Beauty in Baguio!!
It’s the morning of our second full day in Baguio City, The Philippines and Alessandra and I are walking through the city, weaving our way through the colourful Jeepneys (the local transport of choice) in search of some tasty, healthy food to eat for a late breakfast…
Previously, in the late afternoon of the day before, it just so happened we met the loveliest guy in Baguio, a local hero called Joppee.
(If you haven’t already read my -Short Story: AMAZING Things Happen When We Allow S P A C E then click through to it because it’s the Prequel to Beauty in Baguio!!)
Long story Short, (sorry ;P) Joppee is an absolute Legend! He totally organised new travel plans for us in The Philippines as we decided right before we met him (coincidentally..?) that we should stay in Baguio instead of following our old plans to go to Sagada.
Now we had a few days left to enjoy whatever delights Baguio had to offer… (turns out it was pretty delightful 😉
…The city centre was filled with people jostling through the streets, cars were piling up causing some heavy traffic and the masses were flooding the shopping malls. There was an eagerness and anticipation in the air – it was just a few days until Christmas. In The Philippines about 90% of the people are Catholic. So this time of year, the celebration of Jesus’s Birthday, was a big deal to them. Although it seemed the comsumerism was distracting from the purpose of it, as it does with other countries that celebrate Christmas, but the extravagant decorations were nonetheless impressive!
From the very beginning of our trip, in Manila, we noticed thousands upon thousands of Christmas lights and festive decorations hung up around the city. We came across this magnificent light and music display in the Stock Exchange Plaza:
They also have another religion which I saw a great deal of supporters for on every corner.
Jollibee!!
A fast food chain, The Filipino equivalent of McDonalds and KFC having a baby. Skipping past maybe 5 Jollibee restaurants within a few minutes walk, (this is not an exaggeration!) we managed to find what we were looking for:
In fact, we got more than we bargained for.
Who knew the Filipinos secret HANG OVER CURE key ingredient is…
CATS
😛
As tempting as that sounded, we weren’t hung over (we were feline fine ;)) so we settled for something less catastrophic, like a simple salad and sandwich…
purrfect.
After lunch we made our way just outside of the city to Camp John Hay where we could escape the hustle and bustle for a while and enjoy a walk in nature. Around here was also the place Joppee said to meet him for a second date.
The walk took us through trees and bushes, past a small wooden Filipino hut and around in what I expected to be a circuit.
It seemed to me however to be cut short as it came to rather a strange ending, leaving us on a road behind a closed gate. We couldn’t figure out if we were supposed to have gone a different way, but we didn’t see another path to take.
We carried on and went through the gate leading us a bit further down the road and into a small garden area. Here we saw some statues, a fountain and at the end we came across a group of Filipino women sat together in a circle, eating some lunch.
As we approached them they welcomed us to join them and they offered us some of their food (chicken and rice). We accepted this kind invitation and sat down with them and began to say a bit about what we were doing.
One of the ladies sitting next to me started to explain why they were here. She told us they were all volunteers working for a children’s charity in this district and they were here rehearsing a dance that they would be performing in an end of year work Christmas party!!
We sat and chatted, took a photo together:
…then we watched as a few of them danced around to the beat of a clanging steel drum. They were so happy, enjoying their time together with food music and dancing, and this energy from them raised our spirits. Maybe that was how we came to be there, attracted by the high vibrations.
Dance Practice for their Christmas Party
Once the beat of the drummer had finished and their practice drew to a close, laughing and joking, they were preparing to go when the women invited us to come with them. And of course, we happily tagged along, being embraced as new members of their group.
Singing and dancing down the back streets with our new friends, we were lead to a big outdoor basketball court and this was where the celebrations were about to go DOWN!!
The court was alive with more and more people (95% of them women) filing in, excitedly chattering and welcoming each other; some wearing festive Christmas hats and as one woman told me, wearing clothes of the same colour in relation to which district they worked in. This colour coordination also made their coming dances look more captivating.
Chairs were set out facing inwards towards the middle of the court leaving a space in the middle, which I guessed would soon be the dance floor.
The lovely lady who was sat next to me (who reminded me a lot of my Auntie Jenny) was treating me as her much younger boyfriend and her friends were even giving banter. Jenny pointed out to me some people who were now entering the venue and telling me who they were. As they came over to greet people, both Alessandra and I were introduced to them with a shake of hands, saying where we’re from, what we’re doing, brief introduction.
It turns out the guys we were meeting were the main high up officials in the city council; including The Mayor of Baguio himself! (Mauricio Domogan)
When the ladies saw Mauricio they showed an awe and admiration for him and I thought I must have met a legend of The Philippines. Now I have read more about him from the internet, I can see I was right in thinking that.
What an honour it was to be part of this gathering of people!
Once everyone had arrived and began settling down and taking their seats, the ceremony could commence.
The speakers talked partly in English and, as I was told by Jenny, 2 different languages from The Philippines:
Ilocano, the local language in Baguio, and Tagalog, more of a widely spoken language used by roughly a quarter of the population in The Philippines.
We stood together to sing The National Anthem and another song I didn’t recognize but sounded like a hymn:
After speeches by the officials, most of which I couldn’t understand but guessed it was basically to say well done for their efforts this year, it was time for the district dances:
I was very impressed with the effort put into the dance routines, especially our group of ladies who totally nailed it! (I don’t have that video at the moment but hopefully soon.)
In the break between dances I nipped off to the toilet just outside of the court and noticed some children playing on the steps. When they spotted me they shyly withdrew giggling, but as I stayed with them and introduced myself they quickly grew more confident and we started to play. They were so cute! I chased them up and down the steps, pretended to be a monster, pulled funny faces and lifted them up in the air spinning them around.
It was SUCH FUN! And I felt such an exhilaration and freedom to play like a child again. I couldn’t remember the last time I did that. I went back over to tell Alessandra what I was doing and I said she should come and join the fun, so we both went back over to the steps where the children were eagerly waiting for us. By this time, more children had been attracted to the playfulness going on so there was a group of around 15 Filipino local children, all of them thrilled with this spontaneous playtime action:
When we had exhausted ourselves running around playing hide and seek and giving piggie back rides, we managed to tear ourselves away from them and went back to our group.
The dances had finished now and things seemed to be wrapping up so we decided to leave. Thanking our ladies for their generous hospitality and wishing them a Merry Christmas we picked up our bags to go and Jenny (my new auntie) gave us each a Christmas present!!
On our way out of the court the children found us and we were chased down the backstreets. A couple of them sneakily following us a long way out, hiding behind bins and peeping out looking to see if we’d noticed them. Alessandra and I were just laughing, feeling full of joy with big grins plastered on our faces.
We stopped just before reaching the main road and hugged each other, grateful that we could share this special experience.
This was not your average backpackers trip of The Philippines that was for sure. And though we hadn’t experienced Sagada and Banaue, I am so very happy to have had these more intimate experiences and am able to tell you this story J
The following quote so aptly portrays the message of my story:
“…Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
By Robert Frost
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken
