Ilocos Tour I: Paoay Church and The Ilocos Empanada

ILOCOS, Philippines - One day when I was loosely describing plans of strolling Vigan at night and traipsing around some foreign province and my dad vaguely commented "You're 21 already, do what you want with your life," I immediately took it as a yes (in my mind).  No questions asked.  With that "approval," I began to conjure plans to take over the world town by town.

And that was how I ended up in a ten-hour bus ride towards Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur with three of my blockmates (and a brother).  Armed with research and a heart for adventure, we were off to the land of the famous Ilocos Empanada, Spanish Era churches and Bangui Windmills.  Since two of my friends are Ilocanos, we decided to opt out of Ilocos tour packages.

My following posts will be a lot about art, architecture, history (what design geeks!), food (lots of it), and friendship.


Despite the long ride, none of us felt tired. Upon arrival, we just went to our friend's lola's house to meet her (lola) and her tita.  After breakfast and some unloading, we were off with only a vague itinerary but with our hearts absolutely eager (cheesy, but true).  First on our checklist of churches was the Paoay church.  It was a 45-minute jeepney ride from the Laoag-Paoay terminal.

The church is an imposing structure, distinctly baroque and javanese in style.  The sides curve down intimidatingly into wide buttresses (and therefore our DAT ASS jokes) anchoring the church and protecting it from earthquakes.  The details of the facade are highlighted more in the evening (which I will show you in another post).

My travelling companions (are complete wackos) (Ate at the back not included).

The interior of Paoay church.  

This was also the first of three weddings that we crashed during our trip.

After Paoay we went to Batac for lunch (just a jeepney away!). Batac empanada and ice cold coke was the perfect combination!  Quite different from the usual empanada, the filling is encased in a unique orange rice flour crust.  I first tried the seedless (without the monggo sprouts) one which only had Ilocos longganisa and egg.  Definitely eaten best with Ilocos vinegar!

As the clock struck one and as lunch break ended, we crossed the street towards the Marcos museum.  

We went back to Laoag and strolled the town.  One of the things I really love about Ilocos is that it's really clean and is definitely easier to walk in (relative to Manila, duh).

Oble gone soft.

We also went to this church in Naic (?) where we crashed Wedding # 2.

Two of my friends had their dSLR's so I kind of got lazy taking pictures.  But not to worry, my laziness vanishes on the second day.  

Ilocos Tour Part I: Churches and Empanadas - A tour of Batac, Paoay and Naic
Ilocos Tour Part II: And Everything was Yellow - Beautiful, beautiful Vigan
Ilocos Tour Part III: Here and Back Again - More of Vigan and its neighbor, Bantay
Ilocos Tour Part IV: Here Comes The Sun - Pagudpud, Bangui Windmills, Cape Bojeador Lighthouse
Ilocos Tour Part V: When The Day Met The Night - Laoag, Vintar and our last hurrah!
Ilocos Part VI: It's All Gonna End - Sarrat and Paoay Again