Baguio Company Retreat 2024

So, we had our second company retreat last week, from November 11 to 15, 2024.

Where and when was the first retreat, you may ask? It was in Vietnam last year, from December 4 to 8, 2023, and as procrastinator as I am, I still haven't finished it and decided to write the recent one instead since it still fresh! Lol

But here's a photo of us from last year's retreat as a sneak peak.

Hali Home, Ninh Binh, Vietnam 2023

This year, there were seven (7) of us who met up for our second retreat which was held in Baguio city, Philippines.

Our boss travelled all the way from London, and one of our colleagues travelled from Indonesia.

The rest of us are scattered here in the Philippines. 

I wonder if I can include our photos in my post, but I will take the courage and include some. 😛

Day 1: November 11, 2024

Colleagues from Mindanao and Southern Luzon met up with our boss and Indonesian colleague in Manila and rented a car through Hertz to travel to Baguio.

They picked me up at the end of TPLEX which is in Rosario, La Union, while the other two (2) are already waiting for us in Baguio.

I was thinking I could buy some takeouts for them while I wait in Shakey's Rosario, but what happened was the opposite.

They actually waited for me for about 15 minutes or so because they arrived an hour earlier than expected!

I understood why when I finally rode the van.

Man, just look at the screenshot I took when we were on the curve around Tuba, Benguet.

He is still driving at a speed of 61 km/h! Uphill and on a curve?!

Imagine how much work the brakes had to put. 😅

With that speed, we arrived hours earlier than our check-in at The Forest Lodge at Camp John Hay.

We already messaged the hosts of the rooms ahead of time, so we were able to go into our rooms at 12:30PM even though the check-in time was at 2PM.

We had our late lunch at The Twist, still inside the Forest Lodge, where the Sinigang na Salmon became a hit.

After we had our fill, we had some photo ops, of course, then we headed to our boss' suite room where our indoor team activities and work time will be for our entire retreat.

We didn't get to go outside on our first day due to Typhoon Nika.

So, we played some games in the room like the "I'd rather", where the first player will say what he/she likes to do/eat/etc. and then the next one will say "I'd rather" and say what he/she likes. The answers cannot be repeated.

Given that we just had our lunch, the first round was all about what we ordered! 😂

We also had a team decision making game where the airplane had crashed in an isolated and uninhabited island and is about to explode and we have few minutes to decide what are the 5 things we are going to get for survival.

We didn't know that there was a part 2 where we will be rescued by a passing airplane only to find out that we are too heavy and only 2 people can stay, and the rest had to jump. One slot is already for the pilot, and we had to decide who will be the one to stay and survive. In the end, we all decided to jump. Lol

After the team activities, we had to log in for work until midnight.

We didn't forget about the dinner, but we had to rush because it was already 10PM when we started to order via Grab/Food Panda (sorry, can't remember!)

Our first dinner was from Homu Cafe. I had Chicken Teriyaki Teishoku and Mango Peach Paradise refresher. Sorry, I divulged into eating without even thinking of taking a photo of it. 😅

After dinner, we called it a night and tucked in at our rooms to recharge for tomorrow.

I didn't really get to talk much with my roommate after we washed up because we had to wake up early the next day and perhaps because we are still warming up with each other. Haha

Day 2: November 12, 2024

Call time was at 7:30AM at the lobby.

We took the Forest Lodge shuttle (Php 200 fee) and had us dropped by the Choco Late de Batirol which is within Camp John Hay as well.

There we had our breakfast and chats.

Mingming also joined us.

It was foggy due to the typhoon, but we walked around anyway.

We checked out the Historical Core.

Passed by the Totem Pole.

Went inside the Bell House and walked around it.

This was a real fireplace.🔥

Had our meeting-like assembly at the Bell Amphitheater where we talked about political issues while standing in the middle, until our knees gave out. 😂

Then we headed to GoKart, still within Camp John Hay. 

We intended to do the Eco trail, but due to the typhoon, we didn't take the risk of slipping through the trail, so Go Kart it is!

It was already 12NN when we started the GoKart, and we rented it out for 30 minutes.

Whose idea was it to do the race at the beginning??? Who???

My gawd, my knees were already shaking because of that, and we were not yet half-way through the 30 minutes rent. 😅

I decided to just chill and ride it slow around the corners of the GoKart area, taking videos of the surroundings, until boss had the idea of turning it into a bumping car and bumped each of us along the way. 😂

I had the courage to dodge the second attack and pedaled away as fast as I could.

But I realized it is futile because the more you resist, the more you get to be the target.

And I realized that after I already burned some calories and felt my knees giving out. 😆

I don't know if we used up the whole 30 minutes, but I remember us voluntarily surrendering our bikes even without the helper around because we were already tired. Haha

Then we still had to walk up to Camp John Hay's entrance to grab some lunch.

It was already 2PM when our orders were served at SumoSam.

Mine was Tantanmen, which I forgot to ask to make it mild spicy. So, I turned into a fire-breathing dragon. But of course, I didn't make it obvious to the team. Ha!

You, brave, little you! 🫵

After lunch, we bought some things at 7-Eleven and took a cab back to the Forest Lodge for our afternoon activity.

It was my first time playing the "Werewolf" game and not to brag, but I didn't know I was so good at it! 🤣

All the time that I was the werewolf, I didn't get caught and emerged victorious. 🐺

Good thing they stopped at the right time because I had a feeling, they will kill me in an instant no matter if I'm the villager or the werewolf, had we had our next round. Lol!

After the fun game, yes, it's always fun when you're winning, we had a self-introduction activity where each of us will introduce ourselves in front and the others will give constructive feedback on how the speaker presents him/herself for improvement.

Given that I was the last one to speak, I took notes of all their feedback to the previous speakers and applied it to mine when it was my turn. 

I used the greetings, hand gestures, stance, and ending line that worked for them. Basically, the summary of everything good they did. Lol

I didn't expect it to be funny, but we all laughed.

Well, we were laughing all throughout the activities. So yeah 😂

When it was time to log in to work, reality kicked in for some of us, including me.

TMI, but we haven't got to do No. 2 since yesterday, yet! Three of us.

So, we ordered some digestive-boosting drinks from Macao Imperial Tea, hoping it would work.

I think it was during this time as well when we got a call from the hotel reception because someone complained about us being too noisy (and as I said in our team newsletter, this deserves a plaque!). 😅

Time passed by and it was already dinner time.

We ordered from Seollem Cafe past 10PM.

I chose a lighter meal, Bulgogi Kimbap, because you know, my situation.

I thought it was light, but boy oh boy, the kimbap was SOOO big I had 3 slices of leftover even though my colleagues also ate some of it.

After we had our dinner, we called it a day and headed off to our rooms.

This time, me and my roommate had our girl talk until past 4AM. Yes, girl! 😄

And finally, after our girl talk, I got to do No. 2. 👏

Day 3: November 13, 2024

By the time I finished my business, I only had 1 hour left to sleep before my alarm rings.

I didn't really fell asleep, but I just closed my eyes and waited until it is time for my bath at 6:30AM.

Our call time was at 7:30AM, but the tour guide arrived at 8AM.

We headed off to Atok, Benguet for our tour. 🤩

We ordered our breakfast at a Jollibee drive thru.

I was intending to just eat a Yumburger for my meal, but they convinced me to eat rice for a heavier breakfast because we will be eating our lunch a little late later, so I changed my order to Jollibee burger steak.

We three (one is my roommate) at the backmost seat of the van were halfway through our meals when the road became an uphill zigzag, and we couldn't really properly eat anymore.

So, we just stuffed our meals below the seats and focused on the road.

Me and my roommate were getting nauseous and was rolling our Efficascent roll-ons on our temples regularly. 😆

I was nearly losing it when we had our stop at Half Tunnel for picture-taking.

That was a good call because I was able to recover from the dizziness for a little bit when we got out of the van.

Oh diba, hindi halatang hilo? Haha

Then we stopped by Mt. Olis which didn't really take a long walk to reach the summit, and the path was already cemented.

I loved the dandelions! But I didn't give them any justice, especially my video. I'm sorry!

Our third and the longest stop of the day was the Northern Blossom Flower Farm at 11:30AM.

It wasn't as blooming as the early months of the year given that Northern Luzon was already hit by multiple typhoons in just one month, Typhoon Nika just a few days ago and another two was coming, but at least the 2 hectares flower farm still had some flowers to see, and the staffs and the tour guide are very welcoming.

Did you know that the tour guides at Northern Blossom were also trained on how to take good photos and videos?

Just don't mind the flabs & fats.

I'm still waiting for our company retreat reels to share as of this writing though. 

We finished the tour at Northern Blossom around 1:45PM and we arrived at Our Northern Coffee House, still in Atok, for our lunch around 2:35PM.

This time they ordered Sinigang na Hipon along with other viands.

We got to try on their native costumes for free while waiting for our orders to be served, btw.

It almost took an hour for our food to be served, and we were able to have our fill at around 3:20PM.

There were lots of leftovers, so we brought it back to the room where we had to log in for work again.

We had Indomie and the leftovers for dinner and called it a night because we still have one last tour left for tomorrow.

Day 4: November 14, 2024

Oh my, this was the first time I had a good night sleep in our entire Baguio retreat I was even dreaming! 😆

Our call time was at 8AM, but our new tour guide wasn't informed of this and was set to arrive at 9AM, so we had our breakfast first at The Twist while waiting for them.

Everyone ordered the Corned Beef breakfast for faster serving time.

Our first stop for the tour was the Diplomat Hotel.

It was said to be haunted but fortunately, we didn't feel any extraordinary while walking around the area.

Next was the Lourdes Grotto where me and my other Catholic colleague lit up some candles.

Some people challenge themselves to climb up to the Grotto, but we weren't feeling competitive, so we took the ramp beside it. Lol

Then a few walks to the back was the Mirador Heritage and Eco Park.

We took our photos at the iconic Torii.

And toured through the Jesus' Apostles Dap-ayan.

Holy Family Bell of Healing and Health.

Prayer of Faith Kubos.

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and Peace Memorial.

We then headed to the Easter Weaving and watched how the women weave.

We had a short stop at the Pilak Silvercraft where I bought this silver earring for Php 205.

Then we had our lunch at Grumpy Joe past 1PM.

Our orders were served at 2PM and after we finished eating, we went to the Good Shepherd to buy some food pasalubong.

I bought the Snowballs and Ube Jam.

It rained harder when we were in Mines View Park, and I got soaked.

We sneakily bought a poncho as a gift to our boss, and we headed back to the Forest Lodge.

The Mansion was in our itinerary, but it was already past the closing time when we arrived, it also needed an advance registration, and it was raining. So, no one dared to get off the van to take a photo in front.

I had to wash off first when we got back to our hotel and went to our boss' suite to work after.

We intended to have our dinner at the Choco Late de Batirol but when the first batch of the team arrived there, it was already closed even before the said 8:30PM closing time.

So, we instead dined at The Twist for our last dinner.

This time, they ordered Sinigang na Bangus which topped off all the Sinigang versions our non-Filipino boss and colleague had.

We had our tearful closing remarks while we were having our Banana Split, Creme Brulee and Chocolate ice cream desserts.

We should have given our gift when we were at The Twist doing our statements, but we didn't bring it, so we took the opportunity instead to give the gift to boss when we got back to the suite.

And, back to work until midnight. Lol!

Day 5: November 15, 2024

The van will pick us up at 3AM so we didn't really have the time to sleep.

We fixed our luggage at past 1AM instead, and since I already took a shower when we got back from the tour, I just took the time to nap.

2:30AM, our driver has already arrived. Still fast as before, I see. Haha

I requested to be dropped off at TPLEX Binalonan beforehand.

As we entered TPLEX Rosario, I was already monitoring through my Waze app our whereabouts so I can shout if I feel like he will miss the Binalonan exit, because we were running at a speed of 90-100km/h.

Fortunately, he moved to the outer lane when we were nearing the Binalonan exit, so I felt calmer.

My husband was already waiting at Shakeys Binalonan where they dropped me off, and that gave them the opportunity to have a CR break at the fuel station beside the restaurant. 

Take note, air-conditioned comfort room. Hehe (Not sure though if it was on during that time).

I arrived home at around 5AM and slept through the whole morning. 😆

We had to work on our News Headline section of our Company Retreat Newsletter assignment afterwards, and the finished product was shared with us during the weekend. 😎

And that sums up our Baguio company retreat experience.

All in all, I feel that our retreat has improved since last year with the addition of the tours and tour guides. 

That gave us a lot of knowledge about the places we went to, and leisure to not think and worry of anything because the itinerary was already planned by the tour guides.

Good thing, boss booked them ahead of time via Klook. 😃

And also, the car rental from Manila-Baguio-Manila made the transfers smoother and faster, they were already at the airport at 7:20AM!

The activities and games were also straightforward yet very enjoyable, and thankfully, the work wasn't as stressful as last year.

We were also more vocal this time about mealtimes, so we didn't get that hungry. 😋

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