a visit to The Lady

it's been roughly a decade ago since i last visited the Lady of Manaoag Shrine and the long trip was truly worth it...if not for johnny, a family friend who came home from abroad for the first time after 15 years of being away and who had promised 'the miraculous lady' he'll make sure he'd pay his respects when he's in the country, i wouldn't have had the opportunity to see the shrine again...the place have weathered so many natural catastrophies but the townsfolk relentlessly kept rebuilding & refurbishing the shrine, now a cathedral, much to the gratitude of its millions of devotees...one wouldn't be able to see any traces brought about by numerous earthquakes, massive fires, civil wars & revolutions - all spanning the 400 years since it was built...the people from different generations kept on with the restoration as 'the lady' continued her miraculous healings...

we left manila at 5am, praised the Lord for the new & world-class north diversion road now called the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) which is equipped with an electronic toll collection system, thereby reducing travel time to north & central luzon provinces...the 3 and a half hour car trip was a joyride, what with a lot of establishments that abound the highway beckoning foreign & domestic tourists unfailingly and so travelers (like what happened to us) end up making pitstops one too many...

sneak peek of our recent trip to the 'Lady of Manaoag Shrine' above

on the way to Manaoag is a small town in Tarlac called Gerona where this unique 1.5 hectare floating restaurant owned and operated by the Barrio Fiesta Chain of Restaurants (of the singing cooks & waiters concept) is located...aptly known as 'Isdaan sa Gerona', the place offers loads of seafood choices on their menu while guests dine in huts amidst bamboo boardwalks and a 6-9ft deep man-made lake full of various species of fish...the establishment's facade was very conspicuous that we decided to have lunch there on our way back to manila...incorporated in the overall design are gigantic stone structures featuring fishes, spitting monkeys, goddesses, dragons - all great for photo ops especially when you're with 'balikbayans'...one of their specialty dishes tho is their roasted chicken marinated in a coconut milk & local herbs concoction and wrapped in banana leaves while being roasted...also very interesting are the lifesize wax figures of security guards - one sitting on a bench & reading the newspaper of the day, and another poised as a guard sleeping on duty...

i would recommend to anyone going to Manaoag, Baguio or anywhere to the north, to drop by Isdaan, even just for a drink of fresh coconut...my only warning is that you will have to have cash with you as they don't honor credit cards, not even the major ones...you may also just drop by Isdaan if only for their one-of-a-kind 'Tacsyapo Wall' where you can smash anything on the wall to vent your anger against anyone or anything...items available for smashing are plates in different sizes, old TV sets, radios, glass items, well upon seeing the area, i would presume they've got anything & everything there ready to be smashed...

johnny said he enjoyed his brief trip and surely, so did jr, raquel and myself, but we're looking forward to his entire family's visit hopefully in december...