If my Memory Serves me Right: Sinulog
by Nate Zona on Monday, April 11, 2011 at 1:58am
When I was in the Philippines, there was a lot of buzz about this upcoming festival called 'Sinulog.' It is the biggest celebration of the year, and I just happened to arrive a month before it happened. The weeks flew by and before I knew it I had made plans to go to a "rave" the night before Sinulog. This "rave" was really more of a house/ebm night, and it was held at the Cebu International Convention Center. I went with my new friends Rozie Reyes, from Australia, and Vũ Ngọc Phượng, from Vietnam. I was very excited to be going out on the town, since I had basically just arrived, and to a rave nonetheless! We took cab to the venue and paid 500 pesos to get in. (Hunter told us later that we actually could have gotten in for free with our IAFT passes! Damn!) The night was still kinda young so most of the crowd was sitting in chairs surrounding the dance floor. It reminded me of a high school dance, but in a much bigger scale. Well the music was playing and Rosie, Vu and I laughed to ourselves at the shyness of everyone else, went directly to the middle of the floor, and just started dancing like fools! Everyone else started slowly making their way onto the floor and soon enough the place was moving! As the night rolled on and the music got "harder," the producers of the show brought out these four ladies in bikinis, holding chains in each hand, with a little cup at the end of them. They stood at the front for some time, and then a guy with a lighter came over and lit the cups on fire one by one. When they were all on fire, the music hit a crescendo and the chains began swinging! The lights were flashing, the music was pumping, the girls were swinging fire back in forth in a hypnotic gyration, and then along the sides of the stage fountains of sparks erupted high into the sky! The crowd was alive!
The night, however, was just beginning for me.
So we partied, danced, drank, and what not until about two-thirty. At this time Hunter Prescott and Gagan Judge had showed up and asked if I was staying until the end (4am or so.) Vu was ready to go home so Rozie left with him, and I ended up leaving with Hunter and Gagan around 3:30. If I remember correctly, Hunter is from Austrailia, but spent some time in the US as well, namely Texas. Gagan, or Sky as he is called, is from India! Both these dudes are super cool, and I had become kinda friends with them over the previous weeks. I would say more like acquaintances really.
Well, at this point, they decided we should go get some food at a fast food place called Andok's. When we got there they told us they weren't selling beer, so of course we went to a gas station, bought some and went back to Andok's!
Hunter and Gagan were adamant that I try Andok's version of the popular Pinoy dish "Sisig."
Sisig, let me tell you, is DELICIOUS! It's a fried/sizzler meat dish, served on a really hot metal? plate. It smells like bacon and has onions, red peppers, and really tasty spices! Needless to say, I loved it. (Only later did I find out sisig is made from carved pig's head meat, chopped liver, and traditionally, pig's brain! I'd still eat it, haha) The night was not over, and we hopped on a jeepney to get back to the IAFT campus. By this time, the school grounds were abandoned, with only the guards patrolling. We walked to the back of the school where the tiki bar is located, and on the way back there we crossed paths with one of the security guards. Hunter was immediately friendly with him, and they shook hands and happily exchanged pleasantries. I was surprised how well they seemed to know each other and as we walked to the back, Hunter said something I will remember for the rest of my life. "Dude, you gotta make friends with everybody. The cleaning crew, the security guards, the lady who does your laundry. When you step out of your own shoes and let other people in, you free yourself, but most importantly dude, you remember you're not alone in this life."
We sat, the three of us at the now abandoned Tiki Bar in the back of the school. The Tiki Bar sits up against a fence that overlooks the Bay of Magellen. You can see a breathtaking amount of sky from this spot. As we drank our Tanduay Rhum and A&W rooter, and our cans of San Miguel and Red Horse, we watched as the sky began to leech color from the sun. Gagan turns to me and says, "Dude, you will never forget this Mactan Sunrise." Even if he had said nothing and I had been there alone, he was absolutely right. The warm air gently blowing though the palm trees, the black water of the bay, slowly turning red and pink and orange, reflecting the clouds above which puffed in the sky like rolls of marshmallows. The sun slowly but unstoppably rising above the horizon, into the day. It was something I'll never forget. I tried to take a picture with my camera but it just didn't look right, and Hunter and Gagan said to me, "This is something that cannot be captured by our gear man, only with your memory."
