Kiping Up with the Tagalogs

For a day, no rainbow appeared anywhere in the world. All rainbows were bottled, shipped to a small town in Quezon, mixed with ground rice, pressed against leaves then left to dry in the sun to make kiping! These kipings were then used to decorate houses, sold as food (Inihaw or fried kiping, anyone?) or fashioned into fans. It was May 15—the best day this year to be in Lukban. So I and eight officemates crammed in a van and sped off south of Manila to experience for the first time the sensational Pahiyas festival.

Here are three of the many facts I learned from my two-day escapade:
1 Hospitality is always in season.
Locals will let strangers in their house if the latter would like to have their picture taken by the second floor window.
2 The richness of Tagalog is amazing in this part of the world.
Overheard: “Aba’y wag ka diyan sa init ng araw. Lulutong ka.”; “Ikaw lang ang umiinom diyan. Mang-akit ka naman.”
3 Pinoy creativity knows no bounds.
Among the many eye candies I saw: improvised waterfalls adorning a two-storey house; ladies in parade wearing colorful banig gowns accentuated with beads and seeds; kiping flowers and butterflies making up an artificial yet attractive garden; pig being roasted by a mannequin (with the help of an automatic pole-turner attached to the skewer).

Bathing in the sun’s ultraviolet rays turned my skin two shades darker (I now have three skin tones: Original, Banaue brown, Lukban dark brown). Yet it was a small price to pay for kiping up with the Tagalogs.


Kiping me company:(Bottom L-R) Analyn, Lea, Aileen, Ferdie, Gladys, Grasya, Ivy (Not in pix, Kuya Jun)