VATSKI: the diplomat hotel

it was a good friday (april 10,'09) when we finally got to this part of baguio city. at my insistence of course. we rented an FX being the most common taxi cab in the area to climb to this part. it's actually on top of the hill, way farther from the Lady of Lourdes Grotto. the grotto is more than 200 steps from the base. but since we did not have the luxury of time, we opted to do the easier way: rode the cab and took the shortcut which leads to the last two flights of stairs to reach the grotto. several miles up from the grotto is the Diplomat Hotel. fast facts: the building was opened to the public in 1915 as a vacation house sanitarium by the Dominican Order priests. they then later turned it into a school the following month, but due to the small enrollment they had to close it down, reverting it to its original use. during the wwII, refugees occupied it. then the Japs took over the place with the refugees still in there, that when the Army Liberation Forces bombed out the building many refugees were actually killed. reconstruction started in 1947. and in 1973, the Diplomat Hotels, Inc. acquired the property and converted it into a 33-bedroom hotel with modern facilities. it however ceased operation in the 80's due to the death of one of its majority stockholders. and for the many years since it has been kept uncared for, rumors have it that the place has become haunted. there are reports of headless priests and ghostly figures caught in cameras. i did try catching one when i was there. that was why i prepared my cam for the visit, had to use a good amount of memory for the vid. there are some "smoky" figures in these 2 vids i got, but i'm not saying they're apparitions of some spirits or whatever. i didn't do editing, fyi, cos i don't know much about that. they were just probably some light effects. just go check for yourself. so anyway, i'm so thankful there was this one brave girl, a korean i think, who decided to check out the place too, since the 6 people i was with that time were too scared to go inside the place, that they even forbid me to go up to the second floor blah blah blah. but who cares? i was there to take it all in. it was my dream. so we did roam the place. i loved every moment of it. it was weird. i'm weird.

the cross at the roofdeck

the best part was everywhere inside it: the corners, everywhere! i think it's because the place is abandoned for too long. it has kept with it, or sort of immortalized what had happened there in the past, and the people that came to live in it. probably why visitors would say they saw ghosts or hear errie sounds. i did hear a giggling sound somewhere in the second floor, not sure though if it was from a ghost, i did not ask. it was from a woman. and there were only two of us in there, and no one was giggling. i didn't giggle. there are more errie photos of this place, i'll be posting them soon. i prioritized the vids because i just want the world to see that i was inside the diplomat already. =) so there, enjoy!

okay, i had troubles uploading the vids, so here, just a few photos instead. vids to follow, if they will. tssk!