Vigan

From the UNESCO web site: Established in the 16th century, Vigan is the best-preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town in Asia. Its architecture reflects the coming together of cultural elements from elsewhere in the Philippines, from China and from Europe, resulting in a culture and townscape that have no parallel anywhere in East and South-East Asia.

From a combination of Lonely Planet and my own observations: The architecture was influenced not only by Spain but also by Mexican and Chinese structures, and includes Filipino touches such as capiz-shell windows as well. The ground floor has stone walls and is for storage and/or work, and the first floor, made of wood to withstand earthquakes, has a large, airy sala for living. Bedrooms, a kitchen with outdoor space for cooking and washing, and bathrooms are upstairs. Founded in the 1500s, most of Vigan’s extant buildings date from the 19th century.

On Friday afternoon, Bill, the Gawad Kalinga PCRV who started at the same time as Julie, decided to come along with me. He was a good travel companion – good company, easygoing, fine with doing whatever I had planned. We met at the Starbucks at Shangri-La on Friday night and took the MRT to Cubao to get the overnight bus to Vigan. I actually slept decently on the bus – a combination of the hour, not feeling well and a Benadryl helped. We arrived in Vigan at around 7 am on Saturday and had a tricycle take us to the B&B I had reserved, Villa Angela, an old Spanish colonial house decorated with antiques. We put our stuff down and went in search of breakfast, through the quiet historic streets.

We hired a kalesa (horse and carriage), for a de rigueur tour of the town and environs. These included a 16th-century belltower, the Padre Burgos Museum with its artifacts of the region, a free zoo with exotic animals, a pottery factory that dates from 1824, a garden, weavers and the main church and streets of the historic district. On our own, we walked in the historic district, shopped a bit, and went to a couple of other small museums and houses. It was very pleasant to walk around – wide, clean, quiet streets and a very comfortable town. We had a nice lunch and a good dinner (highlight – they were out of mango shakes but I had a yummy grape shake) and retired early (we may have slept well on the bus, but not all that well, and the hot showers and antique beds at the B&B were quite inviting!).