Grandpa's Inn (Vigan, Ilocos Sur)

Grandpa's Inn
#1 Bonifacio St. cor. Quirino Blvd.
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

Based on my experiences, buses arrive an hour after another, so I set up for us to visit the Sta. Maria Church within one hour so we can catch the next bus ride. I don't know what happened why we were actually on schedule, but the buses weren't. I particularly chose for us to ride Viron Transit as we would leave our luggage at the terminal and just come back at the terminal because we will travel back to Manila that night, too.

The bus arrived near 11am, so it was already 12nn when we arrived in Vigan City. From the terminal, we hoped to check the Pagburnayan, but it was closed for lunch, so we decided to have our lunch as well. I have been to Vigan many times, so I am always searching for something new. Days before the trip, I read about a fellow blogger's food trip at Grandpa's Inn, so we hailed a tricycle to take us to the place.



Since the tricycle took a route unfamiliar to me, I didn't know how to get there, but... after checking the map, the inn is very accessible from Calle Crisologo.



Getting inside, we were quickly amazed at how rustic the place look. We then asked ourselves if we can afford to stay overnight because it was just so beautiful.



The room for the Concierge was a room full of vintage stuff. At that time we weren't sure why there were so many people, but because of it we weren't able to take that much pictures as I was afraid people might take it negatively. Among the vintage stuff, these were my favorites - the set of analog telephones and the electric fan.

We managed to talk to the receptionist, but most of the rooms were already booked and they only had the rooms without en-suite bathroom. Ria and I decided we will just try our luck next time.



So okay, we went here for lunch. We were ushered to the Kusinas Felicitas, which was a big restaurant, but the table given to us was directly in front of the door. The idea of us checking the people coming in and out wasn't a good thought, so we asked if they still have different dining area. Thankful they still have.



This dining area was a bit small, but we appreciated that atmosphere. We quickly found a place and started browsing the menu. We were given three sets of menu, indicating that there were three food places here, but  diners can order from any menu.



For our lunch we had two Ilocano dishes: Pinakbet with Bagnet and Igado. For our drinks, I went for my favorite Watermelon Shake while Ria went for Rambutan Shake. It was a very good lunch because both dishes were delicious. We certainly did a great decision of eating lunch here.

It was indeed a great experience. We listed this as one of our favorites in Vigan, and we were then looking forward to come back again.

Many Contemplate Foreign Vacations, as Olympics Approach

Many Britons are considering fleeing the country in advance of the London Olympics, which are rapidly approaching. It is expected that thousands will flock to the UK’s capital from around the world to watch the events. The expected overcrowding and gridlock are causing many London residents to book vacations abroad.

A company of travel specialists, Travelex, has recently found that a full 36 percent of Britons who are going on vacation this summer are planning to do so to avoid the Games. And at least one in ten have actually booked a longer vacation than usual in order to stay away from the games.

Perhaps most surprising of all is that 170,000 parents are reportedly planning on taking their children out of school in order to avoid the Games and the perceived hassles that will come with them.

Among the reasons quoted by Brits planning on leaving the country in order to get away from the Olympics were the blanket coverage of the Games as well as the hordes of tourists which will descend on the capital. Some of those planning to leave are disaffected fans who lost out on tickets, the research found. The facts show that up to 250,000 Brits who applied for tickets ended up not being awarded any at all.

Whilst the Olympics should be a fantastic spectacle it seems that a large number of Brits would much prefer to watch it from afar", says Elvin Eldic from Travelex.
"The first few days of the school summer holidays are often among some of our busiest days in the holiday season both in terms of tourists coming into Britain and Brits leaving the country on holiday but we're fully expecting this year to be something else."

Many parents will be no doubt searching for low cost family holidays in order to avoid the Olympic rush.

Sta. Maria Church (Ilocos Sur)

Nuestra Senora Dela Asuncion Church
Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur

If it's just me on this trip, I would've stayed in La Union much longer because of the surfing break. However, I have a companion whose schedule didn't allow her to stay that long, it was time for us to get going. We left the house early today and although our main destination for today is the Heritage City of Vigan, I told her we would have a short side trip to Sta. Maria Church as I also want to revisit the church. At first she didn't have any idea what the church is, but upon telling her a little background about the church, she became excited to see it.


Getting to Sta. Maria Church, we asked the bus driver to drop us off at the church because at times, when there are no passengers going to the church, the bus will pass along the main highway and not turn to the road leading to the church. While we were dropped in front of the church, getting to the main church required us to take the stairs. About 85 steps... it wasn't a difficult climb as the steps were a bit small.


Built sometime in 1765 by the Augustinian Friars, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site on December 1993. It was also one of the four baroque churches in the country, and the third of the four I have visited.


The hexagonal belfry looked similar to the one in Bantay Church (also in Ilocos Sur). Based on a blog I read, the belfry is not connected to the church so as to protect the main church during earthquakes.

Ria and I were blessed to see that the church is open when we got there, so immediately entered upon seeing that there was no church service that morning.


Like every Catholic church, there is a basin containing Holy Water. The church interior is simple, but I can just feel the history and the solemnity inside.


A closer at the altar. Simple yet elegant, right?


At the center of the altar is the image of Our Lady of Assumption, the church's patroness.



At the altar are more religious images, which we were allowed to see (there were some nuns who guided us). Going back, I saw this sight and thought I'd take a picture of it.



Years ago, I got to read a blog about a cemetery near the church, but I wasn't able to see it. It was also getting a little late in the morning, so we had to bid the nun farewell so we can carry on with our trip.

Surfing Break La Union 2010

Urbiztondo Beach
San Juan, La Union
29 October 2010

Woot woot.... time to get this blog updated, even if the stories are sort of old already. :)


The main reason why I invited my friend Ria to travel with me was so we could attend the Surfing Break - an annual surfing festival happening in La Union every last weekend of October. The even runs for three days, but because we only had four days for this entire trip and we planned to visit a lot of places, so we decided we would just check out Day 1 of the festival.


We arrived just in time for them to formally start the festival. As always, balloons were flown, some important people introduced, and contestants for the Bikini Open were there, too. A group danced, and one unexpected guest dropped by... Jollibee!


Like the previous festivals, surfers were there to conduct surfing lessons. I sure want to try this, but I don't know how to swim and I am afraid to drown, so I guess it will take time before I can see myself doing the sport.


For some people, it was a day to enjoy the water and yes... to take pictures. Apart from the sports competition they had for the entire duration of the festival, they also had a photography contest - another part of the event I wish I can join, but I only own a point and shoot camera, so I still can't try my luck with these types of contests. Actually, part of me felt sad because even if I want to come near a subject and take pictures, some "photographers" would brush me off just because I was holding a p&s camera. Didn't I have the right to take pictures, too? Oh well, I guess some people do think highly of themselves.





Since all Ria and I could do was to stay on the shore and watch as people enjoy the waters, we just busied ourselves taking pictures. Well, my camera only had 4x optical zoom, stretching it to 16x digital zoom (if I remember correctly), so some of the shots didn't turn out good when it comes to the image quality.

It was way too sunny come late in the morning, so Ria and I left the area around 11:30 so we could eat early lunch. After that, we checked out Ma-Cho Temple (post about this will be up tomorrow).




About 4pm, we went back to the surfing site, and we were surprised to see the sand castles...er sand sculptures. I was a bit sad that we weren't able to see them build these, but it was amazing to see such great works of art.


We stayed 'til sundown. There was a scheduled bonfire and Bikini Open later that night, but we didn't book any room in the nearby resorts and getting a public transportation that will take us home would be difficult once it's night time, so we decided to leave... but we did eat dinner first before going home.