Welcome and Reflection

 

On another day, we continued touring around the Baguio area, first dropping down Kennon Road a bit which is a very winding road that winds up from the lowlands to the mountain tops of Baguio along a steep gorge. It is very prone to landslides and indeed, just descending down it part way we had to pass several areas which were down to one lane due to the other lane no longer existing due to a landslide. Our destination was the locally famous Lion's Lion. 

On past trips, when we have passed by the lion head, I have known that I was near the end of my trip and we would soon be in Baguio. Back then, there was just a pull off for it and one could hop out and take a picture. These days however, it has become a tourist draw so you have to pay to park in the much larger pullouts and then up and down the road from the lion head are lots of vendors peddling cheap Chinese trinkets to the masses. There is even a sort of line that forms for people wanting to climb up near the lion's mouth and have their picture taken. My kids and their cousins did this but I declined.

Our next stop was definitely a place that brought back a lot of emotions, sadness for me and even more sadness for my wife. We are standing on a road overlooking the first house my wife grew up in that her dad built himself. It is in the lower right of the photo behind the building with the patched up tin roof. What elicited the sadness in differing levels from both of us was how much it had changed. The first time I visited this house, it was all by itself on the outskirts of town with only trees for neighbors. Now as you can see, it has been quite built up and is now barely visible from the road due to other houses blocking our view.

The path to get to it that descended from the road is now walled off with a gate that can be closed though was open when we arrived. My wife's father died when she was ten of a tropical disease and this house that he built was her direct connection to that part of her life. After his death, they would end up moving and ending up across town where they now live.

Since there were two houses down there and a fenced in property to the right, we ventured through the gate and down the steps to a landing and another gate that was closed tight. Over the gate is the view you see above with the rusted red roof in the background on the left being the house of my wife's father. We called down to see if anyone was home but got no answer. Now wanting to trespass further, we walked back up to the road and continued on our way.