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Alaminos to La Union |
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If you're planning on going this way, take our advice and don't take
the bus. It's a long, hot miserable drive. At one time, the
Victory Liner used to go to San Fernando, La Union. You could take the
bus from Dagupan or Manila and it would drop you off right in front of your
hotel. Now the route from Alaminos to Bauang requires that you take one
bus to Daugupan, change to another bus that will take you go Agoo, and then
catch a local bus from Agoo to Bauang. This took us over 4 hours.
The drive through Lingayen and Dagupan is incredibly slow, something like
driving in Manila during rush hour. Somewhere along the road betwen
Alaminos and 100 Islands, I saw a sign for a van and driver for rent.
This is best way to go. The only enjoyable place along this route was the
town of Agoo. Mavel and I spent an afternoon here wandering around the
city center, cathedral and central market. Bauang, La Union Our very first trip together in December of
1999 was from Manila to La Union and then Baguio. Things have changed
since then. Evidently a typhoon had made a direct hit on Bauang and
removed half the beach. Now at high tide, you can hardly walk down the
beach without dodging around all the fishing bankas. We had
stayed at La Cabana Hotel and did so again this time. Unlike our first
trip, the hotel was not even half full this time. This has resulted in poor
maintenance, and curtailed services. The pool had huge spots of algae,
the live entertainment at the bar had been cancelled and the restaurant
service was mediocre at best. However, next door, the Bali Hai Hotel
seemed to be doing a brisk business. Their restaurant was excellent and
their rooms were well maintained. If we come up this way again, we'll
be staying there. We spent the Christmas holidays in La Union
and decided we had to get back to Manila for Mavel's sister's wedding.
Not enough time to head to go to Ilocos on this trip, maybe next time.
I was expecting to catch a flight from San Fernando to Manila, but
service to the San Fernando airport has been cancelled. Luckily the
flight to Baguio was the next morning, so we caught an earlier ride up the
mountain and flew from Baguio back to Manila. |
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