My North Luzon Misadventure (Part 4)

Before I get to the stressful part of the trip, I just want to share with you the wonderful morning I had in Vigan. I woke up really early just so I could take pictures at the Heritage Village with the morning sun and no tourists ruining each shot, haha!

Goodmorning, Vigan!

Breakfast first before my looooooooooooooooooooong drive back home :p

After quickly packing my things, I bid the hotel staff goodbye (who all wished me luck haha) and off I went on my 12-hr journey back to Isabela.

My friend advised me to take the Baguio-Aritao route as it would be the faster one to take rather than the Pangasinan one. So from Vigan, Ilocos Sur I drove all the way to Baguio--passed by La Union and took Naguilian Road up to the City of Pines. My misadventure began right before reaching Baguio...so I was driving up, didn't really mind the winding road, when I suddenly noticed my gas gauge. With less than 1/4 talk of gas, I realized only then that I should look for the nearest gas station. With my not-so-useful gps, I headed for the Petron about 6.3 km from where I was. I didn't pay much attention as to where I was going, I was more focused on getting to the gas station. I had about 4 km to go when the gas gauge lit up! I was already panicking because the road's elevated and I didn't know if I'd reach the station in time. I drive an automatic car, so if I ran out of gas I'd have to get towed 0_0 Anyway, I was already praying for a miracle because the gauge's needle was THIIIIIIIS close to empty. When I got to the gas station, they didn't even have unleaded fuel!!! So I had to drive a bit further to the other station, and arrived just in time! While my gauge was being filled, I looked around and got a bit worried as I wasn't familiar with where I was. It clearly didn't look like Baguio City. Then I saw a sign saying I was in La Trinidad, Benguet. I had no effing idea where that was, haha! After gassing up, I again relied on my not-so-trusty- gps to lead me to Baguio. It only led me to a dirt road leading to God knows where. I had to head back to the town and ask for directions--should've done that earlier. When I got to Baguio, I again got lost looking for the road to Aritao. After circling around Baguio City twice, I finally found Ambuklaw Road. And I found it by chance, haha! Driving on Ambuklaw, I passed by Itogon and Bokod, both in Benguet; saw the Ambuklaw Dam and Reservoir; drove through Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya and finally reached Aritao. Upon reaching Aritao, I saw two signs with one leading to Aritao town proper and the other pointing towards Bambang. I opted to follow the second one as Bambang was relatively nearer to Isabela than Aritao. BAD MOVE. Imagine almost 21 kilometers of dirt road, rice fields or folliage on both sides, not street lights, houses dimly lit. The most terrifying 45 minutes of my life. When I finally reached the Provincial Highway, I continued driving until Solano, Nueva Vizcaya to gas up again. At that point I was driving for 10 1/2 hours already. It was past 8 in the evening already and I was so tired. I wanted to stop already in Nueva Vizcaya and just drive back to Isabela the next morning but I couldn't find a hostel to stay in. So I journeyed on and finally stopped at Santiago City, Isabela. I checked in at Hotel Amancio and just plopped on the bed and fell asleep right away. My back was really sore, my butt hurt, my legs were cramped, and it was the first day of my period (sorry, TMI haha!) so yeah that day was pretty rough.

So after a total of 22 hours of driving, 47 municipalities (from Abulog, Cagayan to Diadi, Nueva Vizcaya) in 6 provinces, near empty gas in La Trinidad Benguet, deserted roads in Itogon to Bambang I finally arrived in Isabela. I SURVIVED MY FIRST (AND LAST) SOLO ROAD TRIP!!! Really was an unintentional one, enjoyed the first half but was traumatized by the second half haha.

To give you an idea of my entire trip, I actually plotted on the map the entire thing...

So this is North Luzon

I live in Ilagan, Isabela (encircled in the lower part). I drove to Claveria, Cagayan (a coastal town in the north) for the weekend last March 9

On March 11, as I approached Loboc Bridge in Abulug, Cagayan (the encircled pin), I was told that the bridge was closed and the only way for me to go back to Isabela was to drive to the other side of Luzon 0_0

March 11:
So from Abulug, drove all the way back to Claveria, then all the way to Vigan City, Ilocos Sur for 10 hours

March 12:
After staying the night at Vigan, I drove to Baguio City, Benguet and had to look for the road from there to Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya. In between, got lost pa in La Trinidad and almost ran out of gas

March 12:
That road is Ambuklaw Highway. So from Baguio, I drove to Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya--passing by the municipalities of Itogon, Bodok, and Kayapa. Upon reaching Aritao, I drove further and saw a sign on a road leading to Bambang Nueva Vizcaya (which is way nearer rather than passing by Aritao town proper)...should not have taken that road, haha! Imagine 21 kms with 3/4 dirt road just to get to the Provincial Highway. Que horror. Upon reaching the Provincial Highway in Bambang, I was a bit more at ease because I knew I was (sort of) near Isabela already. Upon reaching Isabela, stayed for the night in Santiago City before going home to Ilagan

If you consider my trip from Ilagan, I drove a total of 700+ kilometers! What.A.Trip.

Murphy's Law

Again, apologies for this downer of an entry but I'm having an unusually bad week (so far...*crossing my fingers for better days*). Ugh. First, apparently it was my oversight that a certain document wasn't picked up sooner. Well, am not even sure if it was totally my fault because the people in the office I was supposed to pick up the document from didn't have any idea about it so I'm guessing it wasn't properly turned over. BUT in the end the blame's put slightly on me. Whatever. Second, my assistant left as I explained in my previous post. Third, that same document I mentioned--basically I should've read the TO part and not just the body of the letter. Apparently the THRU part was missing and I was just told that that part was really really really important. Ghaaaad. I feel so incompetent and like such a screw up now. I'm not even sure if I'm cut out to be here. I'm not weepy, surprisingly. Just really mad at myself.

Now I know these feelings won't last the week, but now I just need to let this out. Without someone to talk to, living alone in the province with the ungodly heat, plus currently PMS-ing, thank God for my blog. If you've been reading this blog long enough, you'd know that this isn't a travel blog, a food blog, a fashion blog, etc. This is just...my blog. Whatever I want to write about, I'll type it up and post it. Okay, now I'm feeling a teensy weensy bit better.

rant

So sorry to burst the fun posts but I just have to rant. My assistant just effing left. Being based here in Isabela, my now ex-admin assistant used to live with me. Ugh. Talked to him last week about his performance, with the objective of making him improve but then again just goes to show what kind of character he has. EFF IIIIIIIIIIT! I am so pissed!!!

Hayayay...tomorrow will be a better day *thinkhappythoughts*

My North Luzon Misadventure (Part 3)

The original plan was to go home to Ilagan, Isabela on Sunday (March 11). I left Claveria around 9 a.m as I was hoping to be home by 2 or 3 p.m. However, imagine my surprise when I reached the Loboc Bridge (which is in Abulog, Cagayan--about 60 km. from Claveria). It.Was.CLOSED. They closed off the bridge!!! I asked quite a lot of people already, and there was no rerouting done. The only way for me to go back to Isabela was to go back and drive around the other side of North Luzon. Meaning I was forced to drive all the way around the Ilocos area! My friend advised me to take the Baguio-Aritao route to save me time instead of going all the way down to Pangasinan, then to Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, then back to Isabela. So March 11 was the day my misadventure began, haha! Okay, I then drove back from the end of Loboc Bridge (Abulog), passed by the towns of Pamplona, Sanchez Mira, and Claveria (again), then drove all the way to Sta. Praxedes (the border town of Cagayan and Ilocos), then drove all the way to Vigan, Ilocos Sur! I drove for 10 hours that day. 10 effin' hours.

Upside, I was able to take pictures in a few tourist spots in Ilocos like the Bangui Windmills, the wonderful coastline of Ilocos Norte, the Paoay Church, and I got to go around Vigan's Heritage Village at night! Thankfully my brother called up a hotel in Vigan so when I got there I already had a room reserved for me. Thank you Grandpa's Inn for accepting a last-minute reservation! The receptionist felt sorry for me, I think, because I looked so tired so he gave me a free bottle of water hahaha!

Passed by the Pamplona Church, so nice!

Right before reaching the Cagayan-Ilocos boundary

The Patapat Viaduct!

Bangui Windmills, woohoo!

Met these two little girls, Hannah and Jovy--both 11, who spend the weekends selling souvenirs at Bangui

LOVE LOVE LOVE this view

Passed by this really nice view of the shore while driving

Welcome to Laoag City! :)

The Paoay Church

Finally at Grandpa's Inn

Heehee mirror check before going out :p

My dinner, yummy poqui-poqui and Vigan longganisa!

Funny thing was, I had been thinking about going on an Ilocos road trip but never really seriously planned it as I wasn't willing to drive that far and long. I wasn't even considering commuting from Isabela because I knew that was going to be such a long and tiring trip. Well, my Ilocos road trip happened unexpectedly! I do regret not enjoying the latter half of the trip. I should've made more stops and should've taken more pictures but I was too worried about driving alone and I really did want to get home to Ilagan as soon as possible.

The drive back to Isabela on Monday (March 12) was quite...ummm...stressful. Why? Because.... (to be continued)