Baguio: perfect for Korean refugees.
Clean air. Chilly breeze. Pine trees. Strawberries. Walis. And a rock scene that’s as underground as the ube that gets bottled in Baguio. (VO: This portion is brought to you by the good people of Good Shepherd. Ube so great!)
Paid Ad? we wish.
It’s hard to think of to whom to give these to back home so we ate them all up.
The road to Baguio started when local rock groups Pedicab and Taken By Cars grouped together with other bands to come with them on an excursion to Baguio. Their group (let’s call them Excursion Tour 1) decided to go there on a field trip—and just bring their guitars with them. And with the help of local producers, they got booked in Baguio’s version of saGuijo: the recently defunct Ayuyang Bar.
You will always be remembered.
Later, having read about the success of Excursion Tour 1, we wanted to be part of the repeat of that feat in Baguio. I have personally been clamoring to play there since 2008, what with the temperate weather and interesting people (I can’t seem to write down “pretty women”).
So the success of ET1 inspired Ahmad’s Shoplifters United to collab with the Baguio collaborator (that’s Jethro Sandico, y’all) and get Your Imaginary Friends to play there.
But not without our indie rock cohorts The Dirty Hate. Later on, we were joined by the women of riot grrl group The Flying Ipis, and the math rock / world music / instrumental jazz / psychedelic / pure fun Wilderness. Local bands Trancemission and Skydive Academy completed the lineup.
Your Imaginary Friends’ entourage (yep, I said it) is made up of 12 people: 8 Filipinos, a half-Chinese, 2 half-Arabs and a Caucasian. Luckily for us, Valerie Venturina got us all billeted in this slick rest house on Gibraltar Road, just a few blocks away from Wright Park. It’s a big compound that houses two houses, with one house having 60 really spacious rooms with 14 beds in each room, and another with 40 more rooms with 10 huge beds. I am totally making this up but the truth is: the house is really massive. Just get dibs on our episode of MTV Cribs. Word.
Another thing we loved about Baguio is the food. Yep. Your Imaginary Friends are food nuts. I personally wanted to check out the look on Steve Schwerbel’s face as he sinks his teeth on adobong kambing.
I told him it is ghost meat. He thought I said “goat.” What a great guy.
We went around on a rented jeep for the famed Pinikpikan, but all we could find are steak, and more steak.
Steak it up yo' whatev.
The Excursion (more like Expedition) can’t go on without an actual excursion (or an actual expedition). Going around Baguio surely brought out the kids in us. For our 1st stop, we went to Bell Temple. We took pictures there. I had a hard time convincing my friends that there is no way the secret ingredient is in one of the temples.
Kung Fu Banda
But I told them that Bell Temple has a time-space portal, so we went through it to get to Rio de Janeiro!
That girl from Ipanema never gave me her number.
Next stop was the famed strawberry farm—a small stretch of land where probably the only local strawberries in the country come from. We couldn’t wait to get our hands on them so off we went to try our balancing skills on the field. We can only take pictures because taking strawberries doth come with a price tag.
protein sweetness.
We also tried the strawberry ice cream and the strawberry taho (now a favorite) before we went on picking strawberries. And paying for them. While everyone else bought food, Steve bought himself a nice Tiger Woods cap. I’m not a fashion nut so I don’t know what it’s called.
Next up, we went to Tam-Awan Village where we immediately felt at home. It’s a cultural hub where history and art bleed into one. This village is the sanctuary for many local artists; their art on the walls of the small coffee shop is a testament to that. Tam-Awan Village also blends the famous Benguet coffee. I’m not a coffee-drinker and ergo not a coffee connoisseur, but this sure is one of the most tangy, most flavorful coffee I have ever tried.
Tam-Awan some more!
After looking around briefly, we noticed scantily clad youth rounding about. They appeared to be in native Ifugao costume and they were holding up Ifugao percussion. Yeah! They performed an impressive tribal dance on uneven ground. Ahmad and Khalid were so happy they held back tears. They used to dance half-naked, too.
After dancing in Tam-Awan, we were so tired we decided to just head back home and grab some rest. After all, the gig was on that night.
to be continued…
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