Escape to Baler

Guest post by Yelmalab

This is a story about our escape to Baler.

I don’t really know how to ‘travel write’. And I don’t know where to start. Thoughts will just flow, according to how I remember them. So here I go trying to put this together in chronological order.

Without much planning, or sleep we started our journey to Baler - woke up at 4am to get ready, then  hailed a cab going to Genesis Bus Terminal in Cubao.

The 7 hour bus ride to Baler was not easy. The winding, and rocky road made it impossible to catch up on sleep. We we’re dizzy and sleep deprived, so unfortunately we missed the beautiful scenery of the Sierra Madre mountain range.

It was 10.30am when we finally arrived at Baler. It was nice and warm, and we were hungry so we sat at the next eatery we set our eyes on. We were met with small talk from the locals, curious about where we had come from and where we were heading. They also started to offer tour services, and were so persuasive we decided to go along with it.

We didn’t really need a tricycle driver tour guide, and told Dennice that we were fine walking on our own. Kahea was right beside where he last dropped us off.

Elle found Kahea online and already spoke to a contact from the homestay, we checked out the fan room and it was just right for its price. A fan room included a bed, an extra mattress, bathroom and one electric fan – it was all we needed. The price was 600php/night.

At this point, I still had no idea about what places we should visit or see, or what touristy things we should do... for me, this trip was more of a go-with-the-flow escape from Manila.

We tried to negotiate for a lower price for the fan room, but they said we can’t have it any lower than 600php, and instead said they offered discount on their surf lessons. At Baler, each homestay or accommodation has contracted surfing instructors. Surfing lessons are 350php/hour. With our discount we paid 300php.

First thing we did after ‘checking in’… power napped! Our alarms failed to wake us up when we ought to, but the moment we did wake, we decided to surf… at 3 o’ clock, during high tide. Might as well, since all we had done was sleep.

Sabang beach at Baler had continuous waves, and even stronger waves at high tide. The sky was grey and so was the sand, it wasn’t paradise for the ordinary vacationer looking for a relaxing getaway.

But the circumstances were perfect for learning how to surf and enjoying the waves. There was hardly any sea life, and the sea bed was smooth sand, all falls and wipeouts would be broken by soft smooth, dark grey sand.

After our lesson we met our neighbor, Miles from South California.

Miles is a surfer. A backpacker. Ukulele-player. A songwriter who can hold a tune. Recently traveled to Hawaii, Seattle, Indonesia and Vietnam. And can speak fluent Spanish.

We had a nice chat on the balcony outside our rooms, and he told me about himself, and how he ended up where we were staying. He told me that Kahea, is a Hawaiian word, and he had spent a lot of time in Hawaii.

We went out to dinner with Miles that night. We ended up at the place where he had to stay the night in a mouldy room, luckily their rooms were not as bad as their food. Yellow Fin was a resto-bar which served food that went well with beer. We had inihaw na pusit, pork sisig, and pork barbeque.

We enjoyed the food, good conversation and beers, then 2 locals spotted us. We met Mac and Tarerey from Kahea before our surfing lesson. Apparently, Tarerey was supposed to be my instructor! The rest of our night was filled with stories repeated so many times, to the point I thought I may have known these people for years...

The next morning we ate pandesal while finding our way into town. Our adventure for the day started with us looking for a bicycle rental store. We couldn’t find what we were looking for so while walking along the main road, we asked the locals if they knew anyone who could rent us bikes. Finally someone helped us out, and we managed to borrow two mountain bikes.

Very happy with our first accomplishment, we cycled along to our first stop, a local canteen, and had our lunch. Then we visited the tourist office and asked for some maps.

We planned to visit whatever landmarks we could get to by bike. Following what we thought was the right road brought us to the river. At the river was a boat service which could take us to where we were heading to, so took a five-minute boat ride to the other side of the river.

From there, an old lady showed us what road we should take.  

We managed to get to Ermita Hill, Baler Fish Port and the entrance to PAGASA Radar Station. And on our way back we stopped to view the Aniao Islets, had our snacks, and then got down again to see Diguisit Falls. After exploring the waterfalls, we made our final stops at Cemento Beach and Penaranda resort, to see wonderful views of the sea.

The roads we got onto were in very good condition, and cycling to the different destinations was easy and enjoyable. The sun was out, and the sunshine really complimented Baler’s shores. We got back to the town proper just when it turned dark, and returned the mountain bikes.

We bumped into Miles again, and had dinner with him at Baleryan, a small affordable, canteen, and we ordered siomai, barbeque and rice meals. Despite it pouring down, local kids were doing the usual rounds of festive singing, so while we ate we heard continuous Christmas carols against our will. We ended the night with a beer at Charlie does, a surfing-themed café where we enjoyed their relaxing music, good books, and acoustic guitar.

Our last day was Elle’s birthday!

We started the morning with a morning stroll, waiting for the sun to rise, unfortunately there wasn’t much of a sun to see. Then we made our way into the main town to grab some breakfast, we had pandesal from a peddler then tapsilog at a local diner, a mini foodcourt.

We passed by a small, bakery, Dialyn's bakeshop where we were invited by the smell of enticing baked goods. To celebrate Elle’s birthday we bought Kiwi and Red Velvet mini cupcakes… they were delicious.

Back at Kahea, Miles, Mac and I sung happy birthday, and Elle blew the candles from the cupcakes. The wind was strong, and we had a great view of the beach. It was a simple but peaceful celebration.

For the rest of the day we decided to do walk around and visit the main spots at the main town. We started with the Baler Municipal Plaza, then Baler Church, then crossed the road and had some warm mami.

After lunch we went to Baler Public Market and had a good look around at the different stalls. They had a few souvenir stores, but we found our souvenirs at an intriguing hardware store which sold a lot of random things for the home, from knives to wooden goggles. We chose to get ourselves bright coloured, straw hats, and wore them for the rest of our trip.

We got our hair cut at a local salon, then walked back to Museo de Baler and Dona Aurora Aragon Quezon House.

Birthday dinner was at Bayler View, an attractive restaurant along Sabang beach. The food and staff were fantastic, really complementing our celebratory mood. They surprised Elle with a free birthday dessert, turon ala mode, and sang for her too! The very fulfilling dinner was a memorable way to end our trip. We went back to Kahea’s to unwillingly pack for our departure the next day.