Easy breezy Baguio

Posted on by Bing Ledesma - De Los Reyes

This City of Pines is a place of retreat from the hustle-bustle of the busy city and is simply the kind of respite we crave from time to time. With an estimated 2.5 million Benguet pine trees surrounding the city and the uphill and downhill terrain and panoramic view of houses on the hills as well as foggy mountains, Baguio is definitely a wonderful escape I consider one of my happy places.

Apartments and staycation places abound with price range to choose from and for people like me who travel to places to relax and be refreshed there are lots of choices. I go for homey apartments with a view of either the pine trees or the mountains in quiet neighbourhoods and our recent trip is certainly one choice I am happy to have made especially with its tasteful interiors and thoughtful amenities and very attentive caretakers . http://freds.com.ph/baguio/page/gallery

  • The spacious living room with high ceiling is lovely space for family time
  • Waking up to this is such a treat!
  • And watching this from the dining area is enthralling!

Coffee Shops and cafes are staples in our agenda and we search for nice ones with good reviews. For our family trip this time, we were quite satisfied with our choices and the cold December weather added to the thrill.

  • Lovely welcome breakfast at Chocolate de Batirol
  • Lunch or dinner at Hill Station is a must!
  • These buns from The Patch are yummy!
  • Make sure you get this terrace table at Arca’s Yard overlooking pine trees and the mountains
  • Nice seats for lovely conversations at Arca’s Yard
  • You should try Arca’s Yard’s camote pie which goes very well with hot choco drink
  • We love the garden setting of Hatch Coffee
  • Try Hatch’s Dirty Horchata with grilled cheese
  • Lemon and Olives is another must-go place for breakfast or lunch. Great food and lovely ambience!

A visit to Camp John Hay is another must. With a large concentration of pine trees in the area, one can easily fall in love with the place. Early this year (before the stricter travel measures due to the pandemic was imposed), we had the chance to participate in the Baguio Marathon which started and ended in Camp John Hay. I did half marathon and the downhill and uphill route was certainly not for the faint of heart. The route went all the way to the Lion’s Head along Kennon Road and just when the finish line is already in sight, you have to run another kilometre uphill with your legs almost giving up.

  • My running buddies in our traditional “taho” toast after the run (taho is a protein-rich sweet drink made of soft tofu with sago pearls and syrup)
  • With my husband and daughter who ran 5K
  • So thrilled to be halfway through the challenging 21K route but going back to the finish line with the uphill route is even tougher!

Another must-visit is the Bencab Museum. The display of contemporary artworks in this museum is wide and the museum itself with its modern and clean design is lovely. National Artist Benedicto Reyes Cabrera’s (Bencab) works are beautiful. He is indeed one source of Filipino pride. Read more about his works and profile: http://www.bencabmuseum.org/national-artist/

Due to its idyllic weather, fruits are abundant and the Baguio market is a feast of various produce from the province. For coffee drinkers, Benguet coffee is synonymous to great coffee. In fact, an Atok-grown coffee emerged as the grand champion in the 3rd Philippine Coffee Competition held in March 2018. Oliver Oliem’s Arabica coffee entry won 1st place while 2 other Benguet Arabica coffee entries also won 3rd and 5th place among 700 entries. Atok coffee was described as a blend with flavour characteristics of apricot, lemongrass, pomelo, oolong Tea and the aroma of a rose. The National Barista Champion 2020 Adrian Vocalan also used coffee from Itogon, Benguet. No wonder there was a queue in the Fresh Roast shop at the Baguio marketplace where you can get Benguet premium and flavoured coffees. Read more: https://pia.gov.ph/features/articles/1019148

  • Strawberries of different sizes abound
  • Locally grown grapes have seeds but are equally sweet as the imported seedless variety
  • Get your premium Benguet coffee from this shop inside the Baguio Market

For sure, Baguio will always be one of my favourite places in the country and I am just so happy to note of Baguio’s Re-greening Masterplan which includes a tree-cutting moratorium. It is my hope that House Bill No. 7090 seeking for 10-year moratorium on tree cutting in the city (by Baguio Congressman Mark Go) last July 13, 2020 will be passed to reinforce the 5-year tree-cutting moratorium imposed in residential, business and public areas in the city.

With the newly opened NLEX-SLEX Connector which is expected to cut down travel time from Metro Manila and is set to be fully operational by January 14, 2020, Baguio will certainly be more attractive to people like me who just want to be away and experience easy breezy Baguio.

That thing they call “nesting”…discovering (and rediscovering) the joys of staying home

Posted on by Bing Ledesma - De Los Reyes

“The ultimate luxury is being able to relax and enjoy your home.”

~Jeff Lincoln

Attitude is everything and in such a situation as being forced to stay home for an extended period like what’s happening now with this pandemic, it’s either we wallow in frustration or we embrace it and for many including myself, we chose the latter.

So we settled in and “nested” – a condition that makes us do stuff for our home and in our home: decorating and redecorating it; purchasing things to re-create the “experience” we used to do outside but could not do now like fine dining, reading a book at a cafe, going to the salon, having a massage, watching a movie on the big screen and many more.

I moved around some pieces of furniture. This one used to be in a section at the garage which has been brought up to the balcony by five men as the daybed is very heavy.

To entertain ourselves, we looked for activities to do and new hobbies to be occupied with. Plantherapy trended giving birth to the monikers “plantitas and plantitos”. Photos of home-cooked food also flooded IG and FB (and I had many of these as well) and more tiktok videos uploaded.

Some of my posts these past months

I am no different. As a family whose weekend routine always included dining out and going to the malls, it was hard at first but we slowly got used to it. Saturdays became my movie days with my teenage daughter and we discovered that we both like watching true stories of sports icons and athletes as well as underdogs. My daughter loves to cook and bake so her dad and I were happy recipients of her experiments. The culinary skill of my niece was optimised too and my foray of the kitchen resulted to compliments from my husband and daughter. We realised that birthdays and anniversaries can be special too even if celebrated only at home. In fact, I like it more with celebrations that started with a special breakfast and ended with a fine dinner.

So I started buying pretty dining wares from the online marketplace to complete the fine dining experience at home and satisfy my shopaholic cravings. The Dalgona coffee and oatmeal cookies of my daughter became an afternoon treat and as the quarantine went into extension after extension, I went farther into re-creating the home experience. One luxury purchase I made, justified as a birthday gift to myself, was this wonderful Breville Home Barista Express https://www.breville.com.ph/the-barista-express that allowed me to make specialty coffees at home.

I joined the plant craze and started collecting different varieties of monstera, philodendron, aglaonema, fittonia, calathea and rubber trees and gained more knowledge as I researched on how to care for them and the benefits they bring to the home. Having this penchant for aesthetics, I went further deep into repotting my babies in lovely (and pricey…sigh) clay pots. Having these plants led me to reinvent some spaces in our home which now offer a more relaxed and refreshing vibe.

Some of my collections I call my “babies”

I also was finally able to start writing blogs which was something I wanted to do for sometime now but didn’t find the time to start.

When we go back to being able to do more of the going out stuff, I think it won’t be the same for me as this nesting have taught me the ultimate luxury of enjoying home.

Yoga…it’s more than just toned muscles

Posted on by Bing Ledesma - De Los Reyes

There are two sets of reactions that I get when I mention that I do yoga – there are those who gesture a meditation pose and say “uhmmmm” and others say, “oh, I can’t do those poses” – both reflect the common impression that yoga is just about meditation and headstands.

That’s a very limited view of yoga. Both meditation and headstands are part of it and as yoga is a journey, you start from where you are. There are yoga routines for everyone. (So, for those with medical or physical conditions, it is always best to consult your doctor and a trained yoga practitioner (yogi).

There are many types of yoga. In fact, there are over a dozen so you can choose what suits you. I consider myself just a little above a beginner and while I can do some challenging asanas (yoga poses), I still continue to work on my headstand with some progress especially during this time (of pandemic) where I can practice more. I love Vinyasa Yoga (vinyasa is a Sanskrit word for “flow”) which is fun and as the term implies, makes you do a series of poses that flow gracefully. Hatha yoga is another favourite as it focuses on posture and is a great stress reliever especially after a long day. I also love Jivamukti yoga classes that I used to attend which includes chants and meditative music as well as various asanas that will surely challenge your strength, flexibility and balance. There’s Bikram (hot yoga) and Iyengar (uses props like ropes, chairs, blocks, , straps, etc) too and the latter is oftentimes prescribed with those who have physical conditions.

Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self and to the self. ~The Bhagavad Gita http://www.happier.com

The Harvard Medical School lists 5 benefits of doing yoga which summarises what we can get out of it: Read more https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/yoga-benefits-beyond-the-mat

  • A better body image – yoga practice encourages acceptance of self as a starting point and it cultivates your awareness on how you feel; never forcing something you cannot do yet at this time (but if you choose to, you can in due time as you gain strength and flexibility (which you will for as long as you are committed to practice)
  • Becoming a mindful eater – researchers found a link between mindful eating (eating based on what’s good for you) and yoga practice
  • A boost to weight loss and maintenance – studies show that those who practice yoga for at least 30 minutes three times a week gained less weight in the 4-year duration of the research than those who did not and those who practised had lower body mass index (BMI)
  • Enhancing fitness – practising yoga improves one’s flexibility and mobility and tones the muscles in a balanced way from head to toe; it also improves strength, balance and endurance.
  • Cardiovascular benefits – many studies show improved conditions in people with hypertension and diabetes; medical studies also point that yoga improve lipid profiles of both healthy individuals as well as those with coronary artery diseases.
I do yoga at home following an app but for beginners, it is best to attend yoga classes to get some guidance on the various poses which I used to do prior to this pandemic (as classes in the yoga Center I go to stopped).

Since I also do long distance running, yoga is the perfect complement. Running uses the same muscle groups and stretching the hard-to-reach muscles and joints which yoga does help avoid injuries.

Another great benefit from yoga is the fact that it teaches correct breathing. That kind of breathing that nourishes the entire body. Each practice makes you focus on the breath and as you do, allows you to slow down your heart beat. As a result, you feel so relaxed. Yoga Breathing or pranayama had been extensively studied and has been proven to decrease stress, improve sleep quality, increase mindfulness, reduce high blood pressure and improve lung function. Read more of this: https://www.healthline.com/health/pranayama-benefits

Just doing the basic poses like downward and upward dog, warrior 1, 2 and 3, plank and side plank, vinyasa flow, chair and bridge is enough to release buckets of sweat and gives you that sense of accomplishment giving you the passage to do the well-deserved savasana (final resting pose) which integrates everything you did during the session.

I hope I have provided you more reasons and motivation to start your yoga journey. So…see you on the mat!