Am in Manila till tue or wed. I’ll be back in Baguio by mid next week — will let you know when plans are firm.

Miss you too!

im missing you. please tell me when you get back to baguio or if you’re around. i’ll drop by with either cake or donuts, whichever seems yummier at the time.

^^

or if you like, i’ll be in manila next trip on a(wait for it, wait for it…) BUSINESS TRIP! My first ever. My number is still the same.

hugs!

I guess folks get lost passing this way when they TRY TO GET BACK TO MacArthur Highway and find that they only end up in Carmen, Pangasinan. That’s why, in other blog entries we find comments that they “took 3 hours and still ended up in Pangasinan.”

But if folks go from Pangasinan to Nueva Ecija to Bulacan and then onto the NLEX Bocaue entry, one actually does not need to pass Tarlac or Pampanga anymore. I have traveled this route several times, but only, mostly when bridges were being repaired in Tarlac, but find that:

1. In the roads connecting Pangasinan to Nueva Ecija, during heavy rains, the roads get flooded and actually disappear — and one can end up driving the car into a rice paddy;
2. The traffic in some towns in Nueva Ecija can sometimes be heavy, too.
3. The road in Bulacan towns are not always very smooth (took the VW Heb once passing this route).

All in all, it’s really just Urdaneta — sometimes Villasis, too — in Pangasinan, that is a pain and that we all are trying to avoid. The SCTEX pretty much takes care of avoiding the traffic in southern Tarlac (because the northern towns of San Manuel, Moncada, Paniqui and Gerona enjoy relatively light traffic, except maybe on long weekends) if one takes the Tarlac City SCTEX entry upon exiting Gerona.

You are so right about bringing a road atlas or a map at all times. Actually, this saves folks a lot of time, instead of relying on road signs, especially in Pnagasinan.

Thank you so much!

actualy the detour in binalonan is a much more efficient route to get to manila from baguio… in my opinion. I conducted this test last year using my 97 Civic Vti, wherein i drove all the way from baguio to balintawak. I left Baguio in the morning for the two tests, and surprisingly, the binalonan detour saved me around an hour of driving from taking the manila route, gas consumption is also minimum as i cruised through the binalonan detour with minimum traffic, oh, and i also saved a few hundred pesos as i didn’t have to go through the SCTEX and majority of the NLEX (the binalonan route leads you directly to Bocaue Bulacan NLEX exit/entry). SIgns are also easy to follow and understand, however, it never hurt to bring a map of Luzon, which i never leave the house without. Anyway, whatever route you take, just drive safely.

Paul