This is my first visit to this beautifully preserved town of Vigan in Ilocos Sur province of the Philippines. My husband and I drove our rental car all the way from Manila airport, after 1,5 hours of Manila traffic going to the airport and 1,5 hours of the process of renting a car. We usually don't have problem renting a car in many parts of the world, but the service at Manila airport is incredibly long and not satisfying. They informed us about restrictions of places that we can't go with the car AFTER they took our payment by credit card, so we could not cancel renting from them. Quite sleazy, I would say.
We finally got our car at almost 6pm (from the planned 3pm) and then got lost for more than 1 hour in Manila. We got a taste of the notorious Manila traffic. It is comparable with Jakarta traffic but it was terrible because we don't know the city that well.
We arrived in Vigan at almost 5AM the next morning. Amazingly, the guard of Villa Angela where we planned to stay was up and opened the door for us. Without asking too many things, we were ushered into our room (Cuarto del Senor) which later we found out that Tom Cruise stayed at that room!
April 18 is the World Heritage Day. And we are in Vigan! Ms. Ninay Verzosa of the fifth generation who own Villa Angela said that they want to have a heritage house where they can maintain their family heritage. Her father decided to make the house a pension house even with only a few rooms as they don't want to change the house at all. Her aunty, Ms. Marjo Gasser, was one of the people who started the restoration of Vigan.
I will write the story about Vigan in my article for China Daily Asia Weekly. I will post it here when it is published. Needless to say, I am very impressed with the town preservation and really envious that the Philippines managed to retain Vigan's beautiful past and still have modern things too.
We finally got our car at almost 6pm (from the planned 3pm) and then got lost for more than 1 hour in Manila. We got a taste of the notorious Manila traffic. It is comparable with Jakarta traffic but it was terrible because we don't know the city that well.
We arrived in Vigan at almost 5AM the next morning. Amazingly, the guard of Villa Angela where we planned to stay was up and opened the door for us. Without asking too many things, we were ushered into our room (Cuarto del Senor) which later we found out that Tom Cruise stayed at that room!
April 18 is the World Heritage Day. And we are in Vigan! Ms. Ninay Verzosa of the fifth generation who own Villa Angela said that they want to have a heritage house where they can maintain their family heritage. Her father decided to make the house a pension house even with only a few rooms as they don't want to change the house at all. Her aunty, Ms. Marjo Gasser, was one of the people who started the restoration of Vigan.
I will write the story about Vigan in my article for China Daily Asia Weekly. I will post it here when it is published. Needless to say, I am very impressed with the town preservation and really envious that the Philippines managed to retain Vigan's beautiful past and still have modern things too.