I had a work trip and some free time so I made arrangements to meet with my college roommates. We have not seen one another in 12 years. I stayed for one weekend in the house of one of my roommates and we agreed to meet my other roommate who lives in Laguna. All of us needed a break from work and school. We brought my roommate’s kids. Laguna is a perfect escape from Metro Manila.
Because my roommate spent her high school in the University of Philippines Los Baños’ Rural High School, she is familiar with the campus and toured us. We were all roommates at the University of the Philippines in Diliman (UP Diliman). I love the UP Diliman campus but I have to say UP LosBaños (UPLB) has its own charm. I should have cross registered and took some subjects there for one summer.
I’ll take you to some places we visited though my photos. This is the park near the entrance.
UPLB has a Thai Pavilion. I do not know what the structure is for but anyone can hang out here.
One of my roommates and I at the Nihon Koen Steps. It looked like we’re in Japan, eh?
If you get tired after waking on these steps, there are benches where you can rest.
Going up the mountain, there is the Boy Scouts of the Philippines Jamboree Site.
This site is near the entrance to the National Art Center of the Philippines.
On our way up, we passed by this open church, where a wedding scene in one of Aga-Regine movies was shot.
These are the buildings of the Philippine High School for the Arts. Artistically-inclined scholars study high school here.
The topmost area in this route is the National Arts Center.
On this plateau, we can see the Alligator Lake, parts of Los Baños and Calamba. I think.
All the touring made us thirsty. We dropped by the College of Agriculture. They sell delicious fresh milk, yogurt, pork and beef products!
We still have a lot of time in our hands so we visited IRRI (International Rice Research Institute). This is the Ipil drive on the way to IRRI.
We visited IRRI a month before Bill Gates did. (Not an important information, I just want to mention that. Hahaha) IRRI is the premiere institution in the world that conducts research on rice. The top rice scientists from all over the world work here.
They study different varieties of rice from all over the world.
They have different enclosures that mimic the climate of a particular country.
At the end of the road at IRRI, we found the UP Open University Oblation.
After this tour, we hung out at the open field in UPLB near the fertility tree. The fertility tree is just a large acacia tree. It is called as such because a lot of things happen underneath the tree. What are those things? Your guess is as good as mine.
We had dinner at Dalcielo inside the campus and we called it a day.
It was a wonderful day with friends.