It used to be that you could do very little in this mountain city. You could go to Camp John Hay and twirl around their skating rink (about 1 hour), play mini-golf in their rapidly disintegrating course (about 45 mins), buy alfajor and ube in Good Sheperd (about 1 hour, depending on what time you get there), and go to the market to by Tantamco's, vegetables and a walis tambo (about 1 hour, and 20 mins to park).

Now, you can stay at Camp John Hay Manor (really nice hotel, except that they don't have a pool and gym yet) for a promo price of P2,000 a night. We stayed there and babysat our visiting relatives.

Then, of course, off to Ukay-ukay: bargain-hunting paradise. A friend bought these Prada fur boots (faux) for less than 15 bucks, and Kinkyape t-shirts for about a buck each. There are shirts, pants, shorts, shoes -- name every article of clothing (except maybe leather underwear, although we didn't check) and you'd find it there in that honeycomb of stores in that condemned building. The best strategy is to go with a group, know what everyone wants, and take them walkie talkies.

Cafe by the Ruins is overrated, by now several other establishments have just as good food as they do for a reasonable price. I can't name any of them. There's Starbucks in Camp John Hay.

Nevada Square is now a dump -- they used to have a decent coffee shop there with pretty good foccacia. There's Starbucks in Camp John Hay.

You can also surf and do your email in any of the growing number of internet cafes near session and around the St. Louis University area. The folks up there are pretty friendly (they let me download drivers and install stuff), so here's a shout out to Ate Lourdz and Mang Temy at Boom-Boom Internet. You guys rock! And you have good coffee. Of course, there's always Starbucks in Camp John Hay.

There was a time when it took 5 hours to get there by car. Now it takes about 7, even if you leave Manila at the unholy hour of 3 in the morning. And I still can't see that sleeping woman silhouette of Mt Arayat.