I woke up at about 8 AM, although I had been planning to wake up to the sound of the chickens. I am not very good at getting up early in the morning, even with the “loud alarm”. After getting up, I went downstairs to take a shower. Nanay was not downstairs. I chugged some water and started writing in my personal journal and updating this blog. It was much colder than usual. The temperature was below 20°C. Unfortunately, I had run out of instant coffee, so I just drank hot water and pretended it was hot coffee. In the morning, whether it is hot or cold outside, I prefer drinking something warm.
While I was updating the blog at the kitchen table, Nanay came back from somewhere. I found out that she does dancing exercises every morning. She goes to bed at 8 PM and wakes up at 4:30 AM every day. I had thought she used the chickens as a natural alarm clock, but that was not the case.
That morning, it was easy and quick to finish writing the blog entry because I had not done much the day before. After that, while I was editing videos, Nanay offered me a late breakfast. It consisted of bread, local peanut butter, and Milo. As she showed me, I spread a generous amount of peanut butter on one slice of bread and sandwiched it with another. I had three sandwiches, which satisfied me a lot. Nanay told me, “Eat as much as you like.” She has quite a strong accent.
After finishing breakfast, I went back to the couch and took a nap because I had eaten so much. I woke up to the smell of something delicious and the sound of Nanay calling from the kitchen, “Fumiya, let’s eat lunch!” I got up and replied, “Yeah!”
She had cooked rice and chicken soup for me. It was a very simple meal, but at that moment, anything helped and was greatly appreciated since I only had $8 in cash. These meals were not included with my stay, but for some reason, she kept sharing her meals with me, which I truly appreciated throughout my entire stay.
The soup contained a piece of chicken on the bone, shredded bamboo shoots, and sayote, a common vegetable in the Philippines. The soup had a very mild flavor with just a little salt and black pepper, or at least that was my guess. Nanay told me that all the ingredients had been grown in her garden, including the chickens. She grew the vegetables herself and raised the chickens outside.
The chicken was probably the toughest meat I have ever had to chew, but it still tasted good. The sayote reminded me of radish in both taste and texture. Like Nanay, I ate the soup together with rice.
While we were eating, she offered me a green chili pepper, which had also been grown in the garden. The moment I bit into it, the spiciness hit me so hard that my throat hurt for the next ten minutes. I quickly put it aside and continued eating the soup and rice without it. It was funny to watch Nanay happily eat the chili peppers while making painful facial expressions. She said, “It’s very spicy, but I like it.” According to her, Filipinos generally do not like spicy food.
I was completely satisfied, not only because of the meals but also because of her kindness.
It was about 1:30 PM when we finished lunch. The bus back to Manila was scheduled to leave at 3 PM, so I packed everything and left at around 2 PM. As I was leaving, Nanay did not seem particularly emotional. She simply said, “I hope you have a good trip,” in her usual calm tone. She does not really show her emotions. I had hoped she would feel at least a little sad to see me leave, but it did not seem that way.
However, just before I left, she asked whether I had an umbrella because she was worried about the rain and the tropical storm that was expected later. I replied, “I think I’ll be fine, but thank you.” I also said, “Thank you for everything,” before leaving. She watched me for a little while as I walked toward the bus station.
In the end, Nanay was definitely the highlight of my stay in Sagada. I will visit her homestay again whenever I return to Sagada. I am sure she will not overreact to seeing me again, but I hope she will at least remember me the next time we meet.
Luckily, it was not raining as heavily as it had been earlier while I was walking to the bus station. After asking a few people for directions, I arrived at a small convenience store where snacks and drinks were sold. That was where I was supposed to wait for the bus. Although I had walked for about fifteen minutes, my backpack did not get very wet.
The bus arrived at about 2:30 PM. I asked the driver what my seat number was because it was not printed on my receipt. He simply said, “Sit wherever you like.”
I thought, Really?
I got on the bus, and there were only a few passengers. I chose a random seat and sat down. About ten minutes later, another staff member boarded the bus and began checking everyone’s assigned seats with a passenger list. Some people had sat in the wrong seats, so they were directed to the correct ones.
I told him, “I don’t have a seat number.”
He replied, “You talk to my person later.”
He did not really speak English, so I got the feeling that he simply did not want to deal with me. Later, I asked him to check the list, and I spotted my name on it. My seat number was 23. I pointed to my name, and he told me to move to that seat.
Although the bus was still mostly empty, someone was already sitting next to my assigned seat. According to the passenger list, the bus would eventually be full.
The bus departed on time. Right after that, I fell asleep.
I woke up at a bus stop where a large group of young people boarded and filled almost all of the remaining seats. At the beginning of the journey, a few passengers who had been sitting next to me in the foldable aisle seat got on and off the bus. For most of the trip, I listened to music and slept.
The first and only rest stop came after about six hours of driving, at around 9 PM. The bus had a toilet inside, by the way. We all got off the bus and had dinner at a roadside café and restaurant called Kuya Edz. They accepted cash only.
At that point, I had only 545 PHP (about $8.80) left. Looking at the menu, most dishes cost around 150 PHP, so I decided to eat there. The open-air restaurant suddenly became crowded with all of us from the bus. The staff took everyone’s orders and served the food so efficiently that we barely had to wait. I am sure they are used to handling busloads of hungry passengers all at once. Most of their customers are probably bus travelers.
I ordered a bowl of rice, a meat dish, and a fried egg, which came to 165 PHP (about $2.70). Since they were short on change, they only charged me 145 PHP. That left me with 400 PHP (about $6.50) in cash.
The food was actually pretty good, although everything was served cold.
We spent about thirty minutes at the rest stop before everyone returned to the bus. The driver made sure all the passengers were back before we departed again.
The rest of the journey was quiet because almost everyone was asleep. I woke up a few minutes before we arrived at the Cubao Bus Terminal at around 3 AM. Most of the other passengers remained asleep until the bus stopped and the lights were turned on.
