The Weekend Ilocos Escapade : Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte

The travel bug had bit me indeed. Dreaming for another vacation in this almost impossible schedule isnt really possible. But having adventurous friends like what I have will actually make the travel genie emerge.

The Ilocos trip was planned about a month ago one sunny cozy lunchtime. The sunshine perhaps made the four of us really ecstatic. Surprisingly, after weeks and weeks of hard work, the Ilocos weekend finally materialized.

I have always been wanting to explore the northern part of the Philippines. The farthest I've been to up north would be Baguio and I thought getting to the tip of the Philippine archipelago would be quite a challenge. Gearing up our SUV with gas, filing up our ice chest with booze (tomador kami kasi lahat) and packing our skimpiest and sexiest bikinis (yeah right), we drive to Ilocos with no itinerary but only sky high hopes that this would be one weekend road trip we will never forget.

Goodbye city lights. :D

We left Manila at around 11 pm Friday. Kudos to NLEX and SCTEX for a great job in providing a great road that took us only 45 minutes to arrive in Tarlac (over speeding, yes but come on its just +20 km/h over the speed limit, hehe) Toll fee costs us around 300 Php.

Best part of this trip, if not all, would be the long road trip where the four of us gather our littlest life stories and share them on the road while wholeheartedly anticipating every town that we pass by. Alright back to the road trip facts now. Haha.

Took us about 9 hours plus the stopovers which sums up around 2 more hours.

I was the one driving at the break of dawn since my friend Saiz did all the driving since we left Manila. One of the things I love to do is driving and I did enjoy the roads of Ilocos since most parts are well lit and smooth, especially when we arrive Ilocos Sur. We had to stop to take these breath taking photos. :)

Driving was tiring, but heck if you see this amazing sight, then whoa! All worth it.

Laoag City!

We decided to stop and have some breakfast. Time check, and it was around 8am and we were in Laoag by then. We cannot miss the fact that the authentic Ilocos Empanada was to be served and tadah! A filling and sumptuous breakfast was served.

The famous Ilocos Empanada. :D Yummeh!

Back on the road again and we are finally heading off to Saud beach in Pagudpud Ilocos Norte. We were all excited but we all know that the trip will still be quite long and so we embellished the trip with a lot of jokes and a lot more future travel plans.

Had stop overs here and there to take some photos and buy some food. One of which is this small bakery in Pasuquin who pride themselves as the maker of this famous Biscocho (which admittedly I never heard of thats why I was wondering why is it famous). Tell you more about it on the food review.

Their soft biscocho is indeed delish!

After some more yada yada's and a lot more green jokes (haha), we then saw something that made us all ecstatic!

Finally Pagudpud!!!

We know we were very close to some more scenic views and we were not wrong for we saw something that made us understand why Don Quijote act as such. The Bangui Windmills!!!

Bangui Windmills. Breathtaking!

Photoshoot together with Tapuy? Hehe.

Mini windmills for sale. :D

And finally! We arrived Saud beach after long hours of driving...

Finally!!!!