Los Baños: Spending Holy Week in Hot Water with Ghosts

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April 6th 2007

Published: August 8th 2007

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Hotsprings & Beer

Better than Papas & Beer...

Holy Moly Week
We’ve spent most of the week maxin’ and relaxin’ at Xandra’s house, enjoying soccer, trying to eat a little healthier, and getting some work done. Holy Week is upon us, and Manila is emptying out. Most people have Thursday through Monday off, and it seems like everyone in the city is leaving for their hometown in the provinces. Traffic has been insane, with buses jampacked up to late hours of the night. TV news has been interviewing people at bus stations who complain of long waits, crowded buses, and the fear that they won’t make it home for Holy Week. Most people have had to work until Wednesday, so that night the traffic was particularly bad. About 85%!o(MISSING)f the Philippines is Catholic, so Holy Week is a big deal. You’d think that most Filipinos would spend Good Friday being, well, good. Most have given up meat for lent (substituting seafood most of the time) for a whole month. But if you ask my mom, born and raised a Catholic, converted to Methodism, and is now a pranic healer with Buddhist tendencies… Good Friday is for having fun. And I think most of the Catholics in the country

On the Road Again

We're in a van again, heading to Los Baños (The Baths) for some hotsprings action.

feel the same way. My mom’s side of the family is mostly Methodist, but with all the pranic healers and the “What Buddha Taught” book in the bathroom, there is a definitely a Zen thing going on. But the family also has Catholics and Methodists (and the atheist in L.A.). Xandra and Oliver went to Catholic mass yesterday evening, so now that it is Good Friday, we are ready to leave for Los Baños, a place known for hot springs just an hour south of Manila. Leroy and I had hoped to visit Corregidor for a day and visit the historic battle site, but because of Holy Week, we can’t go. He had also hoped to get more pages for his passport, but because of Holy Week, the Embassy won’t be able to return it in time for our flight. So, we’ve decided to do what everyone else is doing - leave Manila for some R&R. Pansol (where Los Baños is) is close enough for day trip, but we’ll stay overnight to take full advantage of the therapeutic hot springs.

Prior to leaving, Xandra and I spent some time looking at guidebooks and web sites in order to choose

Las Hermanas

The sisters take a self-portrait.

a resort. Splash Mountain is fairly new, and my uncle said it was popular. Unfortunately, they only had one room left. I’d love to go to Hidden Valley Springs Resort because it has hot springs in its natural form (most others divert the water into a generic looking pool). This is also where some of Apocalypse Now was filmed, and apparently Martin Scorsese fell in love with the place. That must be why the prices are sky high. We end up choosing Monte Vista Hotsprings Resort, which boasts 16 pools. It’s also one of the only ones with a web site. Our other option is to just drive to Pansol and look for people holding out “Private Pool” signs and rent a house with a pool. There’s no guarantee it will be hot springs water, however.

Maybe We Shouldn’t Stay in Los Baños
At 8am, the hired van arrives at Xandra’s house with Tito Raffy and Sam inside. Uh oh, Xandra is still in the shower! It can’t be helped - although there are three bathrooms in her house, only one of them has the water heater attached to the shower, and even though it’s over 90 degrees on

Tito Raffy at the Helm

Tito Raffy sits in the front where he is master of the domain, and he can roll down the window and ask people for directions!

most days, we can’t seem to stomach a cold shower. It doesn’t take long for us to pile into the van, even though my mom the packrat has managed to bring the same two overstuffed bags she brought for four days in Boracay for this overnight stay in Los Baños. On the highway, we stop at a Petron, a gas station with a nicely stocked store and a nearby Starbucks. At the station, we stock up on milk, water, and snacks. It’s a free for all - the family is acting as if we’re going on a 12-hour road trip. Oh well, that’s Filipinos for you - we can’t go more than a couple hours without eating something! In the meantime, Leroy goes to Starbucks to caffeine up. Meanwhile, Xandra is about to blow her top because an aggressive middle-aged Korean man in a straw hat has just pushed her. I figure we can just ignore him, but he comes back around and proceeds to push my mom and my cousin, making a way for himself where there was no space to begin with. I get in his way and tell him “You don’t push people,” but he does not

No Traffic in Manila?

Surreal.

speak English. Of all the times in the world to use the two Korean phrases I know, I forgot to use them! Hajima! Wegure! Man, I learned those on the playground in L.A., and only 20 years later do I get the chance to use them, and what do I say? “You don’t push people.” Missed opportunity! I was also ready to elbow him, but he had gone into the other line. Of course, all the women in my family proceed to stare at him and give him the evil eye. I think he’s oblivious. I just remind my family to stop emitting so much negative energy. Hee hee.

By 10am, we pull up to Monte Vista, which I can’t bring myself to call a resort. My mom goes to reception to see what they have to offer, while the rest of us stay in the air-conditioned van. Soon, we unload all our stuff into a cart and are told we can wait in an open seating area until our rooms are ready. After seeing the state of the “16 pools,” mom has already decided she wants to get a private pool, but it won’t be ready for another

De Chirico's Nostalgia of the Infinite

As desolate as Manila during Holy Week?

hour. We are content to wait, but when we sit down, we are immediately subjected to some pretty bad karaoke singing. A family has taken the mic, and one of them can sing. I won’t say anything about the rest, other than that I wanted our room soon. They then put our stuff into a temporary room so we can have lunch while our luggage is secure. To get to the room, we walk by the pools, many of which are kid-sized. There are tons of people here, some of them swimming in t-shirts and shorts. Kids are running around, and families are grilling up meat and fish. Everyone is having a great time, but none of this is very relaxing. It’s like expecting a resort and ending up at Raging Waters… without the chlorine. We figure the private pools will be calmer, so we hit Max’s (a famous fried chicken franchise) and have a great meal - kare kare (my favorite dish, an oxtail stew with peanut sauce), crispy pata (crispy pork), asparagus with mushrooms, lumpia (Filipino eggroll), noodles, spring chicken, garlic rice, and lots of fresh juices. While at lunch, mom and Tita Reena leave to check out

Manila Scene

The Jeepney, the iconic symbol of Manila transport, with a bit of skyline in the background (I missed the rest of the skyline).

the rooms they have available, because the one they had reserved for us won’t be available until 6pm because the family staying there decided to stay longer. They don’t come back for a while, and when they do, Tita Reena says, “I will die if we stay there.” Enough said. My mom is ready to call it quits, but the concierge pulls in a good effort and suggests some cottages in Makiling Highlands, also part of their property. There, we will have four rooms with two single beds each and a pool to ourselves. Sounds pretty good. They take us over in two trips with their SUV, and when we arrive, we all breathe a sigh of relief. No yelling. No splashing. A view of Mt. Makiling foothills. Nice. The only caveat is that only two of the rooms are available now because the family occupying the other two isn’t going to leave until, you guessed it, 6pm. No worries. The pool is huge for just eight people! At the entrance, there is a painting of a woman in a white dress - Maria Makiling. There are many legends about her. The Wikipedia version is:

She is said to

Las Nonnas

Nonna means grandmother in Italian, and it's what we called my grandmother. This is Terran with his Anma and Mamu (nickname for my mom).

inhabit Mount Makiling in Laguna province and protects the mountain from those who would harm or defile it. She allows people to come and go as long as they don't harm the plants or animals and she forbids them to take anything from the mountain. Any who do are sure to invoke her wrath.

It would seem she is quite the environmentalist. Those who do not treat her mountain well are said to become forever lost on the mountain. There is also a story about three men who loved her, and the one man she truly loved (an industrious farmer named Juan). In the end, the two scorned lovers conspire to have the other one accused and killed. She then turns her back on the townspeople who facilitated his murder and curses men who cannot accept failure in love. Don’t mess with Maria!

We’re Definitely Staying in Los Baños
The faint echo of bad karaoke can still be heard, this time not from Monte Vista, but from the common recreation area of the Makiling Highlands compound. The family sharing the pool for the day is quiet. They have two children and one toddler, but they are not in

Like Mother, Like Daughter?

Mom's getting good at the self-portrait.

the pool. When we arrive, we immediately head for the kamaligs (sheds) by the pool, to get some shade and do some reading. I am well into Salman Rushdie’s “Shalimar the Clown,” the book I bought in São Paulo airport on the way to Buenos Aires. It was difficult at first, since I’ve mostly been reading textbooks, scientific articles, or magazines. Even Isabel Allende’s book was lighter reading. Hence stopping the book and reading Ishmael Beah’s book instead. But I’ve finally gotten into it and I can’t put it down. Rushdie books are always hard to summarize, so I won’t try save to tell you that it deals with religious harmony and discord, tainted love, revenge and murder, and national identity. I can feel my heat rash from Brasil and Chile acting up again, so I head into the room for some air conditioning. Then, we all figure it’s time to get into the pool. They are refilling the pool, so there is a gush of water coming from pipe. The pool is about 80% full, definitely enough to swim in. The water is from hot springs, but it isn’t hot because the pool is so large that the heat

Pretzel Moment

Terran is enjoying a full box of chocolate pretzels so much, he leaned back, rested his head on my shoulder, and had a moment. Yum!

dissipates quickly. Later, they will clean and fill the adjacent hot tub so we can get our natural jacuzzi (no bubbles) on at night.

I mentioned in a previous blog that Terran is not a natural fish. He worries about us when we venture far from the boat or dunk our heads underwater. Well, let’s just say that in the 24 hours we spent in Los Baños, he lost that fear. Both sides of the pool are shallower than the center, where the water still only goes up to 4’6” or so. That means that he can actually walk if he stays by the edge of the long pool near the steps. He spends pretty much the entire afternoon walking along that edge or asking us to take him to the rest of the pool. Ninang Meme! Tito Leroy! Lolo Raffy! Tita Sam! Mama! Papa! Anma! And then repeat. He just switches from one person to another, playing water games and laughing. We are all having a blast. We’ve ordered some ihaw-ihaw (bbq) from a local woman so we can have dinner on the picnic benches across from the kamaligs. A few of us are drinking beers in the

Valuable Luggage

Terran may be the only one enjoying our time at Monte Vista.

pool (the one thing we couldn’t do in the SeaWind pool in Boracay). My mom doesn’t swim, she just floats on her back. Leroy proceeds to tell her he can’t float, and she of course doesn’t believe him until he demonstrates his uncanny ability to sink. The water is room temperature, comfortable enough to stay in as the sun goes down. But they are starting to fill the hot tub with very hot hotsprings water. They try to put Terran’s feet in (I don’t think kids are supposed to hot tub, so I opposed the idea), but he screams and cries and I yank him away and take him back to the happy pool. I’m not into hot tubs all that much either - it’s too hot! After sunset, the food has arrived, and I can’t wait to start eating. There’s nothing like an afternoon in the pool to work up an appetite. The menu is grilled pork on a stick, stuffed and grilled whole calamari on a stick, grilled chicken, salted egg and tomato, whole grilled fish (you guessed it) on a stick, and lots of rice. This is the good stuff, remember? Just like the picnic in Boracay.

Grill it up!

Everyone at Monte Vista has brought their own food and the grills are in full use with whole fish and eggplants on this menu.

Mix it up with Tanduay rhum and coke, and we are good to go. Leroy starts dinner late because he is playing Risk and teaching Terran about it. Terran gives him advice about what to do on each turn, with the suggestion usually being to wait. He’s a natural strategist, it would seem.

Hotsprings and Ghosts
The night is spent hanging in the small pool that is now filled with hotsprings water at hot tub temperatures. I only leave for ice runs during which Sam and I walk to the “reception” building and buy ice. It’s good cousin time where we can talk, walk, and listen to crickets. Back at the hot tub, we ask for more ghost stories, now that three of the four children of my Nonna (grandmother) are present. Everyone has something to share, but this time, it’s dark and quiet out. This is the kind of place where you can scare yourself into hearing something. They tell one story about a photo where you can see two dwarves sitting on a car. All of them have seen the photo, but no one knows where this decades old photographic evidence is. At the foothills of Maria

Buko juice!

Tito Raffy hooks it up so that Tita Reena can suck the coconut milk *and* coconut meat through the straw.

Makiling territory, it’s easy to get carried away. We talk about a lot of other stuff, family mostly. We wonder where the family tree is and how we can get a copy. Before long, everyone is ready to turn in. Leroy and I go back to our room and go to sleep. I’ve drank a lot of water, but I’m scared to go to the bathroom in the dark. Yeap, those ghost stories will get to you. I dream that I have a dream where I see the spirit of my Nonna in her violet and white housedress coming to me as I say, “Please, Nonna, I am afraid. Please do not appear to me.” And she disappears. Then I dream that I wake up. Those kinds of dreams within dreams are enough to make someone hold off on peeing until morning. But at one point, I give in. After climbing back into my bed, I hear a squeaky noise, and Leroy asks me what it was. I’m convinced it’s just the toilet or something in the bathroom, but the next morning he tells me that it wasn’t. Boo!

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