Here’s a rundown of the worst places to eat in Baguio City. You’ve been warned!

#1 Zola

Location: Patria de Baguio Building, Session Road

Oh my gawd! You know something’s wrong when they can’t even get your regular longganisa right. The food could have been kinda fine if it were bland, but the taste is just all wrong for most of the meals other than the pizzas, which are acceptable but not great, and with Don Henrico’s, Volante, and Vizco’s just down the sidewalk, why bother coming here? If you’re looking to have lunch here, don’t. Just head on over to Steaks and Toppings just behind the building, you get double the servings for much less than Zola’s overpriced rice meals. They also serve this tastes-like-used-dishwater with a horrible horrible horrible after taste… they call it coffee… and you pay 40 pesos to torture yourself. Ack! I wouldn’t recommend this place even to my worst enemy… well, honestly, maybe I would.

#2 Mile-Hi Diner

Location: Camp John Hay

I really don’t know what happened to this place, it used to be a favorite among locals when Camp John Hay was still under the Americans. Now? Pukable food, stale breads, near-decomposing meats (you can smell it!), and a less then cheery service crew puts it almost at par with the Hall-of-Shame Zola.

#3 Figaro

Location: 3rd Level Sunset Terrace, SM City Baguio Mall, Luneta Hill

Small mugs, overpriced, Airborne Access WiFi has several blocked sites, and rude service crew. Nuff said.

#4 Kentucky Fried Chicken SM Baguio

Location: Ground Level, SM Driveway, SM City Baguio Mall, Luneta Hill

Iiiiiiifffffffffff yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuu ccccccccaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn ssssssssttttttttttttaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnddddddd wwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiitttttttiiiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg iiiiinnn llllliiiiiiiinnnnnneeeeeee fffffffooooooorrrrrrr ccccchhhhiiiiccckkkkeeennnn, thhheeeeeeeen tthhiiiiisssssss iiiiss tttttthhhhhhheee plllllllaaaaaaaccccceeeeee toooooo gooooooooo…

Seriously, the store managers have got to do something about the incompetent staff at this rinky-dink branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken. They can’t even tell the difference between “Pepsi” and “rootbeer”… or even the difference between “one order” and “two orders”. Geez.

{ I’ll be updating this list often, it’ll soon be up to ten places NOT to go to. Coming soon: Best places to eat in Baguio. }

A person named Yogesh Darge, based in Mumbai, India, has just plagiarized the logo I created for the Baguio Centennial 2009. The final version of the logo can be seen above.

Here is his Flickr page and the website of his “professional” Design-Studio.

Ay naku these plagiarists!

++++++++++++++++++++++++

UPDATE: 16 January 2008

I sent one warning FlickrMail and a Cease and Desist Order via eMail.

The plagiarist has so far removed the butterfly logo from most of the branding on his website, although the favicon is still the same copied logo based on this one.

The photos/graphics on his Flickr page are also now hidden (not deleted)… but his avatar is still the same plagiarized logo.

Whoever you are, if you want to make it big in the design industry you’ll have to be incredibly ORIGINAL and IMAGINATIVE. You can probably use somebody else’s work as INSPIRATION but never as a stencil for your own work.

Bad karma, bad karma, bad karma to you.

Since a child, I’ve always remembered Baguio City to be a breezy mountain town with quiet streets, pine-scented air in the cold months, and plenty of trees on the hillsides. Spending a weekend afternoon searching for the biggest pinecones at the former American Airbase of Camp John Hay was always a welcome treat. That was Baguio, circa 1983. Things have changed, really changed.

Progress has brought several new developments since I was in primary school. Baguio now has several fastfood outlets, banks, hotels, schools, and we mustn’t forget… the malls and shopping centers.

Much have been said and written about these developments and how they have contributed to the progress of Baguio as a commercial and educational center… and even more have been said and written about how these same developments are turning the once pine-choked hills of the City into concrete forests. While it may be easy to point the finger at big corporations, like SM Malls and Fil-Estate/Camp John Hay, it’s the smaller developments that are making more of an impact on our environment. 

The “big builders” aren’t the main problem.

Near where I live across the Baguio General Hospital and beside the controversial BGH flyover, a hillside with at least 20 pine trees - each probably at least 50 years old - is being excavated for a new building. On the other side of the ridge where the General Hospital is situated, one can find Balsigan and San Vicente, two areas of the city where wanton cutting of trees is done for the sake of making houses. Almost every square inch of this area is built-up with galvanized-iron shanties and ill-designed concrete apartments. The place reeks of sewage, the hillside unable to cope with the high-density population. There is not a tree in sight.

The same thing can be found in almost every corner of Baguio City: Trancoville, Brookside, Aurora Hill, Quirino Hill, Quezon Hill, San Luis, Pacdal, Quarry, Hillside… in practically every major residential area in Baguio the story is the same, houses first before environment. Even the activists who regularly complain about deforestation by the big corporations live in houses that don’t even have a tree in the yard.

While it may be sad to see the trees go, it’s even sadder to think that migrants who build these homes in the City, hoping to get a job in one of them fancy malls, find themselves unemployed since most don’t qualify for minimum-wage positions. A large proportion of students from the lowlands, who study here for college, find it hard to leave the cool temperature of Baguio and decide to stay. Most of them get jobs that might otherwise go to native Baguio residents. These are the people who build the houses on every vacant lot they can find, or at least fuel the demand for building even more houses everywhere.

This is the reality of Baguio now, and I’m afraid to think of how much more change the City will undergo in the next 10 to 20 years. It’s a vicious cycle of building houses that allow more people to move in and build even more! At the pace were going, the future doesn’t look good - Baguio will just be another typical mismanaged Filipino city, devoid of trees and open spaces.

This is my fear… the fact that nobody here really cares anymore.

:’(