So we went back :D
Lola held the Pamisa (prayers for our relatives who passed away and a feast to celebrate their lives) during the last weekend of April.
We got there around 9am. When we got to the house, everyone was already up cooking and slicing away at two giant pigs they had killed early early in the morning. It was a good thing, we missed out on that.
I was too exhausted from the bus ride, so I showered and slept until noon. I woke up to noises of people talking outside. "People" is an understatement..it was more like "crowd." There was at least 100 or so people outside waiting for the food. It was insane, the whole front drive way was filled to capacity with people, relatives, neighbors, random people who just wanted free lunch.
Then my lola held a mini prayer session inside the house. She lit around 15 or so long candles, which represented someone who had passed away. Afterwards, everyone joined in and prayed the rosary. When everyone was done, people started "analyzing" the candles to see which ones melted and which ones didn't. According to local beliefs, the candle that melted the most meant one of our relatives is sad and the ones that didn't melt were happy. :)
The next day we took a trip to Pagudpud. We intended to take max 30 people, but instead 50 showed up. I was soo frustrated and annoyed at all the random free loaders that got on the bus. I was tempted to kick them off (I would have done so) except my mom thought doing so would make us look bad. So we had to bear with the massive amount of uninvited people to free load off our bus and the food we prepared.
We stayed at Pagudpud till noon then we went sight seeing in the Marcos Museum. It was essentially, their family's version of the hall of fame. In front of the museum there was a huge "Gun Free Zone" sign, which I thought was sorely ironic considering Marcos was a former president who favored hard power and used extra-judicial killings to get his way.
The way his tomb was laid out was unnerving. The adjacent hallway gave his history, random quotes that was suppose to instill national pride in people, and, of course, pictures of his wife. The building behind was a huge room filled with family pictures of his children (all running for politics..not surprising) and his grand-children.
Marcos was definitley a smart, charismatic, and eloquent leader..then again so were most of the dictators in history. The entire museum was not impressive. In fact it had that old-aged and erie feel to it that negated any possibility of reverence or awe on my end. Then again, the Marcos family is sort of like that..still struggling for power but not getting up to par with where they use to be.
The vacation went really well and we took the bus back to Manila at night, which was way better because we could sleep and escape the afternoon heat.
There was also another beach, Cabangtalan, nearby that was cheap, not crowded. and child-friendly (because the beach at Pagudpud had huge waves and was really deep). We just made lunch and took it out to the beach to enjoy. The sun was out and the water was nice and cold. Freaking Amazing.
We stopped at a mini store that soled "Royal Bibinka," a dessert that screamed ooey gooey Jello-ey butter. The best part about these deserts is-THEY WERE FRESH OUT OF THE OVEN. I bought a box of 24, and, I kid not, I ate 3/4 of the box in one sitting and in one hour. The only thing stopping my momentum was its freshness. It was piping hot.
(courtesy of http://www.foodtrippings.com/desserts/ilocoss-royal-bibingka/)
(because by the time I realized I should have taken a picture of the food, I had eaten it all. Sorry)
The trip home was sad, because I knew my mom would be leaving soon. However, it gave me a lot of amazing memories. I am definitely looking forward to my next trip..ghetto bus style :D