Diplomat hotel: Baguio Heritage hill

When we visited Baguio, what took my attention first was the big green gate at the dead -end of the Dominican Road which is a few block from our transient. Beside that gate was an abandoned building na parang hindi na itinuloy ang pag construct. No wonder....

Ronnel in his very lovely sitting posture

Ang pagvisit namin sa Heritage Hill ay hindi sinasadya.  WALA sa ITINERARY. But since malapit sa aming tinuluyan at nalaman namin they're welcoming visitors, ito ang naging first stop namin. 

 

Let the ghost hunting begins

The gate was nearly swung open when the security guard approached us and allowed us in. Before you start the tour, you have to register in their log sheet.

 

Welcome

Based on the interview I did with the security guard, in between 1915 to 1916, there were two priests engineers (one of them was Padre De Guia) from Pangasinan who have originally planned to put up a retreat house along a 17-hectare property in Dominican Hill in Baguio but was swiftly converted into school for priest due to idea of tax exemptions. But unfortunately, the idea of converting it into a school did not materialized because there were only few students who have enrolled.

During World War II, the place was bombed by the Japanese army damaging different parts of the building and killed numerous priest and nuns.  

In 1970's, a Dominican priest sold the property to Tony Agpaoa, a Baguio-based faith healer and a businessman or also known as the "Agpaoa group" acquired the place and named it as Diplomat Hotel. The interiors were renovated and built 33 rooms for their healing purposes.

It is also said that after Baguio hit of an earthquake in 1990, the said structure was sold to the Marcos-es.

Currently, the Marcos-es turned over this property to the City government of Baguio City.

Though it was damaged for the passed years, it remained clean and the floor is shiny.

Today, the locals have been heard various screams of agony. Some called the property was haunted because of the scary stories spread during the time of the WWII. (Buti nalang umaga kami pumunta).

Fountain noon.

You can still imagine how it was perfectly structured and design for all students and priest even before it was damaged.

The top view

As per the security guard, marami ring mga visitors that time kase nga bakasyon. Mas maganda nga daw bumisita pag araw dahil sa gabi, maraming parnormal activities ang nangyayari sa loob ng Heritage Hill. 

I wondered how it looked like in afternoon and in evening. Care ko, hindi rin naman ako pupunta dahil duwag ko. hehe

The place was very quiet.  We were the only visitors then. Though I feel quite uneasy, I never fear that we would encounter ghost in that morning. Hmp, takot lang niya kay Chito. hehe

Buti nalang umaga kami nag visit. Kundi, hindi kami makakatagal at makaka-ikot ng ganito. Atleast, quite relaxed para mag picture ng magpicture.

Exterior design

May ibang mga abandoned building na kahit araw, you will feel different. Buti nalang, that time sa amin wala.

Wandering around the building

Going up...

Atop was the bright sunny day and a big cross

 
If you reached the roof top of the building, you seems can't feel scared anymore because of the nice panoramic view given by the Baguio itself.

Parang Lego toy lang sa taas ng Dominican Hotel

 
From atop the hill you can see the whole of City Camp all the way to Burnham Park and the Baguio Cathedral. Towards the left one could see Quezon Hill, Camp Allen, the Baguio Public Market, Center Mall, the campus of Saint Louis University, and Quirino Hill. The Marcos Highway, Green Valley Country Club, and the Sto. Tomas mountain are also visible from Dominican Hill.

 nice pose :p

Walking out through the door was Trel. Eh, sino yung nauna? 

By the way, let me share with you what Chito experienced during our first night in our transient.  

He preferred to sleep at the sala even we insisted that he can sleep on the room where Trel is sleeping.  But he still wanted to be alone in sala. 

He shared his story with us and since then, hindi na ako nakatulog ng maayos. Naging paranoid kaming lahat.

That first night after kwentuhan sa sala, we went to our rooms and tuloy pa rin ang kwentuhan. Kasama namin sa room si Ronnel kaya masaya kaming nagkukwntuhan hanggang sa makatulog na kami.

Chito could still hear our laughs and giggles before he finally fell asleep in the sala.  When in the middle of the night, he felt someone's touching his head. Btw, he's sleeping while his head is close to the door. 

At first he was thought na kami lang ang gumising sa kanya o ang nangangalabit.  Akala niya, lumabas kami ng room at hinihila ang taklob (cover) ng kumot sa ulo niya. It happened for about 3 times. 

On the last time, Chito finally woke up when he felt that someone's actually took off the bed sheet from his face but saw nothing!!

He was puzzled.  It was so strange.

I feel scared. Chito is honest to say that he was not kidding, that he actually felt it and it happened to him.

I just thought hindi kaya Chito was dreaming or making fun of us or it could be, ang mga taga Heritage Hill ang bumisita sa kanya?!