We began day 6 with taking a taxi to Camp John Hay. It was a former US army recreational camp during the early 20th century then taken over by the Japanese during WWII. We got out of the taxi and began exploring the grounds. We were disappointed to find that there were nothing but resorts, golf courses, and nothing historical except for the fact that it was once a recreational army base. There was a paintball course and tree climbing course, but we weren't interested in spending money on those things. The only thing we could do was walk around and look for a place to eat which wound up being Shakey's pizza, a little break from all the Filipino fare. After lunch we needed to find a place that would stimulate our need for learning about the place we traveled such a long distance to get to. We opened our Lonely Planet guidebook and found out there is a museum in town that would satisfy our quest for knowledge.
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We got into a taxi and headed for the St. Louis University Museum where there is an amazing exhibition of artifacts from the tribes of the mountain provinces. After arriving at the university we had trouble finding our way to the museum. I asked the security guard (he too was armed with a shotgun this time) where the museum was and he said that he didn't even know there was a museum on campus. Perhaps his first day on the job? We ended up finding the Admin building where surely they knew where the museum was located. We asked a girl sitting behind a desk where it was and she had to go ask someone else! Wasn't there anyone who knew where this museum was located? I checked my watch and realized the museum closed in one hour and we spent nearly a half hour trying to find where it was. She came back and said that it would be easier if she escorted us there, so we followed her through a series of buildings until we came to the museum located away from all the classrooms on the other side of campus.
We were greeted by a student who registered us, and then began giving us a tour of the museum. I'm not sure what his major was, anthropology perhaps? The student was very polite and informative as we wandered from section to section explaining what the artifacts are and giving us a glimpse of mountain tribal life. Unfortunately, we weren't permitted to take pictures inside the museum to share with everyone but we still made the most of it. During the course of the tour to our surprise, the museum curator, Ike, took over where the student left off and we had the whole museum to ourselves as he began talking about the artifacts that he has collected over the course of forty years. He showed and explained to us their presses for sugar cane to make into fermented beverages, bowls, chests used for meat preservation, weapons, farming tools, sacrificial practices for death, and their burial rituals which involved mummification. Truly fascinating stuff! The mummification practices is what we found especially interesting. The dead are brought into a smoke house and sat on top of a chair. Their legs are bound to their chest, and over the course of days the body is slowly prepared for burial. A group of tribes people sit in the smokehouse keeping away the flies as the body is smoked. After the mummification process has ended, the body is wrapped in white cloth and carried to the burial site where their coffin is waiting for them. The coffin is carved out of a solid piece of wood about a quarter length of a coffin we are accustomed to. The body is placed inside the coffin and hoisted up and hung from a limestone cliff where it rests forever.
Toward the end of the tour, we were welcomed to participate in a jam session with the curator and the student. We were given some instruments made from bamboo and it was a lot of fun banging on these instruments as as the curator played the nose flute. It's a flute played from the nostril, and it sounded beautiful. We realized that we were in the museum a half hour after closing and we were so grateful that we were allowed to stay after closing hours, especially since admission was free! We felt obliged to give a donation to the museum since they were so informative and friendly. We thanked Ike the curator and student for such an informative tour and headed back to Tam-awan Village.
Back at Tam-awan the artists were eating and drinking again. See a pattern forming here? Since we hadn't any dinner yet and were famished, we joined in on the fun.
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After all the food and bottles of GSM, someone broke out the guitar and proceeded to have a late night drunken jam session which lasted into the wee hours of the morning.
Lori also found a huge spider in our bathroom whom she didn't like turning her back on..... sweet dreams... fortunately spider-slayer came to her rescue and smashed it!
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