New Year in Baguio

On New Year's Eve I went to Baguio, at 1500m it was a welcome change from the high temperatures below. I travelled (in a minivan, for four hours) with two Filipino families. Romeo is another former wokr colleague of mine, and there was his wife and two children, plus another family, bringing the total to ten.

The road to Baguio is incredibly winding and steep. It reminded me a lot of the road to Kathmandu, about which I've written before. Baguio was quite pleasant. We visited the Philippine Military Academy, which Lyndal's friend Kyle, with whom we spent Christmas in Cebu, attends now that he had completed his Australian training. We saw a parade rehearsal which interested me very much, but perhaps not so much for Romeo and his family.

After an evening meal we all watched a magnificent fireworks display at Burnham Park in the centre of the city. This was made all the more interesting by the fact that the industrial-strength fireworks were launched from right in front of the audience, with bits of burning rockets landing repeatedly amongst the crowd. This year over 700 people were injured by fireworks on New Year's Eve in the Philippines, and I am not surprised!



The rest of the evening was comparatively quiet and we went sightseeing again the next day. One of the places we visited was the Botanical Gardens. In the Philippines it seems that almost every government official is armed, regardless of the necessity. The photo shows a gardener at the Botanical Gardens cleaning out a moat around a fountain. Note the pistol on the hip.


A very quiet New Year's Day was rounded off by rowing around an artificial lake, along with about 500 other people, jampacked together. Then we headed back down the long and winding road to the Science City of Munoz.