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| Apo Whang-Od's Tattoo Shop |
Birthdays aren't made just to celebrate your age but the things you've done through the years of your existence, how you touch lives of others and how your experiences define you as a person. For once in our lives, instead of celebrating the day we begun to breathe why don't we celebrate the beginnings of our race. It's my birthmonth but I gotta tell you, this blog ain't about me but all about tribe, tradition and history.
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| She believed she could, so she did. |
SOLO TRAVELER 101
To travel by myself is one of the things I'd like to check off my bucketlist. I've decided to try this on my birthday but because March 6 happened to be Monday, I opted to have it schedule on March4-5 which is weekends. I've found an agency that combines small group or solo traveler together in one trip. They offer Buscalan Tour for only P2800 inclusive of roundtrip transpo, guide and environmental fees, room sharing accommodation and meals. Not bad, right!?
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| Grabbed some coffee while waiting. |
DAY 1: NORTH BOUND.
They picked me up in NLEX Shell stop-over at 1:50am. As what I've said, it's a joined group tour, our group have two Chi-nay sisters: Tina and Agi, Bestfriends: Leslie and Onang, tour coordinators: Cas and Chad; Joem and the driver Sir Rommel. We had our breakfast in Chowking Nueva Viscaya at 8:00am and reached Banaue at 10:00am. It's almost 12nn when we reached the Bontoc Town proper where we had our lunch. I had a set of Fried boneless bangus, fresh veggies and a huge cup of red rice for Php90, cheap price for a good food. I also bought a cup of their locally and deliciously made Strawberry yogurt smoothie for Php35.
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| It's good to be back! |
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| Lunch at Bontoc Town Proper |
We arrived in Buscalan Jump off at 3pm. We were welcomed by Christian, Habby, Joel and local kids who also served as our porters. Trekking to the village is really a difficult task because of the dangerous trail. Aside from good health condition, light body weight and endurance; you must have courage and eagerness to reach the place. Arrived at 4:30pm. There is a small souvenir shop in the boundary that sells tribal accessories such as headband, necklace, bracelets as well as ref magnets, keychains, bags, shorts etc.
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| On our way to the Village. |
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| Selfie with the tour guiodes. |
It's a small village with typical wooden bungalows; native pigs and chickens are everywhere; and life's way simpler. It's a homestay, a wooden house with balcony, kitchen and a room that can accommodate 10 persons. Kuya Simeon, the owner of the house and his wife Ate Mayyaw welcomed us with cup of Kalinga's brewed coffee which is definitely to die for! I tried to took a bath despite the cold breeze and bone-chilling water.
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| Mountain style restroom. |
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| Ah-huh! Motherhood everywhere. |
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| Kalinga coffee for the win!! |
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| Homestay! |
MEET AND GREET APO.
While some of them busy preparing food, I've decided to have a walk and asked some local kids to tour me around the village. They brought me to the tattoo shop which is just 30-50 steps away, a bahay kubo hanging with a perfect view of mountains. There's an old woman sitting on her feet in the corner, she's the legendary Apo Whang-Od who had just finished her tattoo activity for this day.
Headhunting has became one of tradition in the entire mountain province. The more people you kill by cutting their heads, the more tattoo you will get. It symbolizes being brave and strong and the man who has the most of tattoos became the leader of the tribe. The ones who do the hand-tap tattoo are mostly women and one of them is our fabulous Apo.
If I came a lil bit early, I could have my tattoo done on my first day. She's washing her tools when I saw her and I can tell that she's in a good mood. Joking around with some tourist though we barely don't understand her words but her actions shows she is one jolly person. She gave away chocolates which given by foreigners because she can't eat those due to pneumonia. I got the chance to have a photo with her and after some selfies, I was shocked when she hold my genital while saying "Laki pepe", so funny! How could you, Apo! Haha
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| The beautiful, Apo Whang-Od. |
When I got back to the house, dinner is ready! We had Tinolang Manok, grilled stuffed-Bangus and fried eggplant. Yay, eggplants!!! Finished our dinner with another cup of coffee. Good thing they offer unlimited coffee during our stay. After an hour of rest, the gang decided to have a drinking session. They've got bottle of Ginebra combined with juice, perfect for the cold breeze outside as we place ourselves in the balcony. Christian, Habby and Joel joined us. We talked about interesting facts about Butbut tribe, Apo and so on. The three tour guides cracked solid jokes, too! It was a great day and cold night, indeed. We lay in our bed with windows wide open. The village is freezing calm, dark and quiet.
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| Pre-birthday celebration. Let's drink!! |
DAY 2: TATTOO DAY.
Good morning, Sunday! Woke up at 6am, did some wash up; grabbed a coffee; and waited for the breakfast. Kuya Simeon's daughter is one of Apo Whang-Od's successor. Her name is Jesserin, a 14year-old Mambabatok. Apo is no longer young, she's having the sickness of aging people. She cannot provide the tattoo service to everyone that's why they strictly advised to have our tattoo done by the young ones and have it sealed with Apo's signature tattoo afterwards.
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| Tools for traditional tattoo. |
Since I'm the celebrant and the most eager person in our group, I'm the first in the line up. At 7am, Jess prepared her tools with the set of pomelo's thorns and melted charcoal. She started our tattoo session by drawing the symbol in my skin using charcoal. I chose "Hawk" which symbolizes "Freedom" that costs P300. She gently tapped the thorn over the pattern. It doesn't hurt that much not unless you really feared needles. The pricking process took about 20minutes. My wounded tattoo had bloodstains, I just used baby wipes to wiped it out. Believe it or not, this tattoo added confidence and made me fiercer and braver as if I was possessed by the headhunter.
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| Meet Jesserin, my tattoo artist. |
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| Mountain accessories are one of the best and most creative accessories. |
OUTREACH PROGRAM
As I returned to the house, they're preparing the donations for our outreach program. There's lots of school supplies, bags, old clothes, tumblers, I donated plenty of biscuits. We distributed school supplies in Elementary School. Local kids are so excited! They even sang us "if you're happy and you know just clap your hands...". There are two resident teachers and the other teachers are sent by DepEd to teach from Monday to Friday and go downhill every weekends. I salute their dedication to this village! We distributed the rest of donations to the women of Buscalan Village. After the program, we quickly grabbed our lunch of Sinigang which tasted more like Nilaga because of peppers, seems like chef Chad did some experimentation. Lol.
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| Buscalan Gang, my newfound friends/travelmates. |
THE LEGENDARY.
Our tour guide informed us that it's the perfect time to have Apo's signature tattoo. Since I'm the first one who had tattoo, I'm the first in the line up again. Apo is very serious at this moment compare to the jolly old woman I saw the other day. She started putting the three dots beside my "hawk" tattoo. She did the original hand-tap tattooing more painful and became bloody with each prick. There are almost 20 taps in every dots. The session took only a minute and it cost P100. After another photo opportunity with Apo, I asked our tour guide to request a birthday greeting from Apo and request granted. She greeted me "Happy Birthday, Cheche-yo!" No idea where "yo" came from. Lol.
We left the village at 4pm and reached our van after an hour. We had our dinner of delicious sizzling beef with papaitan soup in Baguio City at 9pm, bought black rice, lemon, turmeric and roselle then went straight home and reached Bocaue exit at 4am where my father fetched me. End of journey.
Mountain Province is one of my favorite places to visit, a second home to me. With its breathtaking views and freshest of air, how could you not love Cordillera? Said to be the place where life begins. Buscalan Village, a village located in Kalinga that is rich in culture and tradition. In our two-day stay here, I have seen how mountain people lives. Simple yet complete. Far from urbanized city yet very close to their family. We would think that it's very difficult and we cannot live here, actually, yes we can. If living here means tough life, then why are the people of Buscalan stays. It is simply because they are satisfied. Contented with their means of living, with their resources and their residences. Know what makes our lives more complicated? It's the new technologies which we believes very helpful for our daily work routine but NOT! We became more dependent on it, earn money for it and spend more time using it. If you look at life's simplest form, all we need is a shelter, food, water, family, love and contentment. Let's live half of our lives the way mountain people do.
She's very old but strong, she has a beautiful complete teeth and genuine smiles, her eyes are as sharp as tiger's, she is so lovely in her own unique way. Now tell me, will you judge a person with tattoo? Apo changed my perception in that kind of body marks. It's not the basis of being good or bad but could be an art that describes you as a person. Symbols and patterns are just creative crafts and to consider it as a masterpiece, one shall give a meaning and make it real. We're very thankful that we have Apo for making this beautiful way of expression be possible for everyone and for proving that she is, certainly, a living legend.
Get out of your comfort zone, meet new friends, put your soles in other's shoes because strange experiences could be like tattoo, it remains with you..forever.
Journeying Rochel and her tribal tattoo.
