New Year 2009 Road Trip - Day 4

In my effort to catch up with Hap’s ridiculously fast writing, I forgot to mention a few things about our first night in Baguio…

First: It’s all about the music, man. Jane had a 160GB WD Passport which I shamelessly tinkered with as soon as I was able to setup our “music station” (my Asus EEE and X-Minimax speakers and Jane’s Passport). She had old favorites from the 90’s which rivaled even my collection (I was able to complete my Nirvana and Pearl Jam collection, thanks to her), a few classic rock tunes (Led Zep and Rolling Stones), and – much to everyone’s surprise and amusement – timeless Disney songs (“shining, shimmering, splendid” was the first track we played from that collection) and contemporary greats from Sarah Geronimo to Ne-Yo (she continuously denies that these tracks are hers, but it doesn’t really matter now, does it?). From time to time, I also got to play tunes from my 8GB Sansa Clip whenever I felt a craving for Urbandub or Taken By Cars, or whenever I felt the urge to show off my Across the Universe soundtrack to Jane.

Second: It’s also about the food, man. We did not have much, but we did have bagnet and Happy peanuts for pulutan (Mae had Gardenia to go with her Coke), so what else could you ask for?

Okay, so pretty much everyone woke up past 12 PM the next day (that’s why I was not able to meet Nicole in the morning). Hap had several canned goods and onions left from our trip and Mae still had some leftover rice, so I cooked breakfast for everyone (corned beef with onions, tuna with onions, and fried rice with onions – who would’ve thought that we would still have one bulb of onion left over!) while everyone else cleaned up the previous night’s mess (a tip of the hat to Hap, who initiated the day’s cleaning proceedings).

After breakfast, everyone was too lazy to move; keep in mind, this was the first time Hap and I stayed in one place for more than 24 hours in the past few days. The next item in the agenda was to buy supplies like food and booze, and a few pasalubong, from the market. Even as we were driving to Bagiuo, Hap and I talked about having tinola at Mae’s; so when we broached the idea to the two ladies, they both enthusiastically agreed that we have tinola for dinner.

Our market trip turned out to be a bit sentimental for me: back in 2002 and 2003, when I frequently visited Baguio with other friends, we would always cap our trips with visits to the market. This trip reintroduced me to familiar smells and sights, to the disarming smiles of the locals and the frenetic calls of children hawking plastic shopping bags. We bought everything we needed for dinner, plus some strawberries and local sweets; Mae bought a new flat-bottom pan and casserole pot, inspired by anonymous tips from the “suggestion box”. After a few sticks of fishballs, kwek-kwek, and cigarettes, we headed home.

Back in Mae’s pad, everyone quickly became busy doing his or her thing: Hap prepared a quick broccoli appetizer and I took care of the tinola soon after; Jane and Mae prepared chocolate fondue with the strawberries. Dinner was set. Thankfully, everyone seemed to like the tinola.

Before we knew it, Mae had to go to work again. With the help of Antonov Vodka and Sprite, Hap, Jane, and I soon found ourselves in the middle of an eclectic range of conversation topics: God and religion, Einstein’s special and general theory of relativity and its shaky (at least according to me) underpinnings; Gaiman, Pratchett, Ateneo and some other topics that evidently were already discussed the night before which I had conveniently forgotten then and have completely forgotten now. When Mae came back from work at around 6 AM, the rest of us were already fast asleep.

For a not-so-sober take on this part of the trip, visit Hap's blog.

(Okay, if I try to write an account of what happened on the fifth and last day of the trip, I know I won't finish it until after our Sagada trip. I think it would be best if you just read Hap's version of what happened that day. Besides, a lot of things had already happened just ten days after this memorable road trip, things that will hopefully grow and bloom and flourish in the coming days, weeks, months, and even years, things that will definitely be topics for future entries. So until then, I wish everyone a bountiful and joyous 2009. Long days and pleasant nights ahead.)