Roadtrip to Pagudpud (Before the Trip)

Long overdue notes from my March '08 roadtrip from Manila to Pagudpud...

The ~600km drive to Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte is a long but very rewarding trip. A lot has been written about it, but I still want to keep my own account of it here and share the nice stuff I saw along the way.

Ok... so to start off... It's easy to get there, but getting ready is the hardest part:

1) Itinerary - I had 4 days to spend on this trip. To maximize this I need to travel really early on day 1, and start to head back around noontime of day 4. By the end of day 1 I should be able to stop and get rest either in Vigan or Laoag, move around, then spend 2 days farther up north before driving back. It's a tight schedule, but good thing I have a day 5 buffer in case something goes wrong or we decide to skip work and enjoy some more.

2) Maps - EZ Maps from National Bookstore. They will cost about 100 pesos each and will last for a couple of trips before they disintegrate. For this trip I got 2 maps: the Luzon Map and the Sanfernando/La Union/Vigan/Laoag city map. They have distance markers that allow me to predict where I'll be at specific times.

3) Points of Interest and Where to Stay - Wow Philippines website, my EZ Maps and the famous Anton Diaz blog to see where I can go. Google Earth also gave me a lot of free information from plug-in applications like WikiMapia, Panoramio, and a few others. I had to find the sites by town to make sure my list is properly sequenced. At the end of this post is a rough OC plan I used to manage my trip using waypoints.ph data.

4) Food - as a general rule we always hit the road with an extra meal and water in case we get lost or hungry/thirsty on our way. Major cities are hours apart. I still remember in one of my past trips a long stretch of Jollibee signs which read "straight ahead" for a branch which was at least 30 kilometers away.

5) Transportation - Check: a) car fluids like coolant, brake fluid, transmission fluid, and engine oil (and even the wiper fluid), b) tires -- check the treads, inflation, nuts, and the spare tire c) electrical - all front/rear/interior lights and dashboard instruments, d) windshield cracks, e) brakes, f) aircon, g) wiper, h) battery, i) toolset. Expect a lot of trouble (and higher chances of meeting San Pedro) if any of these are not OK.

6) Fuel - the rule is to always keep the fuel tank at least half-full throughout the trip. Full tank offers the flexibility to take sudden side trips and will help you avoid using the gasoline in Pepsi-litro bottles (the ones used by motorcycles).

7) Driving hours - As much as possible I should be in major cities by sunset. It's hard to get help at night in the middle of rice fields and barely populated areas. Also, try to keep the car's exterior clean as the dust traps daytime heat and builds up moisture at night.

8) Camera - would be wise to bring the charger and borrow extra batteries and empty memory cards for those memorable photos from the trip. Polarizing filters too for those awesome scenery shots that will make you cry.

9) Clothes - 1 set per day, plus 2 extra sets for sweaty days, and 2 sets for water activities. 2 pairs of sandals for wet/muddy and dry locations, 1 cap, shades. Bring socks if you want to look funny.

10) Bags - 1 for valuables, and another for stuff I can leave in the car or hotel.

11) Entertainment - CD's or music players, PSP, etc. for the boring parts of the long trip and in case your companions turn lousy.

12) Cellphone - for emergencies, and for reporting needs.

13) Plastic bags - for dirty/wet clothes, and for camera/cellphone protection.

my rough plan

Baluti Island (Real, Quezon)

[Mar 21 '08] This is the first time I'm buying my own fish, fresh from a public market in Ungos. There are no restaurants in Baluti Island so if we want lunch there, we have to do some cooking. I don't know how to pick good fish... seriously they all look the same to me! For a moment I thought things like "red tide", "is this fish rotten?", and "where is the nearest hospital?". It's so stressful, but I don't want to end up traveling 100+ kilometers just to eat canned Ma Ling or Corned Beef.

I ended up with -- yellowfin tuna. I asked the seller to prepare it so that all we have to do later is just put it on fire and eat it. She did some Mortal Kombat with the fish before handing it over to us... it was the bloodiest man-fish action I have ever seen live.

Rice is another whole new cooking problem so we didn't bother to try anymore. The fish is just too much for us. We got some soy sauce, tomatoes, calamansi ... At this point I don't know how we'll slice them without knives.

(OK, enough of the food, back to the trip..)

We took a short tricycle ride from the market to the port area. After that is a 10 minute boat ride to Aranda Beach Resort.

Upon reaching the island we rented a small hut where we could sit and have some shade. Locals here find it quite comfortable to talk to tourists, they even sat with us at the hut. From here we have a nice view of the magnificent Sierra Madre mountain range (the country's largest).

For the food... uhm, we found a sari-sari store there and they offered to cook the food for us. They don't grill fish but they fry it and we took the offer anyway to save us all the upcoming cooking trouble. Luckily we also found out that they had extra cooked rice at that time.

While waiting for our food we also had the opportunity to meet Dr. Aranda (the resort owner). He's been spending a lot of time developing the area, and it's so far so good. There are huts and places to sleep, the sand is mostly free from debris, they have a sari-sari store, water supply is ok. Job well done! Hope to see more major improvements in my next visit!

We had our lunch and went back to Merly's (restaurant which also happens to be my basecamp in northern Quezon) in Barangay Tignoan to prepare for our visit to the nearby falls.

[about 3 hours later we came back from Balagbag Falls]

Back at Merly's we had yet another delicious serving of her cuisine. Everytime she cooks, the food beats my expectations and I have ever since been excited about what she will prepare for the next meal. It's not like Gerry's or Dencios but compared to provincial food standards in Quezon this is already very good.

We took the seats at the rear end of Merly's and got a rare wonderful surprise.

I wonder if the patrons ever knew how nice this spot was. Table beside the river (which is by the way a flat piece of land during daytime) plus excellent food and a beautiful moonlit backdrop give us the perfect ending for our short roadtrip.

Last snap...

Balagbag Falls 2 (Real, Quezon)

[Mar 21] I made a quick visit to my favorite falls to see what it looks like as the dry season starts. (my last visit to Balagbag Falls)

The lower basin still looks the same except for the cemented structure connecting it to the upper basin. It didn't look natural at all and I'm not sure why it's there.

Upper Basin

There's more water flowing this time because of the rains in the last few days. I got a good back massage by standing where the water falls and it's strong enough to be painful after some time.

I tried to climb it halfway up... not exactly safe but fun!

Beaches in Infanta, Quezon

[Mar 20 '08] The first 3 hours to Infanta was a very pleasant ride. This is the second time I was able to precisely schedule my trip to experience a very nice sunrise drive along a stretch between the towns of Morong and Tanay (Antipolo route). If coming from Ortigas, the best time to leave is around 4:30 to 5:00am.


At the end of the highway from Famy to Infanta, we reached a junction and asked for directions on how to get to the beach resorts. The only way there was through a narrow rocky road in the middle of the rice fields - a little over half an hour of nothing but rice, rocks and rice and rocks and the fear of accidentally steering into the muddy field. At the end of it is some highway which had a one-way access back to Real (what the hell? it's a wide road, why not make it two-way?).

We asked the locals in the area for the best resorts and they pointed to Cote D' Azur. We had a look inside, and it was quite good for a provincial resort. The price was too high for us though (about 4000 pesos for a two-bed unit) so we had to find someplace else.

It was difficult to check resorts even if their entrances were lined up along the highway because I had to drive about 300m in and out of dirt roads for each. We found Blue Pavillion resort there and got a place with reasonable price.

It was about lunchtime already when we arrived and realized that they don't serve any food at the resort. Wow, the nearest restaurant was several kilometers away. A restaurant/bakeshop named Queen Cake seemed popular (and we didn't seem to have any choice) so we tried it... well, let's just say the food was edible.

Refrigerators are somewhat rare in this place, and most of them are in the town center. We had to buy ice to keep our beverages cold at the resort. While at the town center we took the chance to ask locals about tourist spots in the area and (sad to say) it was the beach and nothing else.

I almost forgot about the beach... hehe. Frankly speaking, it wasn't at par with what I expected. The water about 50m away from the coastline is a nice deep green and fades to deep blue. At the shore however is brown sand and a lot of other stuff like tree trunks, stones, and logs. At the very least I expected a well maintained beachfront.


I stayed here only until the evening since dinner (and breakfast) was a problem again.

I think the local tourism council will have to work much harder to generate visits here. With the completion of the Marikina-Infanta highway I'm hoping that they can get these beaches in top shape.