HISTORICAL VIGAN Part 1

Have you ever wondered how is life in the 16 th century? You travel with a horse-drawn carriage, dress up into "Baro't Saya" and live in a Spanish stone house? I do! In fact I've been dreaming about this place for a long time.




Vigan, they say, used to be called "Bee Gan" by the first Chinese settlers, but the Spaniards change it into Vigan during their reign.
After a few attempts of coming for the last 2 years, I finally reached my dream. We arrived in Vigan at dusk and the place is beaming with Christmas decors and lights. The beauty of the place welcomed us as the car turned left infront of the municipal hall facing the plaza. It's a moment where one cannot grasp the scenery, consciously glancing in every corner and buildings that passes our view. We parked our car at a corner street and walked our way to our hotel located in the historical street, the Calle Crisologo.

Photo by Nina Raymundo Dumlao

Calle Crisologo is a street lined with cobble stone, old Spanish houses, Calesa, friendly faces peeking out of the large windows, antique shops, delicacies, restaurants and hotels. A UNESCO Heritage Site and recently declared as one of the New 7 Wonder Cities of the World. It felt like a step into the past. It is as mysterious and romantic like I expected it to be. There's a certain charm, from the lit up street lamps against the Spanish colonial structures and the stillness amidst the crowd of tourist doing the usual stuff. Wooden benches lined the street for people to sit and admire the beauty.





After a mesmerizing introduction of Calle Crisologo, it is time to locate our hotel, the Cordillera Inn. Located in the heart of Calle Crisologo, the hotel used to be an old house of the Crisologo 's turned into a hotel. Most of the main part of the house is still intact, except for the addition of the reception cubicle and hotel rooms. The place felt a bit eerie, as majority of the furnitures and interiors are more than hundreds of years old. I dare not look at my reflection in the mirrors around the place coz I feel like they belong to someone. The elegantly designed antique furnitures shows how well they lived in the old days. Our room is facing Calle Crisologo with the street lamp creating a subdued light on the curtain serves as a night lamp while we sleep, and the clacking of the horse shoe in the street outside, this whole place gives you the feel of history.






This article was published in HKLife News January 2015 Issue


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