Filipinos are familiar with buying souvenirs and pasalubong whenever vacationing out of town. Since Baguio is one huge treasure trove of cool relics and mementos, we looked for the best and memorable souvenirs we can find.
Technically, it's not a souvenir but still, it's an authentic Baguio experience. For the first time, I've tasted the strawberry taho or soy pudding (a Philippine snack food made of fresh silken tofu, syrup and flavoring, and tapioca pearls)! :) I bought strawberry taho twice: first time was when we went biking around Burnham Park and; the last time, when we went to the Pink Sisters Convent. There were a big difference between those two taho I've tasted. The first one was extremely sweet that, I think, majority of what I've tasted was the heavy syrup. The second one was better. You can perfectly taste the flavor because it has strawberry bits.
 |
| Strawberry Taho at Burnham Park |
|
 |
| Strawberry Taho at Pink Sisters Convent |
|
I've already mentioned in my
previous post that I collect bookmarks. So when we first planned our trip to Baguio, a native wood crafted bookmarks is on top of my souvenirs to buy. After googling different places where they sell wood crafted items, we settled on visiting the Woodcarvers Village. The village is along Asin Road and difficult to get to because of the its distance from the city. The village is not much of the "village" anymore. According to our taxi driver, whose name I forgot to ask, during the old days, the Woodcarvers Village is a favorite among tourists and the busy shops lined the street from end to end. Oh, how times have changed. When we got there, the woodcraft shops are very few and very far apart. We spent a few minutes hopping from shop to shop looking for a bookmark but all for naught. They sell large items like book ends, book stoppers, wood carved statues and furniture, but no bookmark. It's fine, though because I found this cute wooden owl I named Hermione! Also, I found cute a-bit-native bookmarks on Mt. Cloud Bookshop! :)
 |
| Resin bookmark with preserved flowers |
|
 |
| Hermione, the owl :) |
|
Our next
pasalubong destination was at the famous Good Shepherd where they sell peanut brittle, butter cookies, and jam. We bought a lot of peanut brittle and other cookies but of course, my first target was my favorite jam in the world, Ube Jam. But upon getting there, they have no available ube jam anymore. :( The ube jam is unavailable since the days prior and we were among the people to leave the place ube jam-less and with
my our spirits crushed.
 |
| A sh*tload of cookies and peanut brittle for the family and friends. |
The last souvenir destination we went to was the Baguio City Market, where we bought
bulol, wooden spoons, and
walis tambo (soft brooms). What was interesting was we found more wood craft items there than the actual Woodcarvers Village. From there, I also bought dream catchers! My fascination with those enigmatic native artifacts started when I saw a variety of gorgeous dream catchers at the Tam-awan Village Souvenir Shop. The ones sold at the market is cheaper, though, but those at Tam-awan are more...elaborate.
 |
| Bulols and Wooden spoons |
|
 |
| Baguio City wall decor |
|
Dream catchers are used by natives who believe that dreams are spirits floating around in thin air, As both good and bad spirits travel, dreams enter our mind. A dream catcher's purpose is to capture bad dreams by its web as bad spirits get tangled up.
The good spirits are then allowed to pass through the center. The feather lets the good dreams flow to the person who possesses it.
~~~
It has been a joy to shop in Baguio, and I bet it will always be. Aside from the unique blend of culture and heritage as manifested by the city itself, they have an unbelievable amount of crafts and items with back stories from the Cordillera region that will fascinate your inner shopper and nature-lover! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment