A Monday with the Girls (Quezon-Laguna Roadtrip)

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A Monday with the Girls (Quezon-Laguna Roadtrip)

31 Aug

Tiaong-San Pablo-Nagcarlan-Liliw-San Pablo
Quezon & Laguna
August 27, 2012Two succesive long weekends in this month. Awesome! However, out-of-town plans were didn’t materialized. The first long weekend supposed to be in Kalinga, immersing ourselves with the local and tribes. Luis & Ianne backed-out. Ianne went home in Minalin to visit there house which was flooded by the monsoon. Luis’ mother came to manila to have medical check-up. I was left alone that I decided to stay home.And this long weekend supposed to be in Benguet, hiking and exploring mountains for three days. Two of my companions (Bombie & Luis) backed-out a day before we travel. Bombie still recuperating from his rheumatism while Luis didn’t want to go if only the two of us. Then, I was invited by John to go surfing in Zambales. But due to failed travel plans and preparations, it didn’t pushed through. Because the first two plans went nowhere, I decided to join the travel and food road trip by Julie and her batchmates (Kathy, Diane & Silvia) on the last day of the long weekend.Assembly time was at 830AM in Bay, Laguna for us except Silvia. We will just meet her in San Pablo since she is from there.After picking-up Silvia, we were off to Tiaong, Quezon. Our first stop was at Ugu Bigyan: Pottery Garden. The place was owned by Augusto Bigyan. He is a pottery artist. He opened his home to the public to showcase his pottery works. The house was made of red clay, so astonishing. Dining tables and chairs are rested inside different huts. Ugu’s works are displayed and exhibited around the garden. These are also for sale if you are interested to buy one.Since we don’t have any reservation, we just checked and took photos of the place. Reservation (lunch) cost Php 600.00 per person for a set meal. A minimum of 10 pax needed to be accomodated for a lunch reservation. If not, the group will be joined to other group to meet the minimum number. During our visit, there were 20 pax reserved for that day.We took our lunch at Patis Tito located in San Pablo City, Laguna after visiting Ugu in his nice red clay house. Patis Tito is formerly known as Kusina Salud and is owned by Patis Tesoro. Kusina Salud was managed by her son while Patis Tito is being managed by herself.The place is a garden restaurant. The furnitures are mostly antiques. It has high ceiling. The place will make you feel you are in a far barrio.

We ordered Crispy Tilapia (Php 285), Combo Plate Appetizer (Php 360), Kare Karend Dagat (Php 310) and 6 cups of rice (Php 40/cup) for lunch. The food was awesome! I like the most was the Combo Plate Appetizer that can also be a main dish. It consists of vegetable lumpia, beef balls and ham-cheese sticks. Crispy Tilapia’s saucewill make you want to dip more and eat the cripy fillet.Kare Kare was perfect! Vegetables were not overcooked and the seafood was perfectly cooked in peanut sauce with shrimp paste.

Everybody was full when we left for Underground Cemetery in Nagcarlan, Laguna for a quick picture taking since the place was close during Mondays. The cemetery is unique in the country. It was called “underground cemetery” because the burial site is actually under a chapel and was built for funeral mass during 1845.

The underground crypt was also used for secret meetings by Katipuneros during the revolution. This was the reason why the place was considered as a national historical landmark.

After the girls’ restroom break in a gas station in front of the cemetery, we drived to Liliw, laguna – The Tsinelas Capital of the Philippines. The girls were so excited to get here because they were so eager to shop for shoes and slippers.

While the girls were having fun buying shoes, I went to the church to have its picture taken. I learned that Liliw’s former name was spelled as “lilio” and the town was belonged to Nagcarlan until 1605. I read this from the marker in the church.

The church is named Parish Church of St. John The Baptist. It was made of red bricks and solid stone walls. The chruch’s belfry is beautiful. I’m not sure if the church is considered as baroque. There are statues of saints lined-up in front of the chruch. The altar was glimmery and houses several statues of saints inside.

One street in Liliw was full of shoe boutiques. There are a lot of people in this street shopping for shoes and slippers. There were big shoe replica outside of some stores.

One of our agenda more than shopping in Liliw is to eat in Arabela Camello’s Bakehaus & Coffee Shop. I had Walnut Salad (Php 200). Kathy had Tiramisu (Php 95). Julie, Silvia & Diane had Blueberry Cheesecake each (Php 95). The place was a small coffee shop in a small town but the food is great and yummy.

The sun was beginning to set so we decided to end our trip and drive Silvia back to San Pablo. We then decided to visit Sampaloc Lake since we will drop Silvia near the lake.

Samplaoc Lake is located near the city hall. There are fishpens and small huts in stilts in and around the lake. Small hills and mountains of Banahaw, Cristobal & Kalisungan are on its background. I learned that the lake was actually a crater lake just like the other lakes in San Pablo. This was our last stop.

We all headed home on our separate ways. Dropped Diane in Bay & Kathy in Los Banos.

The trip capped my long weekend. Although there were no plans made for the first two days of the long weekend, the last day made my little vacation worthwhile.

Thanks for the new friendship made – Kathy, Silvia & Diane. To the next leg!

Below was the summarized trip itinerary:
1.       Ugu Bigyan Potter’s Garden, Tiaong, Quezon
2.       Patis Tito, San Pablo City, Laguna
3.       Underground Cemetery, Nagcarlan, Laguna
4.       Liliw, Laguna
5.       Sampaloc Lake, San Pablo City, Laguna