Feast of Water!

Actually you should sleep in, on a Saturday morning. Ok, that is meant less for me, but rather for Lim. He works all week, gets up at 05:00 o’clock and always comes home after 18:00 o’clock. I can sleep in whenever I want. Well, not today.

At 04:00 it is time to get up. We want to leave the house at 05:00. Where is it going? To Cavite City. There lives Cheyenne’s girlfriend Ayla. I met Ayla last year in Puerto Galera. But we do not only go to her place to visit her, but because today the Regada takes place there! What’s this? This is a water festival. Aaahh, like in Thailand, I think. There is also a water festival, which my cousin Dani and my brother Elias told me about. Both of them visited the country several times.

To get to the bus terminal, we have to go through half the city. Take the MRT to the end station on Taft Avenue, then take the LRT line to Liberdad. From there we ride a jeepney and finally we walk the rest of the way to the bus terminal. This is a replacement terminal, as the actual is currently being renovated. The timing is perfect and when we get on the bus, it takes off right away.

Cavite City is not far from Manila and so the bus ride takes about 1 hour only.

The last part, that is, the trip into the city, we travel in a non-air-conditioned, local bus. Here we see the first people who have packed their phones in plastic bags to make them waterproof.

Gosh, would we make it to Aylas house without getting wet?

On the way into the city suddenly a hysterical shriek sounds and I see water fly through the open windows of the bus already. No, we would not make it dry to the house, hahaha. The other passengers and us try to protect ourselves from the water attacks. Some of the windows have a kind of sun visor that you can lift up. Again and again water comes flying into the bus. Once from the left, then again from the right. And then suddenly, where does this water come from? When virtually the entire front half of the passengers are splashed wet.

The bus driver is splashing around with a water bottle, hahaha.

By trike we ride to Ayla’s house. On the way, Lim gets the whole nine yards and is practically completely wet. Well, he is also unlucky that he sits at the window of the side car. In the house of Ayla’s parents, we are welcomed and get to know the family briefly. Then we change clothes: we get swimwear, make the mobile phone waterproof – advantage if you have a Sony Xperia Z5 – and off we go! At every corner there are people with water buckets and hoses. With water guns and pet bottles. Incredible.

Fifty meters from the house, we are already completely wet. On the one hand, because Aylas nephew Luke played with a hose and because a nasty housewife, in her fifties, waited with a garden hose just around the corner, hahaha. Okay, that would be fun. And of course, someone very special would be the target of many, many water attacks. Who?

Me of course! The only foreigner far and wide, as usual, hahaha!

Some people use ice water. Brass monkey it runs down the back. We are fighting our way through the quarters. The destination is the local market place. But what is this? A kind of passage with sprinkler systems above the heads was installed. Wow, they’re going big time here, I think. Whenever children see me, I am the target of their water attacks. Of course I go along and play sometimes the wounded or the dead, hehe.

A couple of drunken guys ask me for a selfie. Of course they get one. More and more people are there. Then I see a truck with a water tank and fire hoses! They splash into the crowd. Woooow. Water everywhere, awesome! No one is sweating anymore, everyone is wet. The mood is totally omitted. Music is playing. Food stands left and right of the street. Beer is sold, liquors are served.

Some people get into ecstasy when they see me. Screams and I get touched and also soaped in. Not that I had been stinking, hehehe. So many people, no hostiliy.

The good mood is overwhelming, the feeling indescribable!

We hold on to each others shoulder in order to not get lost in the crowd.

We celebrate, take photos. We try a few different street foods from the small street kitchens. For example fried pieces of pig intestines. I also drink a beer. I ask Ayla what the background of this festival is. She tells me that it is actually a feast for San Juan. Who is San Juan I would like to know. Saint John. John the Baptist! The feast takes place in his honor, for he baptized Jesus with water from the Jordan river.

On the way back we see a huge shrine carried by dozens of young men and boys. In the shrine a statue of John the Baptist or just San Juan, hehe. Dancing, they carry the shrine around and maneuver through the alleyways.

I have made a little video here to bring you the feeling of the Regada closer:

 

It was a wonderful, supercool experience. All the people, the super mood, the water. It was really fun and was pure joy!