The Pahiyas Festival

It was the first time for both Jon and I to attend the Pahiyas Festival at Lucban, Quezon. I have long been wanting to experience Philippine festivals such as this one and fortunately, my friends at work came up with this idea for our summer escapade. =)

Got up at around 3am this morning and excitedly prepared for the day's adventure. At 4am, we were ready. There were hardly any trikes in the village at that ungodly hour but luckily, my BIL was still up. He gave us a ride and dropped us off where we could get a taxi. The meeting place was at Shell Select EDSA-Buendia and we got there in no time at all. We had breakfast, bought some gum and chips, and waited for the others (there were more than 20 of us) and the arranged vans to arrive.

At 5am, we were off. The trip to Lucban was pretty much uneventful (well, 'cept for the beautiful sunrise at SLEX which we were all trying to have good shots of, amid the traffic).

We arrived at Lucban at around 8:30 a.m. We had a trike ride to get to the town proper coz the vans we rented were already asked to park elsewhere. The first thing i noticed after the short ride were the famous longganisang lucban which lined up the streets! I had to buy some of those before we get home, i noted.

After a short walk, we finally saw the beatiful houses adorned with kiping. They were fantastic. Never before in my entire life have i seen a place so colorful and so alive. WOW!!! The entire houses were decorated with different colored kipings, many of which were shaped like lanterns or flowers. But there were also some which were decorated by vegetables and fruits (sitaw curtains, tomato walls, etc,etc). Other materials were also aplenty; like palay, crepe papers, coconuts, banana leaves, and many many more which exhibited the creativity, ingenuity and resourcefulness of Pinoys. Truly superb!!!

The sweltering heat would never in a million years stop us from going house to house. Of course, we took thousands of pictures!!! We were even allowed to go inside some houses and took turns taking some shots. Ang saya! After an hour or so of non-stop posing, we paused for some snacks and had our first taste of the famous pancit habhab! Dee-lish! What made it even more so was the sukang maanghang and the way it is eaten - doggie style!!! Yeah!

While eating, the procession passed by us. Even the image of San Isidro Labrador was adorned by kipings. We followed the procession, but we made a detour and took the short cut going to the old stone church of Lucban. After some quick prayers and 3 wishes (i do that everytime i visit a new church =) ), we joined the others and went to some relatives of Bon's to answer nature's call. Bon's tito and tita were very accommodating, they even offered us juice, suman ng lucban, and yema. We rested for a while before going back to the gazebo in front of the church to join up with all the others. On our way there, i saw some pretty hats and decided to buy one (the one i brought was not enough to cover the sun, and well, for a more tourist-y feel...hahah!). Jon bought his own straw hat later, of course.

It's a hot, HAT day!

All 24 of us had an early lunch at an al fresco restaurant - Cafe San Luis. The heat and all the excitement must have made us all hungry again. Hahah! After lunch, Jera and Bianco informed us (thanks to the tourist map given to them) that nearby was a falls we all could visit. After making some inquiries and haggling with the trike drivers, we were off to Taytay Falls in Majayjay. I wasn't aware that the trip was going to take us an hour! The trike we were riding (with Dionne and Joven) had a lot of difficulty with the rough and winding roads and at last, more than halfway to our destination, the motor overheated and gone kaput. We were stranded in the middle of nowhere!!! (sino kaya ang may balat sa pwet... hmmm...:p)

Our other companions were passing by us one by one... We had to wait for the first tricycle to go back and take us to where the others already were.

We paid 20 bucks (entrance fee) and started the long trek going to the falls. The trail was slippery (yep, i slipped once! ouch!) and narrow, that i started to regret agreeing to this part of the trip. After about 30 minutes or so of walking, we finally saw the falls... and it was truly breathtaking!!! Yup... definitely worth the sweat!!!

At first, Jon n I were just taking in the beauty of nature (minus the thousands of people buzzing like bees, of course), just taking pictures and watching everything that's going on. I saw some of our companions making their way closer to the falls and noticed that some of them were swimming already! You see, going to the falls was not really part of our plan and not one of us brought swimming gears, or even extra undies (we were only told to bring extra shirts). But the lure of nature (and my officemate's cajoling) was strong and inescapable... I threw all my cares away and went in the water.., maong pants, blings and all! Damn, the water was so cold!!! The splashes of water i received from my officemates as a welcome treat, somehow helped my body temp adjust easily. Jon wasn't as brave, though. He stayed on top of the boulders and designated himself as the photographer for the time being. I kept on pleading for him to join me but he said he was happy and content where he is. Oh well... it was bonding time with my officemates then!

After some time, the cold was getting too much for some of us and so we got out and started wringing our clothes. Jon and i decided to go ahead of them and join the others who didn't swim. The long trek back was not as hard although I was dripping wet and my pants were getting a little uncomfy. Fortunately, the sun was at its hottest and by the time we got back to the town proper (this time, we boarded a jeepney), my clothes were a little bit dry already.

We were to have merienda at another relative of Bon's but on our way there, we came across a gown parade. And just like the decorative houses all around, the gowns and barongs were colorful and oh so beautiful. After all those feast for the eyes came the feast for our grumbling stomachs. And what a bountiful feast that was! It consisted of spaghetti, pancit, hardinera, puto, dinuguan, kaldereta, fruit salad, etc. etc! Man, we were stuffed!

After some rest and a little freshening up, it was time to buy pasalubongs! Jon n I did some exploring of our own and we were able to buy kipings, longganisang lucban, and uncooked pancit lucban.

At around 5:30 pm, it was time to go home. We passed yet another parade, this time, of the higantes (bearing some sponsors' name). I excitedly ran in the middle of the street and posed beside one. The TJ higante gladly stopped walking and posed while Jon took this shot. Heheh. =D

Another trike ride and then we hopped in to our rented van at last. We got back home at around 10pm tired but with smile on our faces. =)

Even the thought of losing my cellphone could not take away the joys of the day's exciting escapade... yes, people, i lost my phone in Lucban... :( ...but more on that on a later post.

**To view my pahiyas photoblog, click here. **