A 5 hour travel ride by land and another food tripping event only in our province of Sampaloc, Quezon. As they say the place is the stuff of legend and mystery as the unexplained elements are still present till now, but as the year goes by, the mighty mystery town of Sampaloc, Quezon is changing too. Every year and everytime I visit our province, I can see lots of changes already, the road is getting wider, rough road is now a hard cemented and smooth road, the Madilim road (also known as the ghostly place in the middle of the road mountain) is already gone, but the watery mountain side or mini falls is still there but a little bit abused during the construction, the church changed and the church officials already removed that old wall painting of Jesus and replaced by a crucified wooden statue version (totally sucks, with all bloodied wtf), they installed a gate all over the church blocking the main road going to the patio, installed a bust statue of Enverga infront of the gate of Enverga Academy and many more. (read more below!)
Oh that's only my observation, and I do hope that there maybe some explanation of the change of structures in our town, but I'm blogging not only about the town, but also our yearly family Paskuhan. Every year the Oblea family clan has this annual tradition of celebrating the holiday season with all the family after 2 or 3 days of Christmas, This was organized by a one family group and later on pass on to another family group for the coming year. Every year, me and my sis is always present and we tried our best to attend and never miss a single party even that we have work on the following day. The 5 hour travel is fun and I always stuff myself and eating inside the bus, buying those goodies and later on sleep in the entire land travel by bus from Manila to Sta. Cruz, Laguna.
to enumerate our travel by land, here's how we did.
1. ride a bus in Cubao terminal going to Sta. Cruz, Laguna
2. drop off to a jeepney terminal somewhere in Sta. Cruz, Laguna and hop on to a jeep going to Lucban, Quezon.
3. I think it is a 1 1/2 jeepney ride going to Lucban, a ziggy zaggy road is on the way after Pagsanjan, Laguna up to Lusiana.
4. after arriving in Lucban, we went to the terminal and rode a big jeep going to Sampaloc, Quezon. I think it is around 1 hour going there.
5. I think if you add all our time travel, it will be around 4-5 hours.
I'm really glad that there's signal already to 2 mobile networks. Smart and Globe is present, but I heard that Smart went wonky and weak after the Ondoy typhoon and now Globe dominates the signal. But everytime I got there, I still use my Smart cell, because sometimes it is still strong and okay to use in mobile internet via phone, but if you will use a internet stick, most people in there advices to use Globe Tattoo, although I haven't tried it yet and maybe I'l use one on my next visit, because I didn't brought my laptop with me.
The Paskuhan is the fun event of the year for us with the entire family, even that not all are present and everyone is in the USA or other countries, we still gather together to continue and celebrate this annual tradition that is already present during the old times. They cooked my favorite food like the Kalderetang Kalabaw, Pastel and a beef or pork mechado like food. Booze never dies in there, as Sampalukins are notorious in heavy drinking of alcohol hehehehe. But this time the booze or lambanog is now replaced with modern drinks like the The Bar Gin and Fundador. The reason??? -- is that the lambanog never works for them already to get drunks, so to get drunk so fast, they need to drink a much stronger booze hahaaha. Yeah! I even avoid drinking and just stuck to drink my Coke or Ice tea.
The celebration is a non stop of videoke, sura or throwing out of coins and money for all, parlor games and that wowowee game hep hep hooray. I went around the province with my sis to visit the church and then after a few hours at around 4:00 PM we decided to go home and leave the town. Such a short visit, but we need to go back to Manila to prepare to work on a Monday. really sucks.. I want to stay longer and want to take some landscape pics.. hmm Maybe I'll visit again in March or April for the town fiesta.
here are photos from our short adventure.
kids...kids..kids... kids everywhere! that's a normal sign when Christmas season is here, its ninong and ninang hunting day!
will you survive if you drink a Gin and then drink a rhum as your chaser?
banana eating contest (orgy) hahahah. I won't join here with my wife if ever they want me, but if the prize is 50k, sasali na ko
|Dustin Deasis and Macky boy Derecho scored some toys from me at the tiangge nearby. I bought them lots of toy cars and trains for Xmas heheheh. lucky kids!
me having a photo op during the sura event. I remember during my youngling days, I used to lie down on the floor and cover all those coins for me.
Samatha Derecho portrait photo
girl enjoys playing her bubble maker
mamang sorbetero ng ice cream is now high tech in a motorcycle, this is helpful for him to travel up hill.
no way here
San Isidro Church ( tama ba ko?)
Enverga statue
inside the church
the statue that replaces that awesome painting... arghhhh. look at that paint job..ang panget ng gawa kay Jesus parang may bulutong
Smart and Globe cell site happy together
mano po ninong... pahinga ng pamasko.
