Mt. Mayon "Sadok of Luzon" - Luzon Leg Part 5

I don't want to confuse my readers. I am back in Manila now. In fact it's been more than a week since I got home. In between though some articles had to be prioritized and my kids recently started their new school year. Though the sequence of my blog has been altered I intend to post the full version of the snippets I have kept throughout my road trip at that time and hopefully get you all back in the time line I originally wanted to set.

Salakot Photo courtesy of Ninh Nguyen's blog

Sadok - is the Sorsogon Province's term for the Filipino word Salacot. Neither “hat” in English nor "sombrero" in Spanish will ever translate to Salacot. Much would be lost in the translation if these two words were used. Salacot is never an English cap or a Spanish gorra. Salacot refers to the peculiar broad-brimmed headgear, mostly conical in shape, worn by Filipinos as they work in the fields and the sea. Lacking words for it, Salacot is already in Spanish and English dictionaries as filipinism, or words they borrowed from us ( Source Elmer I. Nocheseda - avid Salacot collector ); Sadok is also one of the most popular restaurants serving batchoy ( hot noodle soup popular in Ilo-Ilo City ) in my Hometown "Cannery" in South Cotabato, Philippines.

Sadok is what came to my mind the first time I saw Mt. Mayon suddenly bursting into view as we were headed to Legaspi from Naga. Maybe because I was headed home hence the restaurant's logo which is this headgear, popped in my head. I have no idea if the Salacot or Sadok was patterned after this perfectly shaped Volcano because you would see workers by the roadside planting rice wearing Salacot. 

 

Bettina: "Most Unforgettable!"

Ever reliable Roland

The symmetry of Mayon, rather (risking reverberation and cliché here), the perfection will surely take your breath away! The road ahead of me suddenly had numerous vehicles parked on the side of the road with passengers taking countless photos. The smiles were of genuine awe. In my daughter's words even if we weren't even half way of our journey, "Dad, this is the most unforgettable part of this trip!". I have seen this Volcano many times, even at night with flowing lava aglow but every time I can't help but feel so proud that this stands on Philippine soil. The Cagsawa Ruins will be a few kilometers before you reach the city of Legaspi. This is the perfect spot for taking pictures. There's even a river just before you reach the ruins that adds more beauty to the natural setting. The road leading to the ruins is narrow and could easily be missed despite the numerous signs before it. Best to be here early before the souvenir stores open or else you will be pulled in all directions except the view of the ruins itself. Don't bring a drunk friend or a war monger because they sell bolos, balisongs or batangas (butterfly blade popular in the Philippines), and itaks here. These are all variations of knives that are actually sold sharp! A bit of trivia on the etymology of balisong: "While the meaning of the term balisong is not entirely clear, a popular belief is that it is derived from the Tagalog words baling sungay (literally, "broken/folding horn") as they were originally made from carved carabao and stag horn. These knives are also referred to as "fan knives", "click clacks" and "butterfly knives". (Source: Ever reliable Wikipedia - the blogger's best friend).

The Cagsawa ruins is what is left of a Franciscan church destroyed in an 1814 eruption of Mt. Mayon. Yes this beauty is an active volcano and can be very destructive. Contrary to popular belief it did not bury the whole church nor is this a really tall bell tower. See an attached photo again from our reliable source Wikipedia. The facade is clearly shown with the church entrance still both very visible. 

This is a place to visit at least once in your lifetime especially if you are Filipino. Showing this to your kids early on will also instill in them appreciation for our own natural wonders and that God did not only bless the countries that National Geographic, Discovery and History Channel keep on featuring.There is something about natural wonders that stimulates the soul and refreshes the weary. Couple it with viewing the ruins and you will surely get the message that you are not gonna be here for long. So better get started with that bucket list.


Back to Sadok my favorite restaurant growing up, I also remembered my good friend Kimo the eldest son of the owners Nonoy and Lucy Pido, who was one of my childhood best friends. On the road I kept on chuckling with the thought that he would would have enjoyed FaceBook and all new social media the most. He died pre-ipad, pre-iphone and pre-facebook. But he was most active during the VHF radio days. He would drag me late at night to meet new found friends on what used to be called eyeball sessions. I was really easy to convince because his Dad's batchoy was really delicious and getting it for free doubly so! He was deft in coordinating/operating communication traffic on a fairly limiting technology of PTT (Press-To-Talk) and two-way communication. Surely he would have been an early adapter of new social media. 

I then realized that indeed in any trip, it is the journey not the destination. Driving on a long stretch of road with natural wonders around you, you also travel down memory lane further enriching the experience and the pictures can't even tell half of the story!

I Built It and They All Came: The Piñahan of Our Dreams

- Forget about the seemingly egotistical title that would be the only time it will be about this author.

It was not an original idea at all. Fresh, yes, but still more of a creative adaptation. FaceBook, rather one of its members, has sprouted a new fad for social interaction. The seemingly harmless and unobtrusive “You know you are an (insert your group here)...” group invitation that asks you to complete the sentence based on anecdotal experience. It was almost always open and non-restrictive but purely bounded by respect, self-discipline, and a lot of self-deprecation. The facts will surely out the impostor or at the very least correct a long-held, protected or otherwise created reality of a member. It was totally unwise not to join the bandwagon and I wanted to be in the front outer seat so that before it overturned it would be easy to jump! Thus “Taga-Cannery ka kung...” (You are from Cannery if...) was born. It was a perfect complement to my recently created blog about traveling to my Hometown. Purely coincidental and yes highly opportunistic.

For the uninitiated Cannery is the Dole Philippines Cannery (The Pineapple and now more other food Company) at Polomolok, South Cotabato in the island of Southern Mindanao in the Philippines. Say where? Yup even up to now with Google Maps and Google Earth it would be quite difficult to explain the geographical location of what I and apparently many more fanatically claim as our “Hometown Paradise”. Thanks to Manny Pacquiao it would be much easier to explain that it is a 20-minute hour drive from his two mansions in General Santos City.

The first post which I now believe was sheer luck on my part to have written because I actually fired off almost 20 in a row was about Badin or Baden pronounced and spelled according to your tongue’s dexterity but never ever with the American twang for “a” as in ey-pol (apple) rather “a” for Achtung (I swear many would claim Hitler was “BisDak” Bisayang Dako). Badin was our one and only beloved homeless man. Well homeless is not even the right term because he would actually live in 3 different houses of very nice and welcoming families. His movement is dependent on the amount of housework available for him to do in either of them. He was an amiable guy, harmless. He had a thousand and one personalities though depending on one’s perspective. Young kids feared him mostly due to the parents making him look like the boogie man. He was a drinking buddy for some. He wasn’t perfect, he had his flaws but our community accepted him. It was frowned upon when kids or even adults would try to harm him. I could not say it before but I know it now we all loved him! There and then talking about this guy the community grew exponentially. My mailbox was filled with requests for membership from friends, acquaintances, and a lot of people I could not remember. I added friends even with just an inkling of connection to Cannery. It was spectacular. It was sweet. I felt like Mark Zuckerberg in the early days of Facebook, really!

202 members in 24 hours and 235 unique posts. Not much you say but imagine that 80% of this people have never seen or talked to each in more than 2 decades! It was comparable to amoeba fed with sour milk. I added more Admins. My notifications went crazy. I egged it on. I knew of friends online who were there still, even from the very beginning just like me. We were crazily competing for the most memorable posts! The most number of comments! All agreeing that if we tell an outsider about how the company would use a truck to wet the dirt road going to the city with pineapple juice to get rid of the dust that they would all think we were not just crazy but has the tallest tale of all!

We would all have looked stupid laughing on our own in the wee hours of the morning. Some were online on the dot during lunch break, coffe break, dismissal time, in between rests from doing laundry and taking care of the kids. I wonder how many children were surprised they were sent to bed 2 hours earlier than usual! Members from different time zones would suddenly pop up during their day time. It was like a perpetual machine. And then I had to sleep and I had the most amazing dreams about my childhood!

And when I woke up it was already a world of its own. A Wikipedia of our wonder years. A Wikipedia of our Soul! We rebuilt the Piñahan of our Dreams on the web. And now it will forever be immortalized. Honed and refined but most importantly revisited and cherished. Three generations linked to a community of less than a hundred houses who I’m sure would have all said a prayer or two for Badin :-).

If you know Bisaya (both Illonggo and Sebuano) visit our open group Taga Cannery ka kung... If you have a picture of Badin please PM them to me.