Road Trip: Vigan

The five of us traveled in our silver rental car for 11 squished hours until we arrived to Vigan. The tortuous drive got worse when we were stuck in traffic, and blockaded by tricycles whenever we reached a town. Once we arrived, my 81 year old Grandma refused to believe it. She was convinced that we were in a city named Castillejos. At first my sister and I spent a good 20 minutes trying to persuade her otherwise, but no luck. I guess you can’t argue with a feisty old woman. My mother thought it was endearing of us to try. 

For lunch we stopped at Chowking, a popular Chinese fast food joint. My sister and I weren’t fans. The orange chicken was like a lumpy rock, enough said. 

I should probably give some background to where and what Vigan is. Vigan is on the northwestern side of the Philippine island of Luzon. It’s a city that it memoriable for numerous historical sites. Vigan fuses Hispanic heritage with current Filipino tradition. My dad decided right before winter break that we would take a trip.

Not only were we without a map, but my parents were responsible enough to not book a reservation at a hotel! The Toyota drove through the cobble stones up and down the poorly lit streets, as we hoped to find a bed to sleep on that night. We found a large inn called El Juana (or something like that, maybe it was Juliana). My parents parked the car and went out to see if there were any rooms available, and left the three of us in the car. Somehow the car locked itself and we were STUCK. The car went rouge! I tried to unlock the car from the inside, but instead of just allowing that and letting me out, it re-locked the car and set off the alarm! Not only was the sound booming, but we and everyone outside the car were mortified. I was ignorant enough to try again, not believing what had just happened. And again the situation repeated itself… haha embarrassing much? When my sister and I got out of the car we tried to avoid eye contact with everyone around us.

Sorry the picture is pretty horrible. This is outside, the sort of “patio” area. There’s a lion statue, and adjacent to that are doors to some rooms. The inn had 2 floors. The upstairs was beautiful with flawless wood floors, and so I regret not taking any pictures.