While in Manila on a two-week pass from the Navy, I met a young girl, Auriela Pador in an open air Manila market. She was the attending cashier and speaking better English than I do was so very helpful at offering directions (and pleasant, polite and pretty) I was compelled to ask her out to dinner. On her suggestion we went to Max's Fried Chicken, a pleasant enough sit down restaurant that served fresh food. I guess it is the Filipino version of a pinoy Denny's. After dinner we went for a walk, and then to a movie (a Filipino made combination kung fu / Hollywood starlet romance theme) without subtitles. Auriela kept me informed as to what was going on by whispering in my ear throughout the movie, I instantly became a major movie buff that evening. Although she attended college in the mornings and worked the afternoons, she found time in the evenings to take me on tours of the city, and on the weekend invited me to accompany her home to meet her family. Her family lived in the city of Baguio, some 5000 feet above sea level, and a good 7-hour drive from manila (without traffic, and providing the road isn’t blocked by landslides that is). I say 'good' in the sense that it is thorough, not pleasant; in fact, I would say it's a downright nuisance of a journey--flat, hot, and congested in the beginning, then rocky, hot, and more congested when you get to the provinces that are covered in volcanic lahars from mount Pinatubo, then followed by treacherous, nausea-inducing switchback roads as you climb through the Grand Cordillera mountain range.
As we negotiated our way through the modern industrial City of Baguio, she pointed out the many education centers, the Centermall, Cooyeesan Hotel Plaza, Abanao Square, and the Maharlika Livelihood Center.
Later she would take me to Burnham Park, the Botanical Gardens, the Orchidarium, and the Asin Hotsprings and we would picnic at Mount Kabuyao but for now we continued to travel north.The pay-off as Halsema Road leads you into Trinity Valley is that the landscape is breath taking, full of verdant foliage and colorful flowers. Auriela’s home was located in a little garden provincial barangay nestled amongst pine trees in a tranquil valley settled beneath the Cordillera mountains, and the weather was mild, it is often a good 15-20 degrees cooler than in Manila. The weather there is good enough to provide roses and strawberries almost year-round. Auriela’s family greeted me like an old cousin they hadn't seen in years. Their house was a bahay kubo, or nipa hut, built on great poles with a ladder for the front entrance. Below the house lived a goat, two dogs, and many chickens. Aside from the entrance the house was similar to wooden houses in the old south with an oriental flare. Auri's family included Mom and Dad, two older sister's a younger brother, grandmother and grandfather. (granny would sit in front of the house in a rocker all day and smoke from an ivory handled pipe.) Dad and Grandpa and younger brother were farmers and tended fields all day, Auri's two older sister's worked in a textile mill in Baguio. Mom stayed home and cooked and cleaned and managed household affairs much like many families I have known. Maama Pador taught me to make lumpia, (and later a filipino cook onboard ship helped me perfect the art) and these are the recipes I remember learning.
