Nearest Landmarks

Camp John Hay

One of the nearest landmark to our place is the former American military base, Camp John Hay. This historical place used to be a rest and recreation center for US military personnel and their dependents.  It is still open to the public. It's only a 5-minute walk from our barangay to the new main gate by using the rough trail if you are using sneakers. Otherwise, a taxi ride from our place will bring you to the main gate in less than 10 minutes.

What to see:

Bell Amphitheater = Tour inside the house as it is very rich in history.
Cemetery of Negativism= Where all kinds of negative thoughts are buried.
Liberty Park = Featuring the Statue of Liberty, representing Freedom.
Igorot Garden= In honor of the Igorot women's contribution during WW2.

What to do:

The Eco-Trail= A nature-walk inside the forested area using the new main gate as entrance because visitors are no longer allowed to enter through the old main gate. Trekkers and visitors using this trail are allowed to use the old main gate as EXIT only. Right next to this old main gate is the Panagbenga Park. 
Tree Top Adventure= An adrenalin-rush ride adventure in different packages. 
Shalan ni Kabadjo= Horse back riding following a bridle path.  
Picnick tables= Pay-per-use for the tables at a certain amount although it used to be free when the Americans were still running the old base.
Dining = Experience all the good things about food from the many restaurants. Food at the Manor Hotel or the Le Monette hotel/restaurant are really good and a must-try.
Shopping= Where you can buy souvenirs.


 Panagbenga Park

This is another landmark nearest to our place which is located right in front of the old main gate of Camp John Hay. It is a flower park with a butterfly house and a big outdoor aviary. The place has a coffee shop called "Saleng" ( named after the sap of a pine tree ), one could enjoy a good hot cup of native brewed coffee or a hot cup of lemon grass tea with ginger and honey. It's a very good rest stop for trekkers/hikers after a long walk from Camp John Hay. It is a nice little oasis in the city away from the crowd and where one can enjoy the peace and quiet of a tranquil garden. The Panagbenga Park has a big outdoor aviary with some Cockcatiels, African Love birds and Parakeets. There is a Butterfly House inside the Panagbenga Park with different kinds of butterflies such as Papilio Palinurus, Papilio Lowi, Idea Leuconoe, Phalanta Phalanta, African Monarch, Cabbage Whites, etc. The lifespan of most butterflies are just two weeks at most but some lasts for a month if they are the pollen-eater species. It is best to visit the Panagbenga Park early in the morning to midday or when the sun is out because the butterfly tends to hide amongst the bushes when it is cloudy. There is a small fee to pay upon entering the Butterfly House at 25.00 pesos each per person for maintenance purposes only. 

Bedrooms

The picture at the top is what we call a "family bedroom" with a bed capacity that is good for 4 people only. Some people do not mind sleeping with a bunch of adults/children all packed like sardines in one bedroom but this is not allowed in our place. This bedroom has one double bed and two  individual single beds. All the beds are made of wooden materials with Uratex foams as mattresses. Bed sheets and blankets are all provided. There is a built-in closet in each bedroom. If you have some small children coming with you, we expect you to supervise them while they are playing because horse playing on top of the bed or banging the bedroom doors/closet doors and including the screen door in the main entrance are not allowed. Anything that is damaged by the guests will be charged to them from now on.

The last picture above is a smaller bedroom and it has one double bed which is good for two paxs only. That piece of red woven cloth material hanging on the wall behind the bedroom and just above the television is what we Igorots call "tapis" or a wrap around skirt. This piece of skirt is part of the costume of the women in my parent's hometown in Sagada and Bontoc Mountain Province. When you come home tired at the end of the day from touring around the city, then you can watch your favorite show on the cabled TV. We only ask that you tone down the TV volume when you are using it so as not to disturb anyone who could be resting or taking an afternoon nap and most specially after 10 p.m. so we could all rest for the night. So please be considerate enough because some people do have to get up in the morning for work/school and they do need some sleep you know. After all, this is not a karaoke bar or a hotel/Inn but a private residential house wherein you are considered as our valued guests, and as such, you are expected to act as one. 

Bathroom

Just a few pictures of the inside of the bathroom in the 2-bedroom ground floor unit. There is only 1 bathroom in this unit and it is shared between the two bedrooms. We do not rent out on a per room basis anyway so whoever books the place has the whole unit all by themselves. The guests need not share the bathroom and kitchen as well as the living room with another group of people so this will ensure the guest's privacy. We only ask that you MUST keep the bathroom floor dry at all times for sanitary purposes. Bacteria likes to thrive on wet surfaces so to avoid this, please use the bathing area to wash up and clean yourselves instead of using the toilet bowl.

Hot and cold shower is readily available in the bathroom only but not in the kitchen sink. We have sufficient supply of water for our guests use. Guests must bring their own personal toiletries including bath towels  as we no longer provide these things because of bad experiences in the past. Guest are not allowed to do their laundry but washing of light underclothes is okay. If the guests should want their laundry done, they can avail of the services of a laundromat in the mall. A pail and a water dipper is also provided for those who prefer to use these rather than the shower in bathing. If you want to use the shower, do open the water valve first before making any adjustments to the water heater according to the temperature of the water that you wish to use. Please keep the bathroom floor DRY AT ALL TIMES because bacteria multiplies fast in a wet environment. Lastly, please pick up your own mess on the bathroom floor after taking a shower so as not to clog the drainage in the shower area. It's just common courtesy for the next user, don't you think so? 

Living /Dining/Kitchen area

The first picture above was taken from the doorway of the 2-bedroom ground floor unit so this is what you see as you enter the dwelling. This is a combination of living room, dining room and kitchen area all in one open space area. The two doorways in the background leads to the bedrooms while the one on the left side is the bathroom. The bedroom on the right side is good for a couple only while the bedroom on the left side is good for 4 paxs only. We rent out the place as a whole unit and not on a per room basis. This means that whoever books the place has full use of the house all by themselves without having to share the house with another group.

 This second picture above was taken from another angle showing the picture window in the living room and a 5-galloon drinking water dispenser which is just behind the door. Just above the water dispenser is a local map of Baguio City. My husband has made a list of most of the "must-see" local tourist spots in the city. This will serve as a guide for our guests specially for those who are coming to the city for the first time. This will cut back on the time you spend in planning where to go and what to see while in Baguio City because you simply choose from the list and go from there. This is readily available for our guest's use but please leave it behind when you go so the other in-coming guests could use it too.  

The last picture above shows the cooking area. Many of us enjoy cooking and eating together as a family.  This is actually a good way of bonding activity for the whole family because everybody pulls their own weight in helping out and preparing the food while chatting and catching up with each others life at the same time. Some of our guests prefer to cook their own meals rather than eating outside of the house. This is no problem since we provide basic cooking facilities such as a 10-cup rice cooker, a 2-burner cook stove with cooking gas including basic pots and pans, a refrigerator, and dining/eating utensils. We only ask that you segregate your trash from bio-degradable to non bio-degradable wastes materials and put them in their proper basket that we have provided for just for this purpose. You see, we do practice proper waste segregation in our barangay so we invite you to do the same. Since this is a self-serviced residential unit, doing basic house keeping chores should be observed just as you do in your own home. We expect you not to leave unwashed dishes including pots and pans on the sink unattended after you have used them. Please observe cleanliness in the kitchen at all times. You would not want to invite flies inside the house that would land on your own food, would you?

Stairs/Entrance

Just above the stairs in the first picture at the top is the street in our barangay. I feel the need to show these pictures of the stairway in our place because some people may be expecting a flat or a road-level house but unfortunately, this is not so in our place. If you have some senior citizens coming with you, then please be advised that there are several stairs that they have to tackle before they could enter the unit in the ground floor. We have had some guests in the past who were in their 80's actually and for them, it was no problem going up and down the stairways in our place. We've also had some guests who were only in their 50's but they find it hard to climb up these stairs. For the youngsters, it's no problem because they enjoy themselves going up and down the stairs. Baguio City is mostly hilly anyway and the best way to tour the city is on foot so bring your sneakers or flip flops with you when you come for a visit. The picture in the center is the second set of stairs and a walkway that leads down to the ground floor level.


 

The picture above shows the entrance to the 2-bedroom ground floor unit with its own separate door for the guest's privacy. All the windows including the main door are screened with an insect wire mesh material. Just don't pull the screen door behind you when you enter the house so as not to damage it. The screen door will close by itself with its oil-based mechanism which is installed at the top so just leave it alone to do its own thing. In closing the main door, insert the key in the key slot and do a clockwise and counterclockwise twist and that will do the trick before you can remove the key.

An outdoor sink is available near the entrance to the unit which serves as a dirty kitchen for cleaning out your fish or doing your food preparation for outdoor cooking. A clay cook stove is also available but you buy your own charcoal if you want to use it. The stairs on the left side is for our private use only and it's off-limits to guests. We use this stairs mainly whenever we want to go in the small backyard garden.

Lou's Cheap Transient House in Baguio City

Every month of February, we celebrate the month-long Panagbenga Festival or the Flower Festival in Baguio City. Many people from all walks of life come up to Baguio City just to watch the Street Dancing Parade and the Flower Float Competition Parade which is usually held on the last Saturday and Sunday of the month of February. Most of the Hotels, and Inns in the city are booked long before the actual event happens and that includes other types of accommodations as well. 

We have seen some enterprising visitors who pitched up their tents at Burnham Park or at Melvin Jones Soccer field just to have a place to sleep for a night or two. They sure could save a lot of money this way because they do not have to pay for a place to stay. They use the services of public comfort rooms to relieve and refresh themselves when nature calls but these facilities are not equipped with a shower. What is sad to see is that when they go back home, they leave behind their trash and it becomes an eye-sore for us permanent residents who have to put up with it until the garbage is collected.

Hence the reason why we opened up our humble home to accommodate some of these transients in the city with a reasonable fee of course for keeping the house clean and comfortable for them. Our rates are subject to change during the peak season, Holidays and Panagbenga or Flower Festival so please check with us first for the price quotation. There's nothing fancy about our place. It's just a private and simple residential house but we do our very best to keep it clean and comfortable for our guests. We do impose some house rules such as "NO ALCOHOLIC DRINKS ALLOWED" at our place and this is strictly enforced. It's only a place to rest and sleep for the night but it's definitely not a place to party. If we accept you as our guest, then we expect you to act as one and not trash the place or make the place like a pigsty. We expect our guests to clean after themselves and not throw cigarette butts or candy wrappers or any left-over food in just about anywhere they want to because we already provide waste bins for these. Put them in their proper place because we do practice and observe proper waste segregation in our barangay.

Some of the nearest landmarks to us are the following: Camp John Hay, Nevada Square, Panagbenga Park, FVR Building, Quezon Elementary School, Victory Liner main bus terminal, and SM Mall Baguio. The jeepneys plying the route in our barangay passes by the lake at Burnham Park before going to their staging area which is located at the Igorot Garden Park, this is already in the Central Business District area. The Baguio City Public Market is just behind the Maharlika Building which is located at the foot of Session Road and this is just a stone's throw away from the jeepney staging area. Just use the overpass in the park and it will bring you to the wet market. The regular schedule for the jeepneys plying the route in our barangay is every after 15-minutes interval and taxis do come by every now and then so it's not really difficult to get a transportation to bring you to wherever it is you want to go. To reach us and for further inquiries, please send an email to : inadalou@yahoo.com or call my sister-in-law Emy at this number 09499536441.