Twenty-One

After some idle conversation with Lyrid, Altria learned about how Lyrid had joined the group trip due to his eagerness to learn about the indigenous group, as he was an aspiring historian. Samsara was made up of a number of such tribes and despite their advancement in technology, there were a few indigenous tribes protected by the government, that lived away from the city and survived on their cultural and traditional ways of living. Due to a love for nature photography, Lyrid had desired to capture with his own hands and his DSLR camera, the beauty of the Saga-da town where the village was located in. His interest in the traditional ways of the tribe had allowed him to conduct research, where he was particularly interested in their cultural methods of tattooing, known as 'pambabatuk'. Furthermore, he was interested in meeting and seeing for himself, the oldest villager, an old 113- year old lady known as Apo Wang Bu. Above all, he wanted to undergo a fresh start in his life as a volunteer, having claimed to have made no achievements in life despite his age. Altria was inspired by his speech and decided to continue without a second thought. She recovered her energy and pulled herself up to resume the journey, walking alongside Lyrid who was carrying her load.

As they ventured onward, she hesitated to tell him the true reason why she had participated the trip. As she worked in the archives which also held an amount of historical knowledge on Samsara, she had long known about the history of the Saga-da town. It had been due to her cousin, and her enthusiasm to meet the tattoo artist, that had made her join them.

The journey took more than two hours, due to the frequent stops made by the inexperienced new members, and a lack of training on mountain rock climbing. Lunch time soon came, and Ceries cooked two different dishes for the group: stir fried vegetables and vinegar soy chicken. The dishes were accompanied by steamed rice, which the hungry volunteers finished quickly in relish. The mode for cooking in the village was liquefied natural gas, and they used firewood to start a fire to warm themselves. As Altria possessed excellent culinary skills, she and Astrid together assisted Ceries in preparing the food. She had also volunteered to assist in cooking, which she considered a contribution to charity. Her line had been "Charity is not just about money, skills can be donations too!".

The group proceeded to take some group photos for memory due to having arrived in the middle of the beautiful rice-terraces, and dispersed to bathe and rest due to fatigue from the long trek. They were allocated to their respective rooms, which were awarded on a sharing basis. Altria shared a room with Astrid. While the others rested, Ceries and the Dongs accumulated the gifts for the locals. Dinner was prepared by the two female cousins with the help of a local chef.

The volunteers sat together and talked among themselves while having dinner. Their leader started a topic, where everyone was asked to introduce themselves and express the reasons why they had joined the group. The first to start had been Altria, followed by Lyrid. Both had stated a similar reason for joining, much to the amusement of the members who were listening. Among the remaining members with the exclusion of Astrid, Ceries and Lyrid's cousin Yun, they were a general practitioner doctor, two nurses, a journalist cum writer, an accountant, a computer engineer, a programmer and a developer. The doctor and nurses worked in the same hospital. The Dong cousins introduced themselves as co-workers of Ceries to hide the truth about their presumably wealthy status and thus avoid judgement from the others. As Ceries had been awarded employee of the year on several occasions, they put their trust in him. When he was in university, Dong Group had funded his studies in the form of a paid scholarship, and he had been taken in as an employee immediately upon his graduation. Following their introductions, Ceries informed the group of the plans that they had for the next day.

The next morning (First day in the Village)

They assembled to witness for themselves the beautiful sunrise before their very eyes. Altria noticed how her newfound friend in Lyrid had been particularly close and intriguing with her, and yet shied away from the others. It occurred to her that he was shy and afraid of crowds, yet he had seemed to be such a charismatic and energising person to her. The only people he would mingle with were Ceries and Yun.

Altria was dismayed to realise that she had either forgotten to pack her concealer for the trip or dropped it during the trek. As she had been hiding a particularly apparent phoenix feather birthmark on her forehead that had been existent since birth, she had no choice but to explain to the curious members why a birthmark had suddenly erupted from her forehead. Astrid would help her by telling stories that were to known to her of how her cousin had been born with the birthmark, and said to be a special omen to Altria's parents, who had spent decades trying to conceive. She laughingly said that Altria's birthmark was a mark from the goddess of fertility and childbirth Xuanzi Niangniang, whom had granted Altria's mother's wish and endowed her with Altria in the womb, due to the accumulation of the old couple's good deeds throughout the years. While the female cousins were speaking, Lyrid was watching them placidly, seeming to particularly show interest in listening to Astrid's tale of how Altria was conceived, but his face was devoid of any emotions.

The agenda for the day was for the volunteers to blend with the villagers, and help by taking medical measurements such as vitals, presenting gifts and having fun with the children by playing and story-telling. Due to her childish nature, Altria opted to play with the children instead of mingling with the adult villagers, along with two other volunteers who had no knowledge of taking precise medical measurements. Lyrid and Yun were assigned to documentation and some other miscellaneous duties.

Alria had brought with her in her heavy hiking bag, a vast number of sweet and pastries, most of which she made herself, which she distributed among the locals and the group. Everyone commended her for her excellent baking skills. As they left the temporary medical camp, Altria noticed how they had smiled and bowed to her. She assumed they were happy with her visiting them and her treats.

As the population of the village was about 257 people, they had ended up finishing late while attending to the needs of the natives. As many of the senior citizens were unable to walk themselves to the camp, the group would visit them the next day.

Second day in the village

Seventeen households in the village were handpicked for the group to pay visits. Among the seventeen households, most of the volunteers had been exceptionally delighted to be able to visit the 113-year old Apo Wang Bu's household and watch her in action as she applied her 'batuk' (tattooing) skills. According to the tradition of the tribe, whenever a couple was married, they would receive tattoos on their skin by Apo herself. In ancient times, warriors were also bestowed with honourary tattoos. The more heroic a warrior was on the battlefield, he would receive more tattoos. There were also distinct designs and shapes of the said tattoos. It was said that the legendary warriors received different tattoos to signify different achievements that had been accomplished in war.

It was their luck that a couple was getting married on that day. Apo had created unique designs for her tattoos to the married couple. Due to their kindness in giving to the poorer citizens of the tribe, the group were allowed to witness the marriage rites during the wedding and join the villagers in their celebration. They observed how each sub-tribe would offer their respective traditional dance to the newlyweds to congratulate them as well as give them their blessings. Each dance move was unique to each sub-tribe, either resembling birds soaring high in the sky or diving downwards, or that of a duck waddling. As the natives danced, their footsteps were accompanied by hand gestures. The women would dance with more complex movements while the men carried the gong and made single, repetitive moments in tune to the women's dance moves. The tribesmen danced in pairs of a male and female each.

Noticing that the lead female dancer had been eyeing her forehead for some time, Altria was pleased when the dancer extended her hand to her to take over as the next group of dancers to give blessings to the newly-weds. At the same time the partner of the dancer handed Lyrid his gong for him to flank Altria. With the help of the natives, the majority of the other volunteers including Ceries and Astrid, performed the congratulatory dance, while some of their group members who were unable to catch up, joined them by making slower dance moves by the side. During their dinner gathering that night, the tour guide explained to them that it was believed by the villagers that a person who possessed a distinct birthmark, regardless where it was located on the body, meant that he or she was a being sent by heaven. Whenever they saw such a person, the villagers would believe the person to be a deity in disguise, and give them an abundance of blessings.

Third day in the village (Final day before departure)

The volunteers woke up at four in the morning for another hike to the topmost area to witness the distinct elegance of the sunrise amidst a sea of clouds. Altria thought the scene to be extremely breathtaking as she snapped a few photographs of the sight before her with the camera of her cellphone. The next sightseeing point was the falls, which possessed several levels like the rice terraces, one-of-a-kind. The guide showed them the cavern, and explained to them that before they left the cavern, they should consider paying their respects to the spirits guarding the place, since it was sacred. As they explored the cavern, they reached a praying area, which, according to the guide, was an answer to many tourists' wishes (similar to a wishing-well in western culture). In glee, Altria prostrated herself and made her wish to be loved for eternity by a loyal person in the future. She had long envied her cousin for having a good boyfriend in Ceries. While she had her eyes closed in deep prayer, she heard a hissing sound.

Altria had an extreme fear of snakes due to a childhood experience, and hearing the hissing sound reminded her badly of that incident. She ran as fast as she could, failing to pay attention to where she was heading, and as a result, crashed into a hard object. The object turned out to be Lyrid. Realising that she had her arms on his chest, she looked up at him in surprise and suddenly, her eyes met Lyrid's gaze. She felt the land around her spin and time seemed to have stopped as they both stood still, peering into each other's eyes. A few minutes passed before Lyrid reminded her coldly that they were far from the group, and that they should rush if they wanted to catch up with the group. She had never felt so embarrassed before in her life, she thought as she dashed forward in search of the other members.

In another section of the cave, the volunteers found themselves surrounded by trees, to which the guide explained was a hanging grave yard. Coffins were strung from holes in the rocks. The guide further explained that it was a belief of the villagers in ancient times that when their family members passed away, they would come back to life and hanging the coffins in such a manner, would prevent beasts and wild animals from feasting on the corpses. The villagers practised a mummification process far in difference to the ancient Egyptian practices, but

As the volunteers moved forward they arrived at an area plentiful of hanging coffins. They watched as the tour guide kneel and pay his respects to his ancestors silently in his heart, and paid their respects in the same manner. On their walk back, the guide informed them that usually the practice of hanging coffins in present day would only apply to a person close to death, if it was requested by oneself. Altria recalled how the height of the coffins had seemed very short, like that of a child. As if in answer to her question, the guide also informed the volunteers that the hanging coffins only held people who had died sitting, as the ritual to be buried in a hanging coffin for chances of coming back to life would only be doable for a person who had died in a sitting position.

The volunteers witnessed the last of the majestic scenery of the village as they returned to their villa. Among the memories that both Altria would come to recall many years later, would be the beautiful flowers, unique earth and rock formations, the relaxing tone of the waterfalls and lastly, smiling faces of locals. Finally, the tour came to an end with beholding the memorable sunset in the western portion of the village.

As everyone retired to their beds in exhaustion, Altria was elated as she recalled all the events that she had encountered that day in their breathtaking trip, when suddenly the memory of Lyrid's dark eyes and ethereal appearance came to her. Lyrid, she whispered in her mind, just who are you?