Baguio, Philippines, Asia

Today was a long day of travelling. It started out with waking up with a very sore back from a horrible night’s sleep. My mattress still had a plastic wrapper on it, so my fitted sheet kept coming off and my legs were sticking to the plastic. There was no A/C in the room so it was roasting in there, and every time I moved, the plastic made tons of noise that I was certain was waking up the other four people in the room. I forced myself not to move and ended up being really uncomfortable all night.

I got out of bed at 8am and was thrilled to find out that the Red Sox vs Yankees game was on ESPN here and I got to watch almost the whole thing live. It was a great game, but unfortunately I had to leave in the ninth inning to catch my flight to the Philippines. I walked over to Terminal 2 and checked in for my flight with about an hour to spare. I used the time to try and figure out what I was going to do when I land in Clark. I didn’t figure anything out.

I got off the plane in Clark, breezed through immigration and my bag was the fourth one to come off the belt, so I was out of there like a flash. I hopped in a Jeepney and went straight to the bus terminal and was lucky enough to get the last bus out of Clark heading for Baguio. I’d been told by a bunch of people that I really wanted to avoid spending a night in Clark if possible. The entire town is geared toward prostitution, and it’s really tough to find a decent hotel that doesn’t use that as its main purpose.

Because I didn’t know which city I’d be in tonight, I didn’t have a hostel booked. I pulled into Baguio at about 11pm and hopped in a taxi to try and find a place to stay. I went to five places before I found one that had a room free. It was a hotel listed in my Rough Guide, but I’m not sure why it was in there. It was pretty horrible. The single room is 800 pesos ($20) for the night, which is pretty expensive for southeast Asia, and it comes with nothing. No breakfast, no wifi, no toilet paper, nothing. The room is covered in black mold, and I am curious if it is even safe to sleep in a room like this. I don’t think I have many other options though, considering it took half an hour in a taxi to find this place. I’m going to take my chances and hope I can get a decent night’s sleep so I can hit the road again tomorrow.