On the way to Baguio were deep crevices, big mountains, and waterfalls. Too bad, it was impossible to stop by the roadside and enjoy the beauty all spread before us; there was no place to park and the cars behind and in front of us were all speeding up. We had to keep with the pace. Lee instructed me to just take pictures from the car window. I did not. So now, I have to say sorry for not being able to upload pictures at this point. I promise that one of these days, I will  go back to Baguio alone, to take pictures of the long and winding road with all those magnificent waterfalls.

We reached Baguio at around 2 pm and we were starving. Lee and I had to find a parking space and Google the restaurant nearest from our location. We were near SM Baguio. 

In the end, we just decided to go to SM Baguio and randomly pick a restaurant. We could not find a parking space so we just drove round, and round, and round while trying not to get the pangs of hunger ruin the mood. We could not find SM but finally, we found a parking lot in front of SM—or so we thought.

After parking, we excitedly hurried toward the entrance—only to be stopped by a security guard and gawked at by the other people. You see, it was not SM—it was a pharmaceutical company building. We could have just laughed at the situation  if we had not been too hungry and too exhausted.

We parked the car there just the same and decided to head for Burnham Park. From the parking lot, we just walked and walked and walked, crossed a foot bridge, and finally,  there we were, surrounded by flowers and embraced by the  cold and crisp mountain air of the park. (Burnham Park deserves its own blog post.) We could not enjoy the views; we were starving. We just continued walking until there, in the distance, we saw Chowking. It was like seeing an oasis in the desert.

It was late in the afternoon. Chowking was not airconditioned; it was just making use of the chilly December air to cool the establishment. There were big windows with no shutters. The windows were open and the sparrows that nested from a nearby tree would just freely fly in and fly out. Lee and I watched them for a while. The birds knew it when a customer would leave. They would fly directly onto the emptied table and noisily peck the crumbs. After they had eaten every crumb that they could see, they would simply fly back to their nest and wait for the next customer to leave. I tried to catch one of them for my pet for the next 8 days but Lee said it was not a good idea.

During the almost three years that I had worked with Lee, I had made the habit of checking my wristwatch from time to time. When I did it instinctively during our late lunch, he reminded me that for the first time in three years, our lives were not governed by the clock. We had all the time in the world.  Our other friends did not even know where we were. There was absolutely no reason  to hurry. I smiled. In my head, I sang some lines of Jason Mraz’ song.

“Living in the moment

Living my life

Easy and breezy

With peace in my mind

Peace in my heart

Peace in my soul

Wherever I’m going

I’m already home…

Lee was right. There was no need to hurry.

After we had eaten our late lunch, we headed back to Burnham Park and continued exploring and admiring its beauty. Most of the time, we just sat down and watched the other people have fun. For us, sitting there, enjoying the moment,was already fun.