OCR Text |
Show 11 jfSSSik. E? THE ROMANTIC ISLANDS OF THE FAR Hffifa 3 AE EAST. PICTURES OF THEIR NATURAL v gMgfcfS BEAUTY AND HISTORIC SPOTS BE. 11 WTftMSiilE SS COMING A MECCA FOR TOURISTS AND 3WW A POPULAR WINTER RESORT. .Jggjj533. 3 The Zigzag on the Way to Bagulo, 8ummer Capital of the Philippines. the trip to Bagulo within the means of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos. Not only Is there sufficient power In this, river to electrify a line from Manila Ma-nila to Bagulo, but to operate the street railways of Manila, light the city and furnish, power for manufacturing manufac-turing concerns. But we have now arrived at Camp One. From this point the scenery rapidly changes as the elevation Increases. In-creases. We are traveling over the famous Benijuet road, the construction of which through the mountains Is a most remarkable engineering triumph. At places the road Is blasted out of the solid granite. Riding on the edge of a 100 foot precipice makes one feel like All aboard 1 Let's go I We're starting start-ing from Manila, the great picturesque, Americanized Oriental city, and will travel by automobile 200 miles to the . north to Bagulo, the summer capital of the Philippines. The trip can also be made by train We have ahead of us one of the most scenic, spectacular and thrilling automobile auto-mobile trips In the world. We will have excellent roads all the way. The Philippines are, In fact, a paradise for autoists, possessing 3,500 miles of fine macadamized roads. The first part of the trip is through typical small towns and then across ' ' the central plain of Luzon and through aeveral rich and fertile provinces, where tropical vegetation is seen at Its best Here one Is Impressed with the great agricultural wealth of the Philippines, Philip-pines, which represents one of the East's greatest producing areas, with the advantage of. Immense natural resources re-sources for the development of further production. It Is regrettably true that even In the United States there Is far from any real understanding of the potentialities of the Islands. At some points rice fields, looking In the distance like the greenest of green lawns, stretch away as far as the eye can see. If you want color, If you want to feel the romance and mystery of an Oriental twilight, pass this way as the red eyed sun at the end of the dying day is slowly sinking behlnc the unending expanse of green fields. . At first you cry out In ecstacy at the gorgeous scene. But as you ride along, your eyes fastened on the panorama of tints and colors, and with the impenetrably im-penetrably black Oriental night com- fir . ' . ' - n lng on fast, you become enthralled. You no longer try to express your feel- Ings. You' cannot. You realize that those now fast changing, colorful masterpieces master-pieces in the heavens and on the landscape land-scape are pictures that no man can, adequately ad-equately describe nor human hands duplicate. du-plicate. So what's the use of trying 1 True, these are but Impressions, but the traveloguer considers himself justified justi-fied in mentioning them, for they are a part of the trip to Bagulo and return. Indeed, the gorgeous sunsets in all parts of the Philippines leave an impression im-pression on the mind of the tourist that is everlasting. We leave the palms and tropical foliage and enter the zone of rugged pine. We pass from the soft Incense laden air of the warm lowlands to the crisp, Invigorating ozone of the temperate tem-perate zone, all within a few hours' time. For mile after mile the road now follows fol-lows the tortuous course of a river, the road lying In the bottom or on the rocky sides of a granite canyon. The Philippines are rich In hydroelectric hydro-electric possibilities. This power Is the cheapest power on earth. And it Is everlasting. Your traveloguer Is neither nei-ther a prophet nor the son of a prophet, proph-et, but he predicts that one day there will be innumerable Philippine government govern-ment owned hydro-electric plants in this canyon we are now passing through. Think of the possibilities of such a project I Today the trip from Manila to Bagulo Is too expensive for the average Manila worker and bis family, many of whom may live and die without beholding the wondrous - beauties of their own island of Luzon. Think of what a blessing It would be to Filipino mothers and children to feel upon their fevered brows the cool, invigorating breezes of the mountain tops, now so near and yet so far I With the Philippine government owning its own electric railways and hydro-electric plants it would be possible to bring "At times we seemed perilously near - the Jumping off place." he Is on the rim of the world, Some of the turns are so sharp It is impossible to see 20 feet ahead, and we seem to be perilously near the Jumping off place. We wonder If it is safe to lean out and peer Into the canyon far below, and when we do we are perfectly satisfied sat-isfied we are flirting with death. - Yet the trip Is a safe one, providing our driver has better nerves than our own. All too soon we reach the outskirts of Bagulo, a city among the clouds, and are rather surprised at the modern city we find It to be. In ten years Bagulo Ba-gulo has grown from a village of huts to the nw Justly famed mountain resort re-sort of the Philippines, sometimes called call-ed the Philippine Simla. It is undoubtedly un-doubtedly destined some day to become a large city. Bagulo ranges in elevation from 4,500 to 5,500 feet and is surrounded practically on all sides by high mountain moun-tain ridges and "hogsbacks" towering Into the skies at a height of almost 8,000 feet Aside from the scenery, which is noteworthy, the great blessing of Bagulo Ba-gulo Is its temperate climate, which Is Indeed a godsend to those Impoverished Impoverish-ed by the tropical temperatures of the lowlands. Not only is the mountain air rich In ozone, but It has been demonstrated dem-onstrated to be extraordinarily free from germs of all kinds. Each year during the hot season the school teachers of the entire archipelago archipela-go are enabled by the government to spend a month at the teachers' camp in Bagulo for recreation and conference confer-ence on school work. American army officers and their families also go to Bagulo for the hot months. And ndw that your traveloguer has you In Bagulo, he believes he will leave you there, for there are many Interesting Interest-ing side trips to take, and, besides, Bagulo Is the most delightful place for a vacation in the entire Orient. c. a t. |