the great ilocos adventure: day 4/departure

Last day in Ilocos. The sun shone! Wish we had that much sunlight at Blue Lagoon, but we’ll take it!

Walking along Saud Beach.

After that quick early-morning dip, we packed up and said goodbye to Manang Cathy.

Lunch at BergBlick Restaurant, which serves German and Ilocano cuisine. We went overbudget here due to an error (we got two dishes instead of just the one dish that we ordered) but the food was good.

Bagnet once again, once more.

Ba-bye Pagudpud!

Bangui Windmills. These windmills are enormous. Extraordinary. Wish we had these in Bulacan hehe.

There are 20 windmills in total, generating electricity for the province.

Kapurpurawan Rock Formation and Cape Bojeador, both of which are sadly covered with graffiti. Shame, shame! Dear tourists, please stop being dicks and act sensibly around important sites.

Again, do wear comfortable shoes.

Bojeador tower.

We bought biscocho, chichacorn, longganisa, and bagnet, and headed to the Laoag International Airport for our flight home. Even the airport looks like an ancestral house, with its brick walls and large windows.

The “Express” in Airphil Express is an utter lie. We were supposed to start boarding at 6:10 p.m., but the goddamn aircraft arrived at 10 p.m. And we only got lumpiang shanghai for that horrendous four-hour wait! Are you kidding me Airphil Express? Not even coffee? Or an hourly update? Or a refund? Or at least a discount? Are you kidding me? Grace and I had to approach the counter and mention dinner before they served us anything. Horrible.

Anyway, let me end this series with a lighthearted exchange between Ghia and airport personnel:

(Context: Ghia had her pasalubong boxed at the store.)

Ghia: Pwede po bang lagyan ng “fragile” sticker yung kahon?

Personnel: Ano po bang laman nito?

Ghia: Chichacorn.

They didn’t give us the sticker.

*

The table below does not list all of our expenses (e.g. the cost of the plane ticket), but it’s a good enough estimate (thanks Grace Anne!).

To help you decide how much money to bring, keep in mind that biscocho costs P75 a pack, chichacorn P75 a pack, bagnet P400 a kilo, and Laoag longganisa P200 a kilo.

Have a safe trip!