Accommodations in Ilocos Norte

The modern homes in Ilocos Norte, have their own water towers and pumps to get water through their homes. Occasionally, there’s not enough water pressure to flush a toilet, so there is always a bucket full of water next to a toilets so that if needed, a bucket full of water will help “flush” a toilet. The other difference is that you cannot put anything except human excrement into a toilet. That means whenever you wipe your ass, you squish it up and throw it into the trashcan right next to the toilet. Lastly, showers are also quite an adventure. As mentioned above, there’s hardly any water pressure, so while there are faucet heads in the shower, they usually don’t work. Also, there is no hot water through any of the pipes.

To take a “shower” in the Philippines, you have a system of buckets. There are usually three buckets. If the help is up before you, they will oftentimes heat up water and place hot water into one of the buckets. The other bucket will be filled with the cold water that you can get from the nozzle. The third bucket is for you to mix the cold and hot water to the temperature that you want it. Since it was HOT in the Philippines, hot water was provided in the buckets. Instead all the buckets were just filled with cold water.

So to take the shower, you take the small bucket, fill it, and pour it over your body. That first pour takes a little getting used to. Once you’re sufficiently wet, you then lather yourself up with soap and shampoo your hair. You then start throwing water onto yourself to “rinse” yourself off. There were many times that I didn’t get all of the soap off my body. Also, once you step out of the shower, since it was so humid, you just begin to sweat. After the first day, I just accepted the fact that I was going to be dirty and used “showering” to rinse myself off.

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As we unpacked, all my Uncle Roland could talk about in the car is how he wanted some beer…some San Miguel to be exact. True to form, right when we got there, my Uncle went across the street to the “store” and bought some beer.

Since we also arrived at 5 AM, it was time for a “marienda” or snack time. You eat so much in the Philippines. Once you wake up, your first marienda is pan de sal. After that is breakfast. Followed by lunch. Then another marienda…followed by dinner…and lastly a marienda before you go to bed. This morning, they prepared for us some freshly pealed jack fruit.

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While we’re in San Nicolas, my parents rented a driver and a Jeepney for us to travel in. These things are a great way to travel as they don’t have any seat belts, are completely open, and don’t have any back door. The only downside to them is that the seats only have a small amount of padding to them and with the roads being undeveloped, after sitting in them for a while, your ass starts to get numb.

written by  James Coloma on July 15, 2009 from Ilocanos Norte, Philippines
from the travel blog: Grandmother's Funeral
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