VIGAN, Ilocos Sur - Food Trip

We wanted to experience the northern regions of Luzon, Philippines, both for their culture and cuisine. Vigan, the capital of the province of Ilocos Sur, was an obvious choice, since it is on UNESCO's World Heritage Site list of places of cultural significance, primarily because of its cobblestone streets and unique architecture--a mix of Philippine, Oriental, and European design and construction.

                                                         

[Note: All the photos are mine; the map is from Wikipedia. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigan for touristy details about Vigan; and to http://www.villangela.com/ to read about Villa Angela Heritage House, where we stayed.]

Here was our itinerary:  take the bus up to Vigan City, stay a couple of nights, then take another bus up to Laoag, spend a night in the city, then find our way farther up north, to Pagudpud, where we had reservations for two nights at the Kapuluan Beach Resort. From there, we planned to bus it down back to Laoag, and from its international airport take the one-hour flight back to Manila.

     Manila has several bus lines plying the northern provinces, and the big lines have comfortable air-conditioned buses at reasonable prices ranging from Php 600 to Php 800 for a one-way ticket. You have no choice but to buy the ticket one hour before departure, so be prepared to sit on benches (no air-conditioning here) while you wait until the guy at the glass window holds up a sign that says "VIGAN" and you scramble with the rest of the crowd to secure a seat. We traveled on a Sunday night, so it was not as mad a scramble as it would have been had it been a Friday night.

    We took the 11:00 pm Partas bus, arriving in Vigan at 6:00 am. We were hoping to catch some sleep on the bus and have a full day in Vigan to maximize our stay. Forget it. We did not sleep because (1) the bus made several stops, and at each stop the bright lights in the bus would come on and food vendors would board and bark out their offerings; (2) there was music playing during the entire trip; and (3) the seats were not comfortable (especially for the not-too-young). There was apparently a toilet in the back, but we did not attempt to use it. We got off the bus a bit groggy from lack of sleep.

     There were a few tricyles waiting at the bus station (no taxi service at all in Vigan), so we jumped into one and our bags were strapped on somewhere in the back (I didn't dare look where). Thankfully, our hotel was only 10 minutes away, because it was a cramped, bumpy and noisy ride. Arriving at the hotel, we found the huge cast-iron gate shut (well, it was only 6:00 am, after all), and our driver had to ring the bell several times before we saw someone stumble out of the big house, to let us in. The charge was Php 20 per person, but we gave the driver a good tip because of the early hour.

Villa Angela Heritage House

26 Quirino Blvd., Vigan City

Ilocos Sur, Philippines

Phone: (077) 722-2914

Cell:  0919-315-6122

Manila Phone:  425-6473

     We stayed at the Villa Angela Heritage House, the restored ancestral home of the Verzosa family, built in 1870. The house is set way back from the road. If you are into antiquities, and all that heritage and vintage stuff, this is the hotel for you. The house has a lot of history and still has its original furniture and interior decor, and the effort continues to retain the ambience of the old Spanish era. The husband-and-wife team who looks after the house were amiable, helpful, and efficient, and would go out of their way to expediently grant your (reasonable) requests. 

     Since we arrived so early in the morning and check-in time was not until 2:00 pm, and not having slept a wink all night, I was worried that we might just have to leave our bags for safekeeping and find somewhere to hang around while waiting for our room, which we were told was still occupied. Thankfully, they immediately showed us to a vacant room and told us we could rest there until our room was ready. Needless to say, we crashed on the bed and slept soundly for the next 3 hours, and we were so happy to find a Pinoy breakfast waiting for us. Now, that's excellent service, Pinoy style!

     This was our room, the "Cuarto del Señor," the master's bedroom. It was huge, with high ceilings, an antique "aparador" (you couldn't hang long clothes or trousers because of the shelves), and an antique dresser and writing desk. There was also a small TV, which gave us CNN. There was a small lamp on the ceiling, but it was too high to provide enough light, and a small lamp on one side of the bed (if you're on the other side of the bed, it's too dark to read). The room had its own bathroom (some of the other rooms did not), which was quite basic but large and generally clean and had a hot-water shower (a blessing). The towels were the thin Ilokos weaves (more like un-napped tea towels), and they quickly got soaking wet especially if you had a lot of hair to dry, but at least they were crisp and clean. Be sure to bring your own shampoo, conditioner, and body wash -- only a tiny soap is provided.
    The sturdy four-poster bed was the original antique one, but unfortunately, so was the mattress--they really should upgrade it, primarily for the guests' comfort. I'm prone to neck pains so I always bring my small but special pillow, and that helped a lot. There is a mosquito net in the back of the bed, but we didn't need to use it, fortunately (we were there in February, well before mosquito season).
     It was very quiet at night (except for the air-conditioner's buzz), but we realized the next morning that our room's windows overlooked the dirty kitchen downstairs, so we got the sounds of the morning's hustle-bustle quite early, not to mention the rooster's wake-up call.

     The huge dining area had two big dining tables (left photo) -- this was where we had our breakfast every morning (they asked you the day before whether you would like longganisa (that's Vigan longganisa, which were delicious!) or eggs or tapa or tinapa with rice for breakfast -- nice! -- or toast with butter and jam). The room charge (Php 2,500 per night) included breakfast, but they didn't serve lunch or dinner. In the right photo is the grand living room, which opened into a smaller (but still big) living room.
    Villa Angela has a lot of old-world charm, but it could benefit from some discreet updating and repairs (some of the capiz shells in our room's windows were missing).

For some reason, the lock on our double doors was at the bottom of the panel, so you had to squat or stoop to open it! Go figure. (We were told Tom Cruise stayed in this very room when he came to shoot a movie many years ago, well before he became famous and jumped all over Oprah's couch -- I suppose he had his assistant do the squatting to open his door.)
     We basically spent the two days wandering around (both on foot and by tricycle -- absolutely no taxis here), and spent a lot of the time in the Heritage Walk area. The whole place has now become a bit rundown, and we were honestly a little bit disappointed. Well, I suppose we had very high expectations based on the photos we had seen before the trip. The local government should make an extra effort to maintain and refurbish the old structures and roads outside of the cobblestoned areas to make sure that it keeps its place on UNESCO's Heritage List.

[More photos to come.]

     This was a food trip, so we scrounged around to find places to eat and found a couple worth writing about -- Kusina Felicitas and Uno Grill & Cafe across the street (I think both are owned by the same people). We were also directed to try Cafe Leona, near the town square.
     These three restaurants will be the subject of separate blogs on this blog site (look under 3b. Philippines - Restaurant Reviews; or 3c. Philippines - Food Trips; or 6f. Filipino Food). [Note: this is still a work in progress - thanks for your patience.]

Our next stop was Laoag City and Pagudpud -- a separate blog forthcoming.