Well, if you’ve been reading my blog the last couple of days, you got through long entries about exploring the rice terraces in Batad and another one about spelunking the Samaguing caves in Sagada.

Good for you!   Those were pretty long entries!

Today, a little break for you because not much happened.

In fact, I anticipate that will be the theme the next few days as I relax in Angeles City before flying over to Palawan Island on Friday.

After a couple exhausting days and very little sleep I was once again up early this morning as I had to travel for 12 hours on two buses to get to Angeles in the evening.

I checked out of my place around 7am and walked up the road where I stopped at the restaurant we went to for dinner last night – Salt and Pepper.

I had noticed last night that they served breakfast and when I saw they serve tocino as one of their dishes I knew I’d be back this morning.

I had a great meal of tocino, rice and egg and with about 10 minutes to spare I raced up the road to catch the 8am bus heading to Baguio.

The bus literally left a minute after I boarded so I counted myself pretty lucky that I caught this one.   I mean, it wouldn’t have been a big deal if I had missed it as the bus runs every hour until 1pm but still, it was nice not having to kill an hour in Sagada and it meant I would reach Angeles a little sooner.

After a long, winding and bumpy road, we reached Baguio at around 1pm.   Of course, being the Philippines, the different bus lines all have their own bus terminals and usually they’re across the city from each other.

Baguio is no different.

I asked a security guy where I caught the bus to Dau (the station for Angeles) and he gave me walking directions that seems easy enough.   I headed off with my big backpack on my back for what he said was about a 5 minute walk.

Ha!   Five minutes… right…   After 10 minutes and asking a few people, it became apparent that the bus station was, in fact, not in walking distance.

I hailed a cab and 15 minutes later we arrived at the other bus terminal.   I boarded the bus bound for Dao and we were off a short while later.   This trip wasn’t bumpy but it was very cold as the bus was air conditioned a little too much.

Around 6pm, night had fallen and it was dark.   I was so tired and I still had 2 hours to go til Angeles.

Finally, after almost 12 hours on buses I arrived to the friendly confines of Angeles.   It was nice to be somewhere I had been before… somewhere I was familiar with.

A short trike ride later and I was back at the same hotel as last week – La Terisita.   The guard and the front desk each greeted with a “hi sir” and “welcome back sir”.   Such a great feeling!

My new friend Wayne whom I met on my first day in Angeles last week was staying in the villa next to mine so I texted him I had arrived.   We chatted for a bit and made plans to get together to bar hop a little later.   In the meantime, I had a hunkering for some Jollibee!

Up north there were no Jollibees to be found and I was craving it big time!   After a nice meal of spaghetti and fried chicken I went the bar I usually start at – Ponytails.   I talked to the waitress and found out that they only get paid 150 pesos a day for a 9 hour shift.

That’s about $4 a day.

And the tips usually suck – 5 pesos here, 10 pesos there.

So, when I tipped her 120 pesos ($3) she was all smiles.   I had literally made her night.   She later said it was her birthday last week and she was now going to go out for dinner tomorrow to celebrate.

Sometimes you lose sight of how good we have it back home.   Imagine being excited about making 3 dollars!

Soon after Wayne joined me and we spent the next couple hours bar hopping.   It was exactly what the doctor ordered after a long and arduous day to get here.

On tap tomorrow – more of the same!