destination: ilocos - laoag walking tour

on the 30th of november, i hopped on a plane to Laoag and finally completed one of my travel wishes: to be able to go back to Ilocos. finally. six years from the last time i went there and 2 months of intensive internet reasearch to make my Ilocos backpacking escapade successful, i can now cross it off my bucket list. :)

the flight:
thanks to cebupac's promo fare, we got our plane tickets at 370php for a round-trip fare per person. the plane was scheduled to leave at 12:20pm but the flight was a bit delayed because some other plane was still on the lane waiting to depart. it was quite an experience as this was my first flight on a propeller plane. it was, as expected, small but i wasn't prepared for the temperature: it was hot inside the plane. AND there were no travel magazines to read. :( on the bright side, i was able to buy the cebupacific weekender bag which i've wanted since one of my friends bought one during our return trip from cagayan de oro. well, what can i say? orange is my favorite color and black is a close second so my eyes are really feasting on the simple bag design. i do hope it's sturdy, though. :)

(side note: i think shopping on the cebupac plane is fast becoming a hobby of mine. :P i bought the blanket and sleep kit from the flight to CDO, the weekender bag from this trip, and now, i'm eyeing the new jumbo tote they have. uuuuggghhhhhh! it's my love affair with orange and black. i can't seem to resist. :P)

my first propeller plane ride and the view from the top

touchdown:
we landed at the laoag international airport at around 1.30pm. i love that the airport has travel brochures and maps that tourists can get for free. with these on our hands, and utilizing our streetsmarts to the fullest, we started our adventure by getting a tricycle to take us to texicano hotel in laoag.

settling in:
disclaimer: texicano hotel is not for everyone. my main reason for choosing texicano was its low rates (they offer ordinary room for two at only 370php per night with checkout at 12noon). the room has a private bathroom and two beds so it's really a bargain. however, i feel a need to warn any possible reader that the rooms are old and that they use a makeshift water dipper made of plastic containers in the bathroom. also, the electric fan doesn't produce a lot of air and makes a bit of noise. oh, and they have a huge block of wood acting as a key chain for your room keys. it is embarrassingly big that we decided to just leave it with the front desk attendant whenever we go out. BUT, being the cheapskates we are, we were contented with the place. considering the price that they offer it for, i really don't think we could go any cheaper. :)

tummy-filler:
after a bit of rest in the hotel, we had a late lunch at saramsam ylocano restaurant which was right across the hotel. they offer very unique pizzas that i wanted to try. after a long order decision-making: he wants dinuguan toppings-i don't eat dinuguan, he wants pinakbet toppings-i don't like vegetables, i want longganisa toppings-he admited that he's not really into italian cuisine. sooooo. we decided to order separate meals and i went for bagnet and rice instead. :)

my friend in a very effective (not!) endorsement picture of
the restaurant

hotspots:
after lunch, we headed off to take laoag by our feet. we took our handy-dandy notebook maps and made our way to our first stop: the museo ilocos norte. here, they kept tools, clothes, weapons, livelihood materials etc. as well as house designs from the past.

clockwise from left:
museo ilocos norte marker, museum interior, mayor's structure outside the museum

we then headed to the tobacco monopoly monument which was erected as a memorial of the abolition of the tobacco monopoly in the philippines in 1881, a huge moment for the ilocanos who were then forced to plant tobacco on their land.

from the monument, you can already see the sinking bell tower (which was our next destination). the tower, which is said to be sinking at a fourth of an inch per year, currently has such a small entrance that a person must stoop in order to be able to come in. 2 days later, we were to find out that a regular person used to be able to ride on top of a horse and still be able to go through the entrance. so just imagine how much the tower has sunk through all these years..

our last stop within the city was st. william's church. i have no picture of the church itself, as me and my friend are both into old churches that kept their facades and since this church had its facade repainted, we decided to just pass through. however, i do have a photo of the convent. i simply cannot resist those beautiful, beautiful clouds.

we got thirsty and bought a couple of drinks from mcdonalds. since we could still make it in time to see the sunset from the la paz sand dunes, we rented a tricycle to la paz. unfortunately, we enjoyed the picturesque sunset at the wrong part of la paz sand dunes. it seems like the driver was not familiar with the "sandboard-able" part and it was getting to late for sunset to go find the part we wanted so we just decided to take a few sunset pics and then we headed back to laoag.

well, missing out on sand dunes would not make us miss out on laoag empanada. so we went to the foodcourt where lines of empanada stalls awaited our tummies. we were still full from our late lunch so we weren't able to finish the huge empanadas we ordered.

not wanting to retire to our beds yet, we walked around laoag once more before capping the night off. oh, and we downed a couple of beers each at the hotel and were in bed by 9pm. we did have an early schedule for the next day, after all. :)

next post: Pagudpud, baby! :)