Four of us co-workers embarked on this trip to the province of Ilocos in northern Philippines one long weekend towards the end of August 2009. This was upon the invitation of one of us in the group who is from that province. The trip to and from Manila is a gruelling 10 to 13 hours by bus, but some domestic airlines lso has flights to Ilocos from Manila.

This ruggedly beautiful province has a harsh climate-hot weather most of the year and strong rains or typhoons during the rainy season. It has two major parts-Ilocos Norte (north) ... (more)