SIDE TRIP 23: Bokod, Benguet

Manang, saan ho pwede maligo? (Ma'am, where can I take a bath?)

Quite a simple question actually but somehow I got a complicated answer. I was doing field work in the Cordillera mountains and was traveling for a week from village to village. I should have known life in the mountains is never simple. Something as mundane as taking a bath may just turn out to be a lesson in ingenuity.

From the house, I was told to take the main road. After about a hundred meters, I was supposed to see a pipe connected to a natural spring. That's where I was supposed to take a bath. So off I went with a small towel, a bar of soap and a sachet of shampoo.

But when I reached the designated hundred meters, there was no pipe in sight. No spring either. The road was empty. No people out. No houses in sight. Then again, it wasn't really surprising to be told the nearest neighbor lived on the next hill. It's just the way things are in the uplands.

Then on the canal on the roadside, I noticed a small bamboo pole stuck on a small hole from where small drops of water flowed. Hmmm…this couldn't very well be the spring, could it? I looked around again, hoping to see free-flowing water. Nothing.

Uh, OK. This must be it. Beggars can't be choosers, I thought, so I might as well make the best of what's available. Fortunately, there was a small empty milk can nearby which I could use as tabo. So I took my clothes off, kept my briefs on, and did what needed to be done. It was difficult because there wasn't enough water and the can was so small but I managed somehow. The more challenging part was how to rinse the shampoo off.

The bamboo pole was set close to the ground, about one foot high, so I couldn't use it like a shower. There was no alternative then but to drop on my knees and position my head close to the tip of the bamboo out of which the water flowed.

So there I was -- in my wet white underwear, my ass sticking out, and bubbles clinging to my hair – when I heard the unmistakable sound of a bus (a BUS???) approaching around the corner! Yaiks!!! When I turned around to have a look, it was to find a whole busload of Igorots gaping at me with round eyes and open mouths as the bus passed by!

Later I was told the entire village was asking about the funny guy who was seen na nakatuwad while taking a bath on the roadside canal. Eww!

And yes, I found out later there was in fact a big pipe with plenty of water in that area but hidden from the road. I just did not see the small trail leading to it.

Waaaaah!!!

BOKOD, BENGUET