.
The actual trip was an amended version of our Extreme Philippines Tour, a trip we’re now in our fourth year of doing. It’s therefore fair to say we not only know our way around Baguio, but we got some good local contacts. But first we had to get there.
Leading a private group has a few advantages on a group tour, namely that if your pax don’t like early mornings, you don’t have to leave at stupid o’clock. It was thus about 10am before we embarked on the drive from sin city/Angeles City to Baguio. A good firm 7 hours inclusive of a lunch break meant we rocked up to our hotel about 5 pm, and were ready for dinner.
The Philippines is full of what they call restobars, which are bars that offer poor-quality American food. They’re not awful, but I wanted something local, and our local guide said he had what we needed, so we jumped on the back of his pickup truck and headed up the mountain.
You really couldn’t get much more local then the Farmer’s Daughter Restaurant, a tiny place with barely enough seats and tables for the masses, with the dishes that consisted of all the weird animal parts from pig brain down to bollocks, in BBQ, soup, or adobo form.
The numerous dishes that were supposed to be for 2-3 people were at prices of no more than $3 each. Keep in mind that we didn’t drink any alcohol, but when a meal comes in at under $50 for 9 people you know you have a deal. If you visit Baguio then the Farmer’s Daughter Restaurant is not only the best value, but probably the best food too.
Fuelled up on food we then headed to do tourist stuff, which was largely a failure aside from the Baguio Botanical Gardens. These are basically botanical gardens, as you might expect, and not all that interesting.
As night follows day there comes a time in the evening when we get rather thirsty, and this happened to us around 7pm. Our local fixer thus suggested a “new bar”. I like trying new things, and about 20 minutes later we were there: Baguio Craft Beer Bar.
You know the hipsters have arrived when you get a craft beer bar, and alas this threw up two big problems. Firstly I find craft beer the most overrated thing since Gandhi, but more importantly in genuine effort to be less of a fat bastard I had just embarked on the keto diet. There is no beer on the keto diet.
The bar was also colder than a second, equally chilly witch’s tit! I never knew it was possible to be so cold in the Philippines, of all places. I digress. The next 30 minutes were spent trying to fix the heater and obtain vodka and tequila from another part of the bar, a feat much harder than it sounds. All’s well that ends well though, and we ended up drinking a lot of tequila and dancing (badly).
For a nightcap, I had 4 hot-dogs from 7-11. These were without the bun because of keto and me being a peasant.
Eating and drinking in Baguio: a big success! The Street Food Guy truly recommends travel to Baguio!