Text Message in a Bottle: Calvin Klein’s New Perfume Tries to Connect to Today’s Generation

The invitation for the Philippine launch of the new fragrance of Calvin Klein, the CK In2U, came in a DVD disc that has to be played to be able to know the details. The disc contained a MTV-ish series of images, mostly ordinary streets scenes in which the words In2U appear mostly unobtrusively. It was obvious that Calvin Klein is trying to be edgy to attract the younger set for this new perfume. I thought this one targets the partying crowd. At the hip club Embassy, in trendy The Fort, the venue of the launch, the advertising video was being played. Two models, a young man and a woman, were chatting, and their exchanges got steamy. They decided to meet. On the streets and in corners, they ran, frolicked and unleashed their passion.
Despite its glossiness, the ad basically referred to the generation that chats, blogs and uses the social networking sites, those whose lives are connected with the computer, the Internet and the mobile phones. One can say this is for geeks. Is Calvin Klein making a perfume for nerds? The company prefers and uses the term technosexuals, which it trademarked last year and hopes to become a buzzword just like metrosexual—referring to heterosexual men who are stylish and know how to groom—has. Another term the company uses is Millenials, the twenty-somethings living the 2000s.
“CK In2U speaks the language of a generation connected by technology—the aptly named technosexuals,” says Lori Singer, vice president of global marketing of Calvin Klein Fragrances, in its press releases. “They are the first generation to be defined more by their means of communication rather than fashion or music. Constantly at play on the phone or Web, they communicate with a shortened language allowing for a quicker, more effortless way to stay connected.”
The company press release further defines technosexuals, which it estimates to be about 72 million in number, as the ones “immersed in a lifestyle of social technology, staying connected with each other via MySpace and text messaging,” whose “means of communication is so different, so is the way that they connect with each other, whether romantically or for a casual hook-up,” succinctly meaning that “this generation of lovers and friends are meeting and courting each other via technology.”
“For the Millennials it is all about living in the now, coupled with a desire to keep their options open,” Singer further states, mentioning that technology has created a kind of freedom “to connect to anyone, anywhere in the world,” thus creating “a new kind of sexual revolution.”
“With our new fragrance, CK In2U, we aim to capture that moment,” she says. “Calvin Klein fragrances have always been about conveying part of the cultural zeitgeist.”
Calvin Klein incorporates elements of contemporary culture into its packaging design. The perfume is placed in a box with an iridescent metallic sheen, much like the look of the computer’s metal parts. The bottle itself, designed by Stephen Burks, is glass in the shape of a rocket silo with a mantle of white plastic, the same material as iPods. Etched is IN2U, text-messaging shorthand for “into you,” an urgent expression of sexual desire.
The marketing has a hip ad campaign that features edgy young actor Kevin Zegers and model of the moment Freja Beha Erichsen, and its own online community at www.whatareyouin2.com.
More important is what’s inside the bottle, the scent that aims to capture the generation which has no brand loyalty and is said to be characterized by spontaneity, variety and fast-paced-ness; and that aspires to be definitive of that generation.
For CK In2U, Calvin Klein veered away from the unisex fragrance it successfully initiated and promoted, and launched for-men and for-women fragrances in tandem.
CK In2U for Him is fresh, woody and Oriental with top notes of lemon gin fizz, pomelo leaves and frosted tangelo; heart notes of cocoa, pimento and shiso leaves; and base notes of cool musk, white cedar and ultra-vetiver.
A blog reviewing fragrances has this to say: “As advertised, it has a nice spicy-fizzy opening with lots of citrus and pepper. The food-y notes in the heart are rather subdued (the chocolate is noticeable without being overdone) but add some interest to the proceedings. I was expecting something ultra-earthy from the ultra-vetiver, but it is more watery-fresh than earthy. The dry down is the largely the same clean musk you find in CK One, rendered cleaner, soapier and warmer in the CK In2U, and accented with a touch of vetiver and some pale woods.”
On the other hand, the women’s scent is warm and sweet with pink grapefruit fizz, Sicilian bergamot and red currant leaves as top notes; sugar orchid and white cactus as heart; and neon amber, vanilla soufflé and red cedar as base.
The same blogger-reviewer is leery on this fragrance: “The progression is always the same. Start with some achingly sweet fruits, throw in a dash of bright citrus (screechingly high pitched, in this case), add a blur of unrecognizable flowers in the heart, finish it off with some pale musky, woody stuff, more clean than not, and a big dollop of vanilla. In this case, the musky stuff is also reminiscent of CK One, but it is harder to pick out until the fragrance calms [down]. Once it does, CK In2U [for] Her is mostly lightly toasted vanilla sugar and musk.”
It is an enticing and sweet concoction, but whether Calvin Klein becomes successful in its ambition is something that remains to be seen. Calvin Klein is trying to replicate its success with CK One, launched in the mid-nineties and embraced by the Gen-Xers. During that time, CK One has annual sales of around $90 million. The following years Calvin Klein launched spin-offs like CK Be and CK One Remix but were not as warmly received. CK In2U can be considered a sequel but has its own different scent.
The new fragrance was launched on April 1, 2007, in the United States, and prior to that The New York Times published an article by Eric Wilson about the perfume and its attempt to capture and sum up today’s generation.
“Calvin Klein, now without its namesake designer, hopes to rejuvenate a fragrance embodying the essence of hip 20-somethings — even at the risk that such a notion is as outdated as a Prince song about partying like it’s 1999,” the article says.
CK In2U and the article created a buzz among the target market. After the launch, I went online to survey what’s being said about CK In2U and its marketing strategy, and discovered many reactions to the perfume even before it hits the market. CK In2U may be one of the most commented upon perfumes by bloggers. Most reacted to the ad campaign and most of the reactions are of suspicion. The target generation proves to be un-swayed.
Gawker.com, a Manhattan media news and gossip Web site, has a piece on the perfume with a comment as title: “Bloggers Don’t Want to Smell of Blog.”
But what is the smell of blog? This attempt of Calvin Klein to capture the blogging generation into a scent can be mind-boggling to many.
A blogger named Andrew, writing in the blogger group Web site “Notes from the Digital Frontier” (http://www.blogs.mediapost.com/), wrote, “This fragrance is targeted for those who are ‘turned on’ by blogging. Here’s my question: why would anyone want to douse themselves in some high-dollar scent before sitting in front of a computer screen to chat with friends on instant messenger?”
Other commented on the term technosexuals. The 5 Blogs Before Lunch site (www.daveibsen.typepad.com/5_blogs_before_lunch) has a piece with this comment-title: “Calvin Klein's Technosexuals: Just Another Term For The Tech-Reliant Generation Y, and a Made-Up Target Audience Definition for Its In2U Fragrance,” and goes on to say, “Is it possible to trademark a generational handle? Gen Y, Gen X and Millenials are all in the public domain, but Calvin Klein had the gall—or foresight—to trademark the buzzword technosexuals last year.”
Blogger Andrew would rather veer away from the term: “I would rather meet with people in person, forget all the high-tech gadgets, and enjoy the time spent with them playing a board game or socializing. By my own self-analysis I don’t fall under the technosexual label. I am better described as a traditional geek who is content to participate in a debate over which OS is better. And while I’m at it, I wouldn’t mind watching some of those witty ‘I’m a Mac. I’m a PC’ ads and counting down the days until the release of the iPhone.”
The blogger of “Almost Girl: Where Plato and Prada Meet” (http://www.almostgirl.coffeespoons.org/) comments, “Please, You Can’t Titillate Gen-Y and You Certainly Can’t Bottle It” and is leery on the marketing ploy: “Gen-Xers will buy anything. The generation that made an art form out of copping out is uniformly the easiest generation to co-opt. CK One was a product of its time and surely one of the greatest marketing triumphs perfume has ever seen. But beware to the marketer that tries to strike twice. Welcome to 2007’s greatest marketing disaster.”
On the other hand, Angela Thomas, who says her “research interests include digital cultures, new media literacies, multimodal semiotics and digital narratives,” writes in her blog (http://www.angelaathomas.com/), “I think CK’s In2U hits some of the mark but ummmm its not really very mysterious, is it? But then again, in an age where its commonplace to reveal your innermost secrets on your blog, perhaps the marketing is spot on?”
A blog reviewing fragrances overall describes and assesses the reactions: “The reaction of the target market itself has been less than cordial. In fact, the backlash against the whole project was vocal even before the scents launched, based largely on the advertising copy (‘She likes how he blogs, her texts turn him on. It’s intense. For right now.’) Of course, back when CK One launched, there weren't the same kinds of public forums (blogs, MySpace, what have you) in which to protest being ‘marketed down to’, so it is hard to know if CK In2U is really getting a worse reception or if there are simply more (and easier) ways to register disgust. Regardless, CK In2U has succeeded in capturing plenty of attention, and in today's crowded fragrance market, that would seem to be half the battle.”
Calvin Klein is bold in trying to sum up the generation and the times in one fragrant concoction, and for this ambition backlash can be expected. Another aim, although also ambitious, is more “sober”: to be a cultural icon by identifying with the lifestyle that is intimately affected by technology and the culture that emerges from it.
I spent the night reading snippets of numerous blogs commenting on the product, at least its marketing strategy, in between chatting and flirting. When the day dawned, I had to find out what it really smells. After all the marketing and the words, it boils down to smelling it. I opened the shiny box and cradled the bottle, which reminded me of a milk bottle or that of an Old Spice coilogne. I let sprays of CK In2U for Him float in the air and land on my arms. It was fresh. It was sweet. I sniffed my arms. It was likable. It invigorates as well as lulls you. It was pleasant, generally. Now, it will take time and habit to conspire to make a memory, a memory of a long nights with a laptop chatting with friends and strangers; flirting with friends and strangers; surfing the net and learning new things; looking through this flickering window that enables you to connect to and access unquantifiable things; maybe getting comfort from faraway loved ones, getting stimulation from new acquaintances, or getting excited by discussions with people you haven’t seen. If the time is ripe, a whiff of CK In2U will conjure up these feelings and images of the nights that end with bursts of sunlight and a sweet scent. Memory collectively often can define the times and perhaps a generation, and a scent can trigger a memory.

Available in August 2007, CK In2U for Him comes in 150 ml, 100 ml and 50 ml eau de toilette bottles; 100 ml after-shave; 150 ml after-shave gel; 200 ml hair and body wash; and 27 ml deodorant stick. CK In2U for Her comes in 150 ml, 100 ml and 50 ml eau de toilette bottles; 200 ml skin moisturizer; 200 ml body wash; and 150 ml deodorant spray.

Published in The Daily Tribune, July 10, 2007.

Hotel Pontefino: Cozy nest for big dreams

My first stay at the Hotel Pontefino in Batangas City was in 2004, when the hotel was barely a year old. Perched on a hill in barangay Gulod Labac, the boutique hotel glowed with a light yellow paint tempered by an abundance of black lines, contrasting with the predominantly gray, dust-layered and weather-beaten colors of the city. I was charmed by it.
Batangas City, the capital of the province of Batangas, was in the midst of major constructions, being an important urban center south of Manila and the main industrial hub of the Southern Tagalog Region. Hotel Pontefino, the only de-luxe hotel in this part of the country, was a cocoon, where everything was neat and cozy. Its interiors were minimalist and clean, contrasting with the hubbub in the city. The pools at the back reflected the clear sky and overlooked the city and its growth.
The hotel was built in anticipation of the city’s growth. Some may think Batangas is an odd choice to build a hotel in, but the city, located 112 kilometers south of Manila, was identified as a “regional growth center” and a “special economic zone.” A major highway is being built to cut travel time from Manila to Batangas. Several big companies, including oil refineries, have set up their plants in the province. The construction of an international port, an alternative to Manila, is underway.
It was with these developments in mind that the hotel was established by the Hotel Concepts Inc., whose chief executive officer Ricardo Ramon Gutierrez is the owner and founder of the Chateau group of restaurants. For this his first hotel venture, he partnered with lawyer and landowner Antonio Pastor, who comes from a prominent family of Batangas. The venture is entirely Filipino, and Gutierrez envisioned establishing the first modern Filipino hotel chain, starting with Hotel Pontefino, which will serve as bridge between Filipino excellence and the world (The hotel’s name is from the Spanish words ponte, meaning “bridge”, and fino, “fine”.)
When I went back to the hotel three years later, it was under a new management team. Business had been slow in the past years, according to Danny Cabulay, the new chief operating officer. The anticipated international port was taking a tad longer than expected. Fortunately, the companies and plants—Shell Eastern Gas, General Milling Corp., Pacific Flour Mills, Chemphil Bulk Terminal and Himmel Industries, among others—in the province are still doing good, and their expatriate employees, usually on a long-staying basis, form a major part of the hotel’s clientele, at about 60 percent.
The new management team was brought in to revitalize operations, and Cabulay was happy to announce that the hotel has been experiencing full bookings since March of this year, when he took over, which was not achieved in the previous years. Cabulay, who is a former dean of Far Eastern University’s business school and who has an extensive experience in hotel management, came in with Joel Catibog, the hotel’s operations manager, and Mylene Villanueva, its director for sales and marketing.
There will be no drastic changes in the hotel, but they are working on its strengths. Currently the hotel has 60 rooms—40 premium rooms and 20 suites. I experienced the coziness of its rooms anew, but now I was in one of its Fino Suites, a larger room with a king-sized bed, and its own living and dining areas. The interiors were in the relaxing light colors of white, yellow and ochre complementing the light wood parts.
Designed by Yoly Zimmer and Erik Paras of Design Access Limited, the interiors project a global Filipino feel. The Filipino-ness here is simplified and made more subtle, manifesting in the warm colors to mean hospitality. It is more of the colonial Filipino and reminiscent of Spanish villas.
Another outstanding thing about Hotel Pontefino is its food. The hotel has two food outlets located at the lobby: the café Robusta and the fine-dining Pastorelli. Hotel Pontefino serves Italian, Asian freestyle and the so-called New Batangas cuisines. The original chef Dennis Edillon created dishes in tribute to Batangas, taking its popular dishes and ingredients, and adding sophisticated twists and using them in creative ways. In my recent trip, many dishes were still there, and it was still a pleasure to dine in Pastorelli. I delighted anew in the New Batangas fare Balayan Caesar’s Salad. It is your usual Caesar’s salad with Romaine lettuce, croutons, grated parmesan cheese and bits of bacon, but made special with the famed bagoong (fermented fish sauce) of the town of Balayan, which is used to flavor the Caesar dressing, adding a pleasant kick of spiciness.
Pastorelli also serves the most famous of Batangas dishes: the bulalo soup, beef and bones simmered into a broth. Here, the broth is cooked with other vegetables. It is a nice and warm comfort food especially for travelers.
The maliputo, the fish endemic to Taal Lake, is served here, simply seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled over lava rocks. Other items on the menu are bulanglang, a vegetable stew with fish tofu, and tapang Taal, pork jerky from the town of Taal. These are best eaten with the simple steamed vegetables of okra, eggplant, tomato, bitter gourd and sweet potato leaves to be dipped in Balayan bagoong with a dash of calamansi.
For dessert, recommended are the Batangas Crepe which has a filling of muscovado sugar and crushed peanut brittle, and Barako Mousse, mousse flavored with Batangas-grown coffee popularly known as barako. Of course, ask for barako coffee to go with these.
These Batangas and Filipino fares are offered along with pastas and ravioli. The other items like appetizers and soups are also good. I loved the cream of asparagus soup and the appetizer of baked mussels, which was cooked with gingered butter, fish sauce, lemon and Emmenthal cheese.
The gastronomic adventure is a good way to launch an exploration of the Tagalog province of Batangas. At the southwestern part of Luzon, Batangas is rich in culture and heritage, and the hotel is tapping this resource to offer its guests. Until now, Cabulay said that people are still raising their eyebrows at the hotel’s location, which is away from the beaches for which Batangas is known.
Hotel Pontefino initiated several tour packages for their guests to discover the culture of the province. Well-known is the Batangas heritage tour in which guests are taken to the town of Taal where the old basilica stands proud and imposing, overlooking clusters of charming old houses. Taal is one of the few places in the Philippines with a concentration of old houses. Here in Taal are the ancestral houses of Filipino historical figures including Marcela Agoncillo, one of the makers of the Philippine flag.
Along with Lumban in Laguna, Taal is also known for its embroidery, and clustered around the marketplace are shops selling embroidered clothes and items. With these dainty things and at the opposite end, the town, and the whole of the province, is also for its balisong, the fan knife. In the barangay of Balisong, several stores line the highway selling the eponymous weapon in different sizes. They also sell pens with knives on the other end as souvenir items.
Also popular is the tour of the Taal Volcano and Lake. The package includes boat ride on the lake and trekking to the crater of the small volcano. Take also the church tour in which seven churches are visited, namely, the Minor Basilica of St. Martin of Tours of Taal, San Jose church, Our Lady of Caysasay Church in Taal, the Lipa Cathedral, the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and Infant Jesus of Batangas City, the Carmelite convent of Lipa City and the Church of the Immaculate Conception of Bauan.
The packages are the hotel’s way of promoting the tourism in the province, as well as answering the perennial questions about its existence here.
After the tours, the hotel offers its spa services for relaxation. Masseuses are available for the usual massage therapies and the not-so-usual hot lava stone massage of Mexican origin.
On the more “sober” side, the hotel has facilities for business: A business center and function rooms for conferences and seminars. The function rooms can accommodate 30 to 150 persons. The Executive Conference Room has a 10-person capacity. The hotel has no big ballroom-type room for big events, but near the pool, it has an air-conditioned tent that can hold as much as 500 persons. And the pool area, which can accommodate 200 persons, is ideal for al-fresco events. Hotel Pontefino is fast becoming a landmark in the area, where local parties and weddings are held. A ballroom that can accommodate 800 to 1000 people is in the planning.
As development in the city continues, the area around the hotel is bound to change. A hotel residential community of about 60 townhouses called Pontefino Residences is going to be constructed near the hotel. Behind it, seven hectares of what is now forest will be converted into a retirement village with 107 units. These plans will be underway in two to three years.
Complementing the hotel, the owning company is setting up a hotel school somewhere in Batangas to supply the demand of the hospitality industry and of Hotel Pontefino itself as it progresses into the realization of its initial vision. Another Pontefino hotel with 60 rooms is planned to open in 2009 in The Fort in Taguig City. The company is eyeing San Francisco in the United States for the first Pontefino abroad. Also, there is talk of building resorts in Boracay, Panglao in Bohol and Basco in Batanes.
Port or no port, Hotel Pontefino is charging on with its own developments and expansions, relying on itself to stir up activity and building bridges of fineness in the region and into the world.

Contact Information
Hotel Pontefino is at Pastor Village, Gulod Labac, Batangas City. The hotel can be contacted through telephone number (043) 723-3466, fax (043) 723-3488 and mobile phone 0917-505-4231. The Manila sales office is at Unit B, 11th Floor, Agustin I Bldg., No. 28 F. Ortigas Jr. Ave., Ortigas Center, Pasig City, with telephone (632) 635-9364 and 631-8310, fax (632) 636-0435 and mobile phone 0917-505-4215. Email reservations@pontefino.com.ph and visit Web site www.pontefino.com.ph.

Into the Quiet Enchantment of Gubat, Sorsogon

Our companion, a typical, easygoing Gubatnon, is amused about a friend’s reaction—a mix of surprise and bewilderment—when invited to come over to Gubat. To many, the name means “jungle,” connoting wildness and remoteness.

Located at the eastern part of Sorsogon, 621 kilometers from the country’s capital Manila and 80 kilometers from Bicol region’s capital Legazpi City, Gubat can indeed be considered remote. Gubat actually is a laidback town with the waves from the Pacific, now tempered, lapping at its feet; the sunrise gilding its houses; and the mighty Mount Bulusan carving a hazy, almost pensive, presence in its vista. It is a town wedged between fire and water, with all their blessing and blight. Perhaps the wildness usually takes the forms of these two things. Lying on the path of typhoons, Gubat is visited by strong winds and rain in the latter half of the year. Sometimes, the ferocity of the typhoon can be ravaging. Less often, Mount Bulusan awakens with a rumble, a long-hidden fury throbbing from the ground, and threatens with smoke and embers.

But most of the time, the weather in Gubat is balmy, and the way of life unhurried. Dragonflies, big and the color of light bronze, flit about around the church and the shore near dusk, neglected and commonplace fairies. Children fly kites at the pier, scattering the riot of dragonflies, or dive into the water near the estuary, their laughter making ripples and making its way through the nipa thickets. The townsfolk gather edible little conches during low tide. At the southern part of the bay, the auburn shore of Rizal Beach is a gentle arm hugging the placid waters, where a few people swim and fisher boats glide to berth.

On the shore, a number of fisher huts stand among the coconuts. Their weathered walls contrast the coats of newness of the rest houses of a number of European retirees who married Filipinas. The resorts, only few, are quiet, particularly in this lean season.

Though one of the most well-known beaches in the Bicol region, Rizal Beach is relatively less frequented by tourists outside of Bico so it is ideal for those who love tranquility. Gubat generally is not known to be a tourist destination. This proves also true to much of the province of Sorsogon, the southern tail-end of the Luzon Island, save for Donsol, which in recent years has seen the flocking of tourists wanting to see whale sharks and consequently rapid but haphazard development.

Gubat, on the other hand, is an unassuming, quiet little town, whose wonders slowly reveal themselves to those with an open mind and heart, and with a spirit of adventure. It stashes them in the crannies of rocks, in the well-used kitchens and in the folds of leaves. It hides them in the ordinary. Gubat appeals to the lovers of genuine rustic charm and to those on the lookout for the roads less trodden. In this sense, Gubat comes close to another Tagalog meaning: something pristine and awaiting discovery.

The Rizal Beach
For many visitors in Gubat, the sea remains enticing, and Rizal Beach is recognized as the most attractive in the town and the whole region as well, luring many excursionists from nearby places. As much as the water, the seven-kilometer stretch of sand proves to be appealing because of its lighter color. We are suckers for white sand. Though not exactly white, the sand here is fine and the color of old ivory, good enough to let it cling on wet skin. The shore stretches wide, sloping gradually into the bay, a perfect swimming beach.

The beach is sporadically dotted with resorts, mostly rudimentary affairs. The Rizal Beach Resort and the Veramaris Resort are two of the biggest and most developed, while the rest are private cottages that can be rented out to guests.

Built in the 1960s, the Rizal Beach Resort used to be a tertiary school until it was transformed into a resort by the 1970s. The Veramaris Resort, which seems as old, is a hulking structure painted in white. Aside from the rooms, Veramaris has a function hall for wedding receptions and conferences.

Kaliyukay and Dancalan Beaches
The Gubat coast, stretching from Barangay Bagacay in the north down to Rizal, offers swimming opportunities, though less popular than Rizal Beach. The Kaliyukay Beach in Cogon and the Dancalan Beach in the poblacion area are also visited by excursionists.

When we berth in Kaliyukay after surveying the mangrove forests, several groups are playing in the water, their bright floaters very visible against the dark sand. The shore of Kaliyukay is wreathed with creeping vines bearing purple flowers on which people lay their wet clothes to dry. Further inland, a fishers’ community buzzes with activity and smells of smoke from kitchen fires.

A short walk from the municipal hall is Dancalan Beach where the Philippine Tourism Authority has kept a tourist facility, now in want of repair and refurbishment.

The mangrove forests
At Dancalan Beach, the row of houses gives way to a clump of mangroves, a strange and quiet landscape, attractive in its mystery. As eco-tourism gains momentum in the country, mangrove forests are beginning to be recognized not only as ecologically vital areas, but as tourist draws as well. Here in Gubat, patches of mangroves grow in the poblacion barangays of Panganiban and Pinontingan, and down south in Rizal and Ariman. But the substantial part of the town’s mangrove forest thrives on the coast of the northern barangays of Cogon, Tiris, Paco and Bagacay.

We skirt the area one late morning with the town mayor Deogracias Ramos, who points out his favorite childhood hangout, a lagoon ensconced in the forest called Nabat-an. The leaves of the mangroves glitter in the sun, and the roots are a network of entanglements as if strange stitching that hems the earth to the sea. Once in a while, we espy fishermen bobbing in the water and disappearing as they go after shells, crabs or octopi.

In Bagacay, there is a bed of sea grass, where people gather sikad-sikad and tuwad-tuwad, edible little conches. In a clump of mangroves called Dua na Pulo, fishermen know they can get octopus. In Cogon, Handawan Island, perhaps a sand bar, perhaps a part of the main land cut off by a stream of water, is an excursion destination. By the shore of Cogon, there is a forlorn hut and a goat farm, where the townsfolk get their goats for their kalderetas. Here, an old boatman can take one across to the mangrove forest for three pesos. Rowing slowly, he appears like Charon, ferrying people to the shadier realm of the mangroves for them to collect shells or gather firewood.

There has been deforestation, the mayor admits, mainly because people obtained their firewood from the mangrove forests. But this has been outlawed now, he says, and reforestation is being done. Another old man started the effort, he narrates, asking him for permission to plant mangrove seedlings. Although puzzled, he gave permission. In time, the singular effort grew into a private and municipal collaboration. Now, the mayor envisions building a walkway through the forest where people can watch birds.

The Tiris River
At Tiris, the Tiris River pours into the Gubat Bay in a swirl of blue and green colors. Launching from the seawall of the poblacion with a swarm of dragonflies like pale russet confetti that refuses to fall, we enter the river via the sea. We wind through fish corrals (here called bonoan or baklad) containing turos, bataway (siganid), asohos (whitting), agingayon (coat fish) and katambak (snapper). Behind us, the imposing Mount Bulusan keep cover in a veil of clouds tasseled with claret light. Occasionally, we pass by huts, curious children and fleeting birds. Further inland, the river, part of the Tingting River of San Ignacio, becomes quieter we can hear our breathing. Dusk gathers around the nipa palms.

The Tiris Bridge traverses the small river. In September, a fluvial parade for the feast of Our Lady of Penafrancia starts by the bridge and ends at the sea. Here also, one can see fireflies at night festooning the trees and grass. They get multitudinous further inland. In Donsol, they started a river cruise to watch fireflies to complement the whale shark interaction attraction. The same thing can be done here in Tiris River.

Around the town center
As night falls, the saud is coming into life. Saud is the traditional market day, and here in Gubat it happens on a Friday.

Although there is a public market along the main road of Manook Street, an austere concrete building that tries to establish a sense of stability and constancy, the saud is livelier and more colorful, like a circus coming to town, an age-old mercantile and social activity common to the towns of Sorsogon set on different days that, however makeshift, endures despite time and the permanent structure of the market place.

By late afternoon of Thursday, the merchants and vendors arrive, setting up their places. People from the upland barangays bring down their crops and crafts. People from other towns come in jeepneys laden with fruits and rice.

Enterprising house owners rent out papag, bamboo cots, to place the merchandise on. As if by instinct or unwritten law, the vendors know their places and keep them that way. Soon the stalls wind around three blocks near the town church in Balud del Norte. One stall drowns in heaps of tomatoes while another carries ingredients for the Bicol signature dish pinangat—taro leaves, chilies, coconuts.

On ordinary days, a walk around the town center can be interesting. The town center or poblacion is composed of Balud del Sur, Balud del Norte, Cota na Dako, Luna-Candol, Mandarigma, Manook, Panganiban, Paradijon and Pinontingan.

The poblacion is protected from the sea by a seawall where clusters of huts closely huddle together. The seawall ends jutting into the sea. People call it Pier because it looks like a wharf. But really it is a promenade lined with lampposts, where people stroll and relax, breathing in the sea air. In summer, children fly kites. In the afternoon, when the sea recede exposing rocks and seaweeds and a landscape like that of the moon, people go down and gather sikad-sikad and tuwad-tuwad.

Around the town, the Gubat branch of the Bicol University is on Diaz Street. Part of it is the old Spanish presidencia, the oldest structure in the town. Although the church is relatively new, the Catholic cemetery or campo santo in the neighboring Cogon is old.

Across the church, the building of the Gubat Saint Anthony Cooperative stands. It operates a hostel on the third floor. During my stay, I am regularly wakened by the tolling of the church bells early in the morning.

The potters' district of Paradijon
Old structures in Gubat may be few but many traditions and industries are old.

Roaming the town center, I chance upon the potters’ area of Paradijon. Walking up the narrow alleys, I see houses with rows of freshly made pots ready for drying and firing. One can chance upon an old woman patting a pot into shape, or a boy shaping a vase.

Families here used to make pots, toys, vases and stoves, mainly to supply Samar, the Visayan island south of Sorsogon. Now, mostly pots and vases are made for landscaping companies. At a sari-sari store, a woman displays photographs of lawn ornaments of storks and fairy-tale characters crafted by her son. In Paradijon, there are 23 families engaged in the cottage industry, constituting 1.75 percent of the town population, one of the lowest among the industries.

The Liyang caves
The western flank of Gubat rises into hills and mountains. Ten kilometers from the town proper, the dirt road becomes rough as we snake our way up Bentuco, one of the southernmost barangays. We see abaca and pili trees among tall grasses. They give way to coconuts in the sitio of Patong, perhaps one of highest points in the town. The ground is covered with tufts of grass, titivated with little wild flowers and anahaw plants with leaves that spread like spiky fans. Pass the trees, the view opens up to hills and forests and sky, nacreous in color now. Then the ground slopes into what looks like a gorge, veiled with thick vegetation. Somewhere down there is a little cave called Liyang.

It has rained a little, a sparse shower to cool the warm skin and dampen the hair. It also made the path slick and tricky to tread. The grass hides now the slyness of the earth. We descend with anahaw leaves as umbrellas and canes made from branches of wayward trees. Our feet grope for small humps on the ground to hold on to, but we slip from time to time. Sometimes, we have to get off the beaten path and walk on the grassy side as not to slip. It seems the cave refuses to be reached and entered easy.

Along the way, we meet a woman, fresh from a bath, her wraparound and hair dripping with water. She smiles and deftly climbs up, her legs and feet knowing the contours and slopes of her path. We, all men, bungle about.

After a while, the path becomes a small stream of clear water, trickling down boulders, the sound like the faintest of giggles. But where is the cave? Liyang? The sound of name now seems to mean demureness and sensuality at the same time.

The veil of vegetation reveals Liyang. It is not a grand yawning affair. It is a large slit on the earth, a crack where clear and cold water flows out, collecting on a small pool then flows out again among the grass, over pebbles.

We muddy the pool as we cross to the mouth, which bears the scars of boorish visitors, who has inscribed their being there on the moist walls. The cave is dark and narrow, and we have to form a single line to enter. No one has thought of bringing a flashlight. The dark engulfs us little by little. It is like entering a womb. Our feet splatter through the running water flowing out of the cave. It gets narrower the farther we go. The walls and dark seem to close in, and we turn back. Now moist, we squint at the light when we get out and bungle like newborns.

This is not the only cave in Gubat. There is one in Paco and another in Togawe. Both are also called Liyang. I find out that liyang is “cave” in the local language Waray Sorsogon. In Bagacay, there are caves that are unnamed. They will more likely to be Liyang also in time.

The Villareal Grotto
Driving westward towards the sea, passing the barangays of Togawe and Benguet, the land becomes rice paddies. On the map, the west end of Villareal is wedged between Buenavista and Rizal, keeping it from reaching the sea. Instead, Villareal vibrates with viridity and tries to reach upwards.

Carpeted with green, a hill rises at the barangay proper, made into a shrine in 1989. Eighty-two concrete steps lead one to an artificial grotto sheltering an image of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by a small garden, and further on to the top of the hill. No message-bearing apparitions or events of religious significance happened here. It confounds me why they built a shrine of this size here. At the top of the hill I find my reason.

The hill affords one a commanding view. The barangay hall and the school hug the foot of the hill. Children scamper across the bright turf. Around them are the rice fields, an exuberance of green, kept in place by the southern and northern hills converging at this point of view with the sapphire sea peeking through where the hills decline and the eternal sky covering the rest: a glimpse of the divine.

The abaca industry and other agricultural-industrial attractions
Under the enduring sky, people attend to mundane matters: planting and harvesting, cooking food, making implements, buying and selling. In Paradijon, families shape pots from the earth. On the sea, fishermen haul in their catch. At the mouth of the Ariman River, they catch crab fries, the size and color of dog ticks, to be sold to growers and fish pond owners. At the edges of rice fields, farmers dig palawan roots to cook in light sugary syrup. At a number of homes, women weave abaca fibers into slippers and placemats.

In the Bicol region, items made of abaca are a well-known regional product. Many visitors make it a point to buy the durable abaca slippers. In Gubat, the local government made abaca crafts its premiere product and supports the attendant cultivation of abaca.

Being an agricultural town, there are no large industries to speak of in Gubat. Industrial activities here involve a more personal touch. However humble, the products are made special by the labor involved, with the hands fashioning materials gathered from the earth and forests, and by being imbued with native sensibilities. These cottage industries include pottery, shell craft, candy making, mat weaving, making thatches from nipa, making bags from mago, furniture making, nito crafts and pili nut candy making.

More than a thousand people make ornaments, knickknacks and items for the home from shells, making shell craft the biggest activity among them. Some stalls selling shell products dot the road on the way to Rizal Beach. But abaca seems to be a special product for Gubat.

A traditional material, the use of abaca has declined over years particularly when synthetic fibers were introduced. But Mayor Ramos is optimistic that abaca products will be a big thing and tries to revive the industry.

About 200 meters above sea level, in the watershed area of Bentuco, the local government’s Abaca Rehabilitation and Development Program is under way. Among grass, coconuts and pili trees, abaca trees, so much like bananas, thrust their leaves. Municipal agricultural technician Roy Las Pinas oversees the farm, planted with native varieties like tipon-tipon, hilagnoy and kurisan.

During the 1980s, a major pestilence attacked most of the abaca farms in Gubat, he informs. Now, they are hoping that their efforts will approximate or even surpass the abaca heyday. There are now about 80 hectares planted to abaca in the whole of Gubat, Las Pinas approximates.

In the sitio of Cabaluan, about five hectares are allocated for an abaca nursery. About two to three hectares have been planted, and they are eyeing about two hectares more for expansion. In two years, the abaca is mature enough to be harvested. Here, among the mature abacas, a shed is set up for educating farmers on abaca cultivation and care from nursery establishment to disease eradication.

Beside the field school, a stripping machine occasionally roars into action, shredding the bark into fibers. The fibers go to houses for handicraft. The byproduct bacbac, the outer sheaths, are dried and sold to consolidators.

Three medium-size trees can produce one kilo of fiber, which can be sold for thirty pesos a kilogram, and a hectare can produce about 400 kilograms of fiber, Las Pinas calculates.

Presently, there are 238 farmers engaged in abaca production. Their wives and other womenfolk make handicrafts as secondary activity, something to augment the family income. Their handiwork makes it to the neighboring province of Albay and to Manila, and as far as the United States, Europe, Mexico, Australia and Japan. They make the items per order, which total about five to ten thousand pieces a month.

The women come bringing in their products and laying them on the table, a colorful array: bags, hats, slippers, baskets, placemats, trays, boxes, Christmas decors and souvenir items. Some are in the natural color of the fiber: light brown and beige. Some are dyed in magenta, green, blue, crimson and yellow. We touch the objects, the fibers giving off their natural sheen. While munching on the raw kernels of freshly picked pilis, I marvel on the process of it all and the oft-ignored magic of everyday things and what the hands can do.

Forty-four-year-old housewife Evangeline Pollesian can transform the stems of a hardy vine into plates in a couple of hours or so. The adroitness is like magic, the firm fingers bending the stems and interlocking them into each other in a swift manner. Ten pieces for the whole afternoon if you work fast, she says of her ability. Each plate she sells for six pesos. She and Rosario Gabiaso, age 53, are nito weavers. Hailing from the barangay of Dita, they are among the 1,257 nito weavers, about 32 percent of the population, of Gubat.

Nowadays, they are having hard time finding nito vines, which grows wild in the forests, in their area. That morning they have to go to the adjacent town of Bacon to gather nito. This afternoon, they are extracting fibers from coconut husks and weaving them into twines at the Gubat Agri-industries Corporation or GAICO in the neighboring barangay of Jupi. She and Rosario are doing these when not weaving nito. And GAICO welcomes them and encourages people from the surrounding communities to work for them.

The one-year-old business venture also aims to help communities by giving them opportunities to earn extra income. GAICO manufactures coconut-based products from geo-textile to home furnishings to virgin coconut oil.

Top honcho Joey Escoto saw the abundance of coconut trees, which are left untapped in the area, thus inspiring him to establish GAICO. He now buys coconut husks from farmers, giving them additional little income. The factory looks like a hilly terrain of coconut husks, which will be eventually shredded and formed into twines. It employs ten people, and about twenty to thirty households in seven barangays indirectly work for them. GAICO gives them equipments and raw material to work on in their homes.

The shredding machine quiets down. A light rain falls on the nutty-brown hills of dry coconut husks. It is nearing dusk and I smell the faint scent of coconut oil, the kind that entices the palate.

Back at the mayor’s home, we wait for dinner. The dinners and lunches here are always delectable and intriguing feasts, another journey superbly guided by host-friends Ditas Ramos and Rowena Fajardo, and prepared by Ditas and their cook Amen.

The mayor is having a haircut at the front yard, by the road, just across the municipal hall. Intimidating at first glance, he now seems like a kid, locks of silver hair falling on the ground like snow. Maybe he is dreaming of his favorite spot, a bunker under a tree on a lot where he is building a house he will retire to he once told me.

The snack of timatim arrives. The round cassava cake’s immaculately white color contrasts with the deep green of its banana leaf wrapper. A morsel melts in my mouth and I dream of the soft earth. I remember the dishes made of crabs, coconut, crayfishes, parrot fishes, conches, rice and horseradish tree leaves. Their flavors on my tongue form Gubat in my mind—the hills, the fields, the sea, the sky—as my body shakes off the tiredness of traversing it. There are many ways of going into Gubat, and many times with enchantment, raw and rustic.

Getting There
Lying on the eastern coast of the province of Sorsogon, Gubat is 621 kilometers south of Manila, 80 from Legazpi City and 19 from the capital town of Sorsogon. It is bounded on the north by Bacon and Prieto Diaz, on the west by Sorsogon and Castilla, on the south by Barcelona and on the east by Gubat Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
The RS and CUL bus lines with terminals at the back of the Ali Mall in Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City, regularly ply the Cubao-Gubat route. Other buses that go further south like Matnog or Bulusan may pass by Gubat. One can also go to Legazpi City in Albay and take a bus to Gubat.
Air Philippines fly to Legazpi City regularly. From Legazpi, take a bus going to Gubat. Travel takes about an hour and a half.

Where to Stay
There are a few resorts along Rizal Beach. One of these is the Veramaris Resort.
The standard rooms are priced at PhP990 (air-conditioned), PhP770 (non air-conditioned), PhP1,090 (air-conditioned, with cable TV) and PhP870 (non air-conditioned, with cable TV). The family rooms (which can accommodate up to five persons) are priced at PhP1,650 (air-conditioned), PhP1,320 (non air-conditioned), PhP1,750 (air-conditioned, with cable TV) and PhP1,450 (non air-conditioned, with cable TV). There is a charge of PhP200 for extra person.
To contact the resort, call Atty. Desiree G. De Vera, manager, at (056) 211-2457 in Sorsogon; Vivien G. De Vera at (02) 827-7826 in Manila; or Dr. Gloria G. De Vera at (056) 311-1825 or (056) 311-1824 in Gubat. One can email veramaris@yahoo.com.
The only place available for travelers in the town proper is the Gubat Saint Anthony Cooperative or GSAC, which operates a hostel on the third floor of its building. Located at the corner of Luna and Quezon Streets, the GSAC has ten rooms, some able to accommodate six to 10 persons, and charges about PhP800 per person per night. One may call (056) 311-1264 or (056) 311-0430, telefax (056) 311-1763 or email gsac@yahoo.com.

Contact Information
For more information, one may contact Rowena Fajardo of the local government unit of Gubat through telephone numbers (056) 311-1061, (056) 311-0435 and (056) 311-7962. For very informative and reliable guide through the town, Ditas B. Ramos remains to be the town’s best and runs the Countryside Adven-Tours. Contact her through telephone numbers 02-632-7418 (in Manila) and 056-311-1280 and 056-311-1216 (in Gubat), or email countryside_adventours@yahoo.com.

Gubat on the Tongue, Fire in the Belly

As our boat berths at the walled shore of the town proper of Gubat, dusk was trailing behind us. Mount Bulusan, on the backdrop, fades with the clouds, and the sea calms down and darkens, dissipating the floating pieces of crepuscular colors, stray dead leaves of the season sinking. But the streets of the town proper near the church, particularly in Balud del Norte and adjacent barangays, are coming to life. It is Thursday, and tomorrow is the day of the saud, the market.

Although the town has a permanent public market along the main road, Manook Street, the old tradition of the saud still persists. On ordinary days, the town proper is quiet, but on saud day, it is bustling. Saud day falls on different days in different towns in Sorsogon, the southernmost province of Luzon and of the Bicol Region. In Gubat, it is on Friday.

On Thursday afternoon, the vendors come, some from other towns or provinces, some from the upland barangays within Gubat. As dusk arrives, the market grows, occupying three blocks and wending its way through the streets of Diaz, Roxas and Herrera.

By early evening, light bulbs are turned on in many stalls, shining on heaps of plump tomatoes. The pungent smell of dried fish wafts in the air. A stall carries the ingredients for the popular Bicol dish pinangat—taro leaves, chilies, the grated meat of mature coconuts. The upland people bring down with them the upland produce, notably the tuber of the palawan, a giant variety of gabi, or taro.

My venture into Gubat, a laidback town at the northeastern coast of Sorsogon, is now being enriched with the scents and colors of produce from farms, mountains and sea, signifying further journey, now into its flavors. It turns out that a visit and tour of Gubat are not complete without tasting its food.

Food encapsulates the intertwining of the mundane and the divine. The earth and the sea somehow can be more intimately felt bodily, on the tongue, being taken in, through what are harvested from them. In a way, the cooking transforms into palpable forms the essences of both worlds that, once on the tongue, create an inner heaven. Little heavens are concocted in the kitchens of Gubat, which has a gastronomic repertoire common to Bicol provinces as well as uniquely its own.

Ditas Ramos, tour operator and excellent cook, serves as company and guide not only to the interesting places in Gubat but through its flavors as well. Our daily forays are punctuated by lunches and dinners, determinedly local in their flavors and preparation. If not prepared by Tita Dites herself or their cook Amen, Tita Dites and her assistant Rowena get the delicacies and snacks from local experts to bring with us as we climb hills and swim on the shore.

Most visitors will expect seafood to be offered in a coastal town like Gubat, and locals are wont to serve them. The welcome dinner is delectable kinis, mud crabs, some as large as plates, fresh from the fishponds of Tita Dites’s brother Ding, the town’s mayor. The crabs come, steaming and deep orange, the color of sunset. They are prepared rather austerely. Just put them in the pot, says the cook, cover it and put it over a low fire until they are red and done. Just that and no water. The firm meat, on the tongue, gives off a flavorful surge: the piquancy of the sea tempered by a hint of sweetness, reminiscent of sweet corn. Although the crabmeat in its plainness has more than enough flavor, actually the tastiest I have had, I prefer to dip it in spiced vinegar. I almost shudder in the joy of eating.

Mayor Ding dispenses a bit of folk wisdom: don’t eat crabs while drinking alcohol. It hastens drunkenness. So crabs are never served as pulutan. I almost agree; I am intoxicated.
The Ramos household has another way of preparing the crabs, recognizably Bicolano: simmering them in coconut milk. Despite its richness, the milk does not inundate the sea flavor of the crabmeat, retaining its subtle kind of sweetness.

I have this romantic image of fishermen risking limb to get to the crabs hiding in the remotest crannies, while waves crash against the rocks. But my vision is dashed.

The crabs were raised, alongside prawns, in Mayor Ding’s eleven-hectare fishpond in the neighboring town of Prieto Diaz. But the baby crabs were gathered somewhere here by scouring the estuary and dredging the floor. The fry gatherers sell the fries for two pesos each to those who fatten them up. Then the fries, now the size of fingernails, are sold to fishpond owners. The mayor says he let the crabs be, and after two or three months, they were occasionally fed pieces of dried fish. After four months, they can be harvested.

In the afternoon, one can chance upon crab fry gatherers. On our way to Rizal Beach, we saw three gatherers near the mouth of the Ariman River, among nipa palms. Under the sun, they dredge the floor with circular homemade sieves and carefully go through mud and small peddles. They look like panning for gold. We climb down to check on their progress. For more than hour now, one gatherer has two in his container, a plastic liter-size Coke bottle. The dark-colored fries scurry at the bottom of the container, looking very much like small pebbles or fat dog ticks. The gatherer resumes his laborious search, getting handfuls of sand and stones and combing through them while the sun beat on him. A flicker of the romantic crab hunt image burns in my mind and is replaced by something more palpable.

Later in the afternoon, on another side of Gubat, on Gubat Bay, people gather sikad-sikad and tuwad-tuwad. By this time, the water has receded, revealing a craggy expanse. At the Pier of Gubat, actually the tail end of a seawall jutting into the sea, one sees men, women and children casting long shadows on the moon-like landscape, absorbed in combing the ground. We climb down to search for dinner but don’t find any sikad-sikad. We have more luck at the public market, where heaps of the little conches (most likely the strombium canarium Linnaeus) are being sold cheap.

Rowena is able to get a basin full of sikad-sikad. The conoidal tuwad-tuwad, with black and white varieties, is unavailable. They taste the same, they say. The seashells are cooked in coconut milk with malunggay, horseradish tree leaves, by Amen. They can also be cooked plainly in water with a dash of salt. They teach me to eat them. By holding on to a claw-like appendage, pull out the flesh or use a toothpick. The curled up flesh tastes like crabmeat. After the meal, I have a sizable pyramid of shells, enough to make a home décor.

But the pride of Gubat sea produce is the angol. Fresh from the sea, the angols shimmer, speckled with dots of periwinkle color. It looks like a cross between a tilapia and a parrotfish. It is actually a variety of parrotfish, although smaller and thinner. But what it lacks in size it makes up in taste. A preferred way to cook them is by simmering them in vinegar, garlic and peppercorns.

The angols are accompanied by the side dish of cooked pili fruit and cuyog, a common Bicol fare. It is an acquired taste, says Tita Dites. The ripe pili fruit, with the skin dark, is boiled. The skin is peeled off and the fruit dipped in fermented cuyog sauce, which is similar to bagoong, with a dash of calamansi juice. The pungent woody flavor of the pili is neutralized by the saltiness and sourness of the sauce. During the season of storms in Catanduanes, when fishermen cannot go out to sea, we ate pili and cuyog with steaming rice. The boiled pili fuit can also be dipped in sugar and eaten as dessert.

Not to be missed when in Bicol is the Bicol Express, the famous dish of pork, bagoong alamang and lots of chilies, so Tita Dites prepares her own version. She simmers the kakang-gata, the coconut milk of the first extraction, until the oil appears. She puts in pieces of pork and spoonfuls of bagoong alamang, salty fermented shrimp paste. Then she drops chopped chilies into the concoction and her own addition, the seldom used vegetable sigarilyas (winged beans). The sigarilyas adds crunch to the richly flavored and spicy dish.

What catches my fancy is the interesting kinagang, a rare Gubat delicacy, and Mayor Ding professes to be an expert kinagang maker. The main ingredient, the ulang or crayfish, is not available in Gubat at the moment. We stop in Abuyog, halfway on the way to Gubat from Bulusan Lake, and order from a fisherman. The next day the crayfish arrives fresh from the river. The crayfish is shelled and its meat mashed and blended with strips of coconut meat and sprigs of herba buena, a variety of mint. The pasty mixture is wrapped in elongated leaves, like cannas, with a funny name of higikgik and then steamed. The mayor says that hagikhik leaves must be used or else it will not taste the same or as delicious.

The rectangular and savory kinagang looks like a type of kakanin, sweet snacks usually wrapped in leaves, and can be eaten as snack, appetizer or as ulam, accompaniment to rice.

Another leaf-wrapped delicacy of Gubat is the much simpler binut-ong, which many Gubatnons reminisce about eating for breakfast. I have to climb a hill to have a taste of it.

In the landlocked village of Villareal, in the inner southern part of Gubat, seventy-year-old Leonardo Ermino is considered an expert binut-ong maker. At the barangay proper, a hill rises, hemmed in by bright fields. Eighty-two concrete steps lead to an artificial grotto with an image of the Virgin Mary, and a sweet snack, prepared by Leonardo and the womenfolk of Villareal, of ginataang palawan, a giant taro that grows on the edges of fields and patches of marshes in the village. The root is harvested, cut into strips and cooked in coconut milk and brown sugar, making a filling dessert with a starchy sweet flavor.

With the view of the rolling hills, fields, sky and a bit of sea, Leonardo shows us how to make binut-ong. He takes an empty aluminum can of milk, his measuring cup, which can contain about 300 milliliters, and fills it with rice, the glutinous kind. He lines a large bowl with a piece of banana leaf—the tougher saba variety he advises—passed quickly over fire to make it pliant. He pours the rice into the bowl and sprinkles anise seeds. Then he pours in one-and-a-half cup (the can) of coconut milk. He deftly gathers the ends of the banana leaf and ties them with a strip of dried abaca bark, making a nifty pouch. The rice pouch is placed in the pot with water, and he let it cook over low fire for an hour and a half.

The binut-ong has a subtle flavor, unlike other tastier foods of Gubat, tantalizing the tongue. Every now and then, I bite on anise seeds, which burst with their pleasant sweetish tang. My mind soars in the sky with the earth on my tongue.

Earthier on the tongue is the hinagom, sweet squares of brown rice cakes also wrapped in banana leaves. The taste reminds me of espasol, a popular southern Tagalog sweet. To make hinagom, only newly harvested rice is used, roasted on a pan over low fire. One must constantly stir it lest it may burn. Then the roasted rice is pounded in a mortar with coconut meat. The coconut must be of the right age, not too young and not too old. Continue pounding the mixture until the paste is almost smooth, which by then can be wrapped in the leaves.

The hinagom has a likable grainy texture. I can feel the heat on the tongue from the pounding. Served with freshly brewed coffee, the hinagom is total comfort on a downcast day. The barangay of Carriedo is known to make the most delicious hinagom.

The queen of the Gubat sweets is the timatim. In the afternoon in the town center, an old woman goes around selling it, a heavenly cassava cake. The cassava is mashed with coconut milk, and then steamed. Halfway through the steaming, pili nutsor strips of young coconut (buko) meat are sprinkled over it. The circular cake is served with a lining of fresh banana leaf, its whiteness contrasting with the deep green. I put a piece on my mouth, where it slowly melts. I imagine the essence of the earth being absorbed into the body, as strips of twilight clouds hover over the sea, making this trip to Gubat fuller and complete.

Contact Information
There are no restaurants serving Gubatnon dishes. Ditas B. Ramos is knowledgeable about Gubatnon food and can act as culinary guide. She runs the Countryside Adven-Tours. Contact her through telephone numbers 02-632-7418 (in Manila) and 056-311-1280 and 056-311-1216 (in Gubat), or email countryside_adventours@yahoo.com.
To contact the local government of Gubat, call Rowena Fajardo through telephone numbers (056) 311-1061, (056) 311-0435 and (056) 311-7962.

The Kulinarya Food Trip
Occasionally, the Department of Tourism arranges food trips under its Kulinarya Program, which promotes “culinary tourism,” in cooperation with tour operators and local governments. The trips are arranged per region or province.
The Kulinarya Bicol itinerary includes Legazpi City in Albay and Sorsogon. The first day comprises tour of the Cagsawa Ruins, Mayon Volcano, satellite market, Albay Central Pili Nut Store and Daraga Church; lunch at Small Talk Café in Legazpi; and demonstrations on preparing pinangat, Bicol Express and pili sa dahon. On the second day, one proceeds to Sorsogon to visit a pili farm in the sitio of San Rafael, to trek around Bulusan Lake, to have lunch at Balaybuhay and to watch demonstrations on making crispy pili and kinalu-ko. Later in the day is Gubat, checking in at a resort on Rizal Beach and watching demonstrations on binut-ong and timitim.
Trips depart every second and fourth Friday of the month. Rates per person are Php11,460, Php10,085 or Php9,850 (by public coach); or Php16,226 Php14,851, or Php14,616 (by air).
The rate includes overnight accommodations at Fernando Hotel or another hotel; overnight accommodations at Rizal Beach Resort or another resort; fare from Manila to Legazpi then back to Manila, inclusive of taxes and surcharge; meals; cooking demonstrations; guides; and transfers and tours.
For inquiries, one may contact the Department of Tourism’s Office of Product Research and Development at telephone numbers (02) 526-7545 and 524-2254, or through emails rnsebastian74@yahoo.com and dot-prd@yahoo.com.
One may also contact partner travel agencies and tour operators, which include Trips Travel (02 811-4163/ 811-4115; trips@tripstravel-phil.com), Southeast Travel Corporation (02 524-5676 to 83; southeast@skyinet.net), Sharp Travel Service (02 817-0169 or 817-0071 to 74; ststours@cfsharp.com), Rajah Tours (02 522-0541 to 48; sales@rajahtours.com), Nexus Travel (02 928-5589; inbound-local@nexustravel.com.ph), CCT.168 Travel and Tours (02 687-0129 or 637-9611; cct168aurora@pacific.net.ph) Baron Travel Corporation (02 817-4926 or 817-0203; leisure@barontravel.com.ph) and Action Holidays Tour Corporation (02 242-2001 to 04; actionholidays@yahoo.com).

Pili nut candies
The quintessential Bicol pasalubong and pabaon is the pili nut candies. Most are caramelized or coated or glazed in sugar. I was given ones coated with raw sugar pulot or molasses and wrapped in dried leaves of hamilig, which is as strong as paper. It is very likable. The leaf wrap lends an additional flavor to the confection.
The label read Nimfa’s Pili Candies with the phrase “Conserva sa Dahon.” The candies are made in Poblacion in the district of Bacon in Sorsogon City with mobile phone number 0919-2880931.

Photos by Benhur Arcayan

The Way of This Cross: A Relic of the True Cross Finds Home in the Philippines

The backcountry road going west of Tarlac City leads to the mountainous edge of the central plain of Luzon. Twenty kilometers from the capital, one reaches the town of San Jose, 574 square kilometers of hilly and rolling land at the northwestern part of the province of Tarlac, where the village of Lubigan presents an arid landscape of cogon and bush broken by fields of rice and corn and dotted by huts, and stretches to the foot of a series of mountains that divide Tarlac and Zambales.

On one of the mountains, where apparitions are likely happen, a statue of Jesus Christ, all white under the blazing sun, stretches its arms. Behind the statue is a large cross. A gray-and-white castle incongruously appears among the green and brown. A resort maybe, or a small theme park? But the paved road snaking up the mountain leads to the newly-established Monasterio de Tarlac, where a piece of wood, said to be taken from the very cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, is now enshrined.

The relic, now the only one in Asia, received limited public attention in the beginning and is now slowly being publicized.

“We would like to share this gift with the Filipino people,” says Father Ronald Thomas Cortez, the prior of the nascent monastic community called Servants of the Risen Christ and the main custodian of the relic. “I want us Filipinos to venerate the relic of the True Cross in our own country. The relic is believed to bring blessings to the faithful.”

The significance of the relic is not lost on the tourism office of the region, which put the monastery in its list of attractions and places of interest in the Central Luzon region, and predicted that “the place will soon become one of the most-visited pilgrimage sites in the country.”

It is very likely to happen. The Philippines is fervently Catholic, and many Filipinos are drawn to sacred sites, miraculous images, apparitions and talismans. This early, there have been pilgrims and seekers of answers coming to the monastery. And there will be more.

Pilgrimage
We embarked on a pre-Holy Week pilgrimage to Monasterio de Tarlac, an almost three-hour drive from Manila. The road up the mountain, now christened the Mount of Resurrection by Father Ronald Thomas, was devoid of greenery save for a few hardy shrubs and gangly trees. In the future, it will be lined with stalls selling souvenirs and refreshments, we predicted. The paved road ended at the 278-hectare Tarlac Ecotourism Park, a tourism project of the provincial government, where the monastery occupies 43 hectares. A makeshift police station marked the entrance of the monastery, and policemen were on guard.

On the slope were gazebos, the shape of Medieval castles, for socializing and viewing the plains and far-off mountains. The surrounding gardens were littered with whitewashed statues of saints. The most prominent of them is a 30-foot statue of the Risen Christ, which bears some resemblance to the famous Statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Further down, off-limits to visitors, hermitages perched on the ledges among the shrubs, five spartan cottages with an amazing view: the plains of San Jose, a patchwork of green and brown veined with dirt roads and a river, and hemmed in by a chain of bluish mountains.

Near the viewing decks was a sizable restroom, well-kept and ready for an onslaught of pilgrims and visitors. At the other side was the administration building and dormitory with maroon tiled roofs and cream-painted walls, reminiscent of suburb houses of the nouveau riche and mid-level resorts, glinting in its newness in the sun.

At the heart of the compound, the plaza sprawled in front of the chapel that looked like a cardboard cutout against the clear sky. In the glare of noon, a short line of monks, in habits of white and sky-blue, marched across the plaza into the chapel, carrying incense and a cross. The fragrance of burning incense wafted in the air, its spiciness accented by the heat. The prior had insisted on saying mass and conducting a short recollection for the visitors.

The chapel can seat about 50. Its two wings can accommodate more. Inside, the retablo was painted white, richly embellished with gilded curlicues, whorls and leaves. A cross occupied the main niche. Above it were the words Ave, crux, spes unica, “Hail, the Holy Cross, our only hope.”

Through an oval window of the altar, we saw the silver arqueta, the ark which contains the relic. The altar area is closed off with a tall fence of wrought iron, the sense of standoffishness ameliorated by beautiful iron flowers. The gates are opened when the priest enters, when sacraments are performed and when churchgoers are allowed to touch the reliquary.

Father Ronald Thomas, popular called by his nickname Archie, dispensed his sermon, a perennial indictment of the mundane and the upholding of the more important and the spiritual, behind bars. After the mass, we lined up to touch the arqueta. The gate was opened as well as the grill doors of the altar. Each was allowed to touch the ark and have a moment of prayer and beseeching.

Bathed in golden light, the silver arqueta is engraved with decorations of curling vines and cherubim, and Christian symbols that remind one of the Crucifixion: a pair of dice, a hammer and a wrench, spears, the crown of thorns, a snake coiled around a goblet, a piece of cloth bearing the impression of Jesus Christ’s face, three crosses jutting out on the hill of Golgotha, and a ladder.

Providence
We were not able to see the relic itself. The reliquary is only opened once a year, on September 14, the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross. The relic is a dark, rectangular piece of wood said to be olive. “It’s a like a Matchbox,” Father Archie says, referring to the popular toy cars that can fit on the palm of the hand.

After lunch and a round of questions, the 42-year-old diocesan priest appeared bemused by both the heat and the number of inquisitive people. All he wanted was a quiet and contemplative life, but now, he was thrust into the limelight and possibly into managing throngs of people who will come for the relic. He knows that it may disrupt their lives and the atmosphere of community, which is still in the delicate and difficult process of being shaped.

He had never planned it to be this way, but then again, he never even imagined everything—from establishing a monastic community to being the caretaker of the relic—to be this way.

“When we started the construction of the monastery, we didn’t realize that the Holy Cross will come. We were looking for a place that is conducive to our way of life, a place that is quiet where we can lead our monastic ways. It is the reason why we are here on the mountains,” he says.

There may be changes in the way he envisioned things, but whatever happens he is ready to embrace it. Everything that has happened and will happen is by providence, he believes. What seems accidental and coincidental is part of God’s design. Father Archie never thought that his journey and that of his monastery will cross paths with the storied journey of relic of the True Cross, becoming one road leading to the mountain in Tarlac.

“We believe this is God’s plan and God’s design. When were formed as congregation, as a community we received the church’s blessing on the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross in 1998. So our foundation day is September 14,” he affirms.

“I personally did not even think of forming a community like this,” Father Archie, who studied at the University of Santo Tomas seminary, relates. “I was ordained as a diocesan priest in 1989.”

First assigned in San Sebastian Cathedral in Tarlac City for two years, Father Archie then served as the parish priest in the town of Ramos in Tarlac, where he turned the Church of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus into a shrine for which he also serves as its director, and founded the Servants of Risen Lord.

“I had a longing for a monastic life. I wanted to join a community but was not given a chance because of our work. So in 1998, the young men with us try to live the life at first,” he says.
After receiving the Catholic church’s blessing, formally recognizing them as a congregation, in 1998 Father Archie went in search for a suitable site for a monastery.

Place at the Peak
The provincial government offered a place in San Jose, donating 20 hectares to the congregation. In 2003, Father Archie visited the site for the first time and started raising funds to purchase additional areas and to build structures. Fortunately, there were many people helping out the fledging community, benefactors including the Cojuangcos, the province’s most prominent family.

The necessary structures both for the monastic community and for the relic were readily built in time for the relic’s arrival. Father Archie opted for the “Medieval design,” meaning the castle, for some structures because “hindi nawawala sa uso.” (It doesn’t go out of fashion.)

There are 32 monks in the community, mostly formerly young professionals, who have the common desire to embrace the monastic life patterned after the Monastic Fathers, address themselves as fraters, and wake up before dawn to pray before the birds sing. Their philosophy centers on Easter spirituality because of its emphasis on hope. According to Father Archie, they are not totally cloistered like other communities, but they are more apostolic and contemplative.

Their apostolic work includes like facilitating recollections and retreats for the public, and managing the Ramos shrine and two orphanages in Ramos and in Tagaytay City.

And yes, they have homemade products, too, like those of other religious congregations in the country. They are starting with a calamansi concentrate with honey in 350 milliliter plastic bottles, calling it Calamonks and advertising it as “squeezed and processed by prayerful hands.” Amusing as it may sound, the concentrate makes a surprisingly delectable and refreshing drink. The nuns of the Handmaids of the Risen Christ, their female counterpart, produce the concentrate and take care of the orphanages.

Now, because of several suggestions, the community is starting to make religious items for the future pilgrims of the relic.

Provenance
Father Archie’s association with the relic of the True Cross began in 2005. Lutz Ruhloff, the president of the Philippine-German Association in Oberhausen, invited the priest to be a guest at the World Youth Day in Cologne. There he met Monsignor Volker Bauer, who invited him to visit his diocese in Essen, where a relic of the True Cross was enshrined.

Catholic churches, in Germany and in Europe in general, are undergoing hard times. As the continent becomes more secular, church attendance is steadily declining. Many structures become unused or “redundant.” Some church authorities opt to sell, find other uses for, or demolish them than spend for their expensive upkeep. Many structures are reborn as museums, warehouses and restaurants.

In Essen, there are about 100 churches intended for closure and reuse.

“And they were looking for a community which can take care of that relic,” Father Archie said. “And they chose the Philippines because it is a Catholic country, and for the veneration [of the people].”

The Essen relic is one of the many relics of the True Cross, now scattered mostly in Europe. There are several stories and variations about the finding of the True Cross, recorded by early writers and churchmen. There were also stories on the events around and related to the relics. These stories, though, were generally considered apocryphal by historians. Some events in the stories, however, can be ascertained, like the completion of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in 335 A.D. It is also certain that by the 340s, veneration of what were alleged to be relics of the cross was proliferating. Most of these stories though attributed the finding of the True Cross to the empress Helena, mother of the first Christian emperor of Rome Constantine.

Several early writers wrote that Helena, (born c.255 and died c.330 AD), after Christianity was granted freedom of practice throughout the Roman Empire in 312 A.D., journeyed to the Holy Land, establishing churches and putting up relief agencies for the poor along the way. Eventually, she discovered where the three crosses used at the crucifixion of Jesus and the two thieves were hidden. The Holy Sepulcher, originally a site of veneration for the Christian community in Jerusalem, was buried, and on top of it, a temple dedicated to the Roman goddess Venus was built.

According to Eusebius in Life of Constantine, around 325 to 326 A.D., Emperor Constantine, after being converted to Christianity, ordered the site be uncovered and instructed Saint Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, to build a church on the site.

On the other hand, Socrates Scholasticus (born c. 380), in Ecclesiastical History, wrote that Saint Helena had the temple destroyed and the Sepulcher uncovered. In the process, she discovered the three crosses and the titulus. The nails used on Christ were said to be have been found and was sent to Constantinople, where they were incorporated into the emperor’s helmet and the bridle of his horse.

But Theodoret’s (died c. 457) Ecclesiastical History gives what had become the standard version of the finding of the True Cross. Helena arrived at the place where Jesus suffered and ordered the temple destroyed. When the tomb, which had been buried for a long time, was discovered, three crosses were also unearthed near the sepulcher. Everyone believed one of them is the cross on which Jesus Christ died, though no one could tell which one. Macarius, the president (some said bishop) of Jerusalem, resolved the problem by allowing each cross to be touched by a very ill woman. The cross that healed the woman was considered the True Cross.

“She (Helena) had part of the cross of our Savior conveyed to the palace. The rest was enclosed in a covering of silver, and committed to the care of the bishop of the city, whom she exhorted to preserve it carefully, in order that it might be transmitted uninjured to posterity,” wrote Theoderet.

Interestingly, there is a story relating the history of the True Cross before it was used for crucifixion and its finding. In the late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, the story on the provenance of the True Cross is generally accepted.

Jacopo de Voragine, Bishop of Genoa, recorded the story of the pre-Christian origins of the True Cross in the Golden Legend in 1260. The story tells that the wood of the True Cross came from a seed of the Tree of Life which grew in the Garden of Eden. When Adam was dying, he asked his son Seth to go to the archangel Michael and beg for a seed from the Tree of Life. When Adam died, the seed was placed in his mouth. When he was buried, the seed grew from his mouth and became a tree.

Many centuries later, when the Queen of Sheba embarked on a journey to meet King Solomon, the tree was felled and the wood used to build a bridge over which she would pass. The queen was struck by the portent of the wood the bridge was made of. She fell on her knees and worshipped it. She told Solomon that a piece of the wood would bring about the replacement of God’s covenant with the Jewish people by a new order. Fearing the eventual fall of his people, Solomon had the wood buried. After fourteen generations, the wood was used to build the cross for crucifixion.

The part of the True Cross found by Helena left in Jerusalem was encased in a silver reliquary and housed in the basilica under care of the bishop there. It was periodically exhibited for the veneration of the faithful. Accounts say a part of this relic was taken as trophy by the Sassanid Emperor Khosrau II when he captured Jerusalem in 614 A.D. When the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defeated Khosrau in 628, he reclaimed the relic and took it to Constantinople. Later, he returned it to Jerusalem.

The restoration of the Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is said to happen on September 14. Thus on that date, the Roman Catholic Church commemorates this victory with the Feast of the Exaltation (or Triumph) of the Holy Cross.

Around 1009, Christians in Jerusalem hid the relic until its rediscovered during the First Crusade by Arnulf Malecorne, the first Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, on August 5, 1099. In 1187, during the Battle of Hattin, Saladin grabbed hold of it. After that, it vanished.
Other pieces of the cross were further broken up and widely distributed, many given as gifts to churches across Europe. Furthermore the capture and sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 lead to the partition and dispersal of the relics in its possession. The bishops and knights in the crusade divided the relics among themselves and brought them to their homelands, where they donated them to churches and monasteries.

Thus today there are many churches in Europe which possess relics of the True Cross. It can be said that many of these relics came from Constantinople, and it is very possible that many are fakes. During the Middle Ages, relics were held in high esteem, and there were many unscrupulous merchants who fabricate relics.

Today, Santo Toribio de Liébana in Spain, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site, is said to hold the largest piece of the relic. Though their authenticity impossible to verify, it is undeniable that the relics of the True Cross foment fascination and, to many, can stir up faith and religiosity.

And faith is more important to Father Archie.

Public mission and message
When Monsignor Bauer offered the relic to him, Father Archie accepted.

“I didn’t really think about what might be involved in accepting the relic. I didn’t know what might be demanded of us. We didn’t even have the money to build a suitable chapel for it. What I did know was that I wanted to bring it to the Philippines, and I wanted Filipinos to be able to venerate the relic of the Holy Cross in their own country,” he says.

On January 29, 2007, Monsignor Bauer arrived at the Diosdado Macapagal Interntional Airport, in Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, with the relic. The next day, it was transferred to the Monasterio de Tarlac where it was formally enshrined. Leading the ceremony was the Most Reverend Fernando Filoni, D.D., the papal nuncio in the Philippines. For the first time, the monastery was thronged with believers and church officials from different dioceses and archdioceses in the country—a glimpse of things to come.

Father Archie and his monastery now take on another mission, a bigger one: to bring as many people as possible to the relic. They started by opening up the monastery to the public during weekends. From Monday to Friday, they are closed to the public so that they are still able to lead monastic lives. When the monastery gets busy, the priest plans to create a cloistered area where only the monks are allowed.

Also the church must be expanded to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims. The present chapel was initially intended to be an oratory for their own use. Father Archie is contemplating on building a bigger church. He is also thinking of a shuttle service from Tarlac City for those who will come without their own vehicles.

The rest he relies on God, especially the spiritual things, especially miracles many people are going to hope for. There have been miracles, he admitted, attributed to the relic. Someone with a grave illness was healed; a relationship was patched up; and United States visas were approved, prayers answered, he enumerated generally.

“In fact, even before the relic was brought here, miracles have already been happening. The chapel which enshrines the relic was constructed in no time. Both the public and the private sectors are working hand in hand to put up and improve the place. That kind of unity alone is miracle,” Father Archie declares.

He is not really comfortable with the idea of people coming here thinking of and looking for miracles. “Sometimes [being in the] mountain in search of God is already a miracle. That is the best way to look at it,” he says.

“With or without the relic, our faith should be firm. We are so blessed that we have a fragment of the Holy Cross. But without the relic, I think we have to encourage one another. I think it is a very important thing,” he adds.

For Father Archie, more than the miracles, the relic of the True Cross bears a more important thing: its meaning.

“It gives us hope,” he said, staying true to the Easter spiritually he espouses “Despite our present situation, we still believe that God is still with us.”

It seems that the circle is coming to completion for Father Archie and the monastic community. A piece of the cross on which Jesus Christ died is now housed in a community that rejoices in the significance of His resurrection. In death, there is the promise of life.

Contact Information
The Servants of the Risen Christ can be contacted through Frater Thomas Mary Lawrence with mobile phone number 0917-932-8738, or email monasteriotarlac@yahoo.com. Its counterpart, the Handmaids of the Risen Christ Monastic Community, which produces the Calamonks calamansi concentrate, has its formation house at 11-1 Remy Street corner Nena Drive, Villa Teresa, Angeles City, Pampanga and can be contacted through mobile phone numbers 0919-6578315 and 0920-8636028.
The Department of Tourism office in Region III can be contacted through telephone numbers (045) 961-2665, 961-2612 and 625-8525 or email celtour@yahoo.com. The Tarlac Provincial Tourism office can be contacted through telephone number (045) 982-2374, and the Tarlac City Tourism Council and its chairman Lydia Co through telephone numbers (045) 982-4051 and 982-1923.
Email author at gridcrosser@yahoo.com.

Getting There
The Monasterio de Tarlac is in the Servants of the Risen Lord Monastic Community, Tarlac Ecotourism Park, Lubigan, San Jose, Tarlac.
From Manila, take the North Luzon Expressway, exiting at the Santa Ines Toll Plaza in Mabalacat, Pampanga. Proceed northwards to Tarlac City. In the barangay of San Sebastian (Landmark is Hon Kee Tea House), turn left at the Tarlac-Pangasinan bypass road going to the town of Camiling. Follow the 36-kilometer backcountry but well-paved road to the barangay Lubigan in San Jose, Tarlac.

PICTURE: Like the Kalinga (Panagbenga Flower Festival, Baguio City, Feb. 2007)