12 February 2007

Weekend fair

Yesterday afternoon, my wife invited me to join her in her practice driving at South Drive in Baguio (South Drive is a long stretch of road from the former gate of John Hay, passing through the Hyatt Hotel site, and out to Wright Park). So Jo-Lo and I went with her. I wasn't exactly keen on dressing up to go, and I thought we'd be in the car most of the time. So I went with just a pair slippers, shorts, and a shirt on, while baby Jo-Lo wore white shirt and pants that were showing signs of wear from the day's eating of ice cream.

Having finished our afternoon drive, we decided to park at the Orchidarium at Burnham Park and take a leisurely stroll to the market to buy some veggies. We were indeed surprised when we spotted rows upon rows of stalls. Ah, yes. The month-long celebration of Panagbenga (Flower Festival) is upon us.

The tower beyond the clump of trees is the City Hall.
Lots of things are being sold at the booths. Silver jewelry, wood carvings, clothing, toys, food.
This one sells woven items made from newspapers!

The photo below was taken near Rizal Park where an archway welcomes you to trade fair. We were wondering why some of the stalls had a name of a country in it. We soon knew why as the archway read "International Trade Fair."

However, there was nothing international about the fair. All the goods being sold were local (save for some "Made in China" goods). Which prompted local newspapers to criticize the misleading "international" theme.I do hope they remove the country labels and drop the international theme. Nevertheless, there are some nice finds in the trade fair. I wonder if the native sling bags here are cheaper than the one at the Maharlika Livelihood Center? I better check it out next time we drop by again; I want one.

9 comments:

  1. Nice pics. I've never been able to go to Panagbenga because it conflicts with my school. I'd like to check it out someday. :)

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  2. Anonymous9:57 pm

    Dyan sa Baguio ok lang mamili sa labasan na ganyan at di ka papawisan. Pero sa Manila kung konting diprensya na lang sa mall na nagpupunta ang mga tao.

    Talagang lagi mo rin dala camera mo ha.

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  3. Hello Wil. Believe it or not, in the first Panagbenga I was there with a couple of my officemates. We were on vacation. We were at Session Road and wondering why there was a lot of people. We went home and when we turned on the TV, the flower parade was on! We didn't know there was fiesta in Baguio that time! We were too tired to go out so we just watched it on TV instead.

    Ann: Oo nga eh, plus talaga ang cool weather. Yung celfone ng misis ko yung gamit ko... nung nawala yung 6630 ko last December talagang nanghinayang ako kasi yun yung blogging camera ko noon.

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  4. Anonymous3:16 am

    mukhang masaya nung fair, marami ka ba nabili! matagal na rin yung huli kong bisita sa Baguio, hopefully sa flowerfest.

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  5. Anonymous3:54 am

    I'll take one of those wood carvings. Yung bahay-bahayan. :)

    I hope those items made out of newspaper are reasonably priced.

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  6. Cruise: ang hirap talaga pag wala kang pera. hahaha! hanggang tingin lang.

    Niceheart: wood carvings are really nice items to buy, and it's priced ok naman. As for the newspaper items, the huge bags to the left of the photo costs around 280 each.

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  7. Anonymous4:48 am

    Hello! I enjoy your baguio posts as i rarely get to go home anymore. this weekend though I might just be able to go up, yey! if ever, it'd my 2nd time to attend the flowerfest (the 1st was in '97 when it started). Nice photos, esp the one with the distant City Hall tower.

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  8. Anonymous6:24 pm

    23 pa lang punta na kme dyan... cant wait to see what instores for me in baguio... :)

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  9. Anonymous3:18 am

    another event concerning "panagbenga" i guess... belated happy valentine! take care always!

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