Treasure Hunt: The Hunt for Magnetic Mountain

            I take one last glance at my phone’s battery to make sure it is at 100% before leaving the house. I will be using it loads today taking pictures and jotting down notes, and want to make sure it can last throughout the day.

            Planning the trip was a little complicated. The original plan was for me to drive on my own but take a friend along, because I had never driven to Los Baños before and was worried about getting lost alone. It amused me to realize that I am terrified to get lost in the Philippines but am perfectly comfortable getting lost in a foreign country. It seems a little strange being that I know the language and have my cellphone with me (and in it, numerous GPS applications) in the Philippines, but am reduced to sign language and the most basic of English abroad, and refuse to use my cellphone to avoid roaming charges. Then again, I surmised, it made some sense – perhaps in a foreign country, the concept of “lost” is diffused since everywhere I go is unfamiliar anyway, so I am technically always “lost.”

I took some time thinking about which friend to invite along. I had to make sure that the friend I brought along would not have too loud a personality and overshadow me during field work and end up talking to everybody for me. I also needed to make sure that I wouldn’t mind being in the car during a very long drive with him or her, but that I wouldn’t be too distracted. Finally, I settled on one of my childhood friends, Bea. She was a scientist herself, being a graduate of the chemistry program at UP. I knew we could talk for hours and hours but once it was time to get to “work,” she’d understand the need to focus and take notes. And we hadn’t seen each other in a few months. I speak to her, and after checking her schedule, she excitedly said that she was free to take the day off from work to come with me. It was all set and perfect.

I tell my mom my plans, knowing she would disapprove but would perhaps go along with it. I had no way of foreseeing what she was about to say: “What car will you use?” she asked. “I just brought your Vios to the repair shop today, and the other car is coding on Tuesdays.”

I stare at her, incredulous. Why did they bring my car in for repair today? Why didn’t they wait until I left for Japan? Now what? Could I experience the Magnetic Mountain without a car? Would Bea allow me to use her car if I offered to fill it up with a full tank of gas afterwards? How much would a taxi all the way to Los Baños and back cost? Would any taxi driver take me?

Before I could say anything, my mom mentions that she was going to Laguna the day I planned my field work – August 19th, Tuesday. Perhaps I’d like to come along? The driver could drop her off at Laguna to do her work, he’d drive me the rest of the way to Los Baños to do my work, and I’d pick her up on my way back to Manila.

I wasn’t very happy with the idea thinking that I’d now have to complete my field work under time pressure but it was the best option available, so I said yes. I then realized that this meant I would have to cancel with Bea – I asked her to come along because I did not want to be in the car alone, but if a driver was driving me, then she would be an “extra” person on the trip, something I had to avoid. Thankfully she understood and agreed to just meet up with me to catch up another time.

So finally, all plans were set – that is, until an expected midnight hospital trip two nights prior to the field work day changed up our plans once again. Sunday night, my mom experienced a terrible case of food poisoning and had to be brought to the Emergency Room by my sister and I for rehydration and some medicine. She stayed home from work on Monday and said that she’d have to see how she was feeling before deciding whether or not she would show up for work on Tuesday. Therefore, it wasn’t until Monday night that she decided she would take the next day off as well, and that the driver would be all mine for my Los Baños adventure. Less than twelve hours before I was due to go on my field work, I finally knew definitely and exactly how I was going to go about my little escapade.

***

“If you use Google Maps, you will pass all the main roads with the buses,” Alan, my driver, explains as we cruise along the skyway. “I know the short cut. We can get to Los Baños much quicker that way.” I never really went on a long drive alone with Alan, and it was interesting to speak with him. We talked about the highway and the buses that have fallen off due to their need for speed. He pointed out the highway patrols with their gun-like sensors to look for vehicles going beyond the speed limit. (And I learned that if your license is confiscated, you will need to go to Batangas to pick it up.) He described the many resorts and hot springs in Los Baños and how he and his family frequently went there to swim when he was younger. During a lull in our chat, I look out the window and have a sudden recollection of driving down the highways in Europe in our Cosmos coach traveling from country to country. Somehow, all road trips are the same but each is different.

We slow down and inch towards our first toll gate. I nervously take some money out from my wallet and mentally kick myself for not anticipating toll fees. Of course they were coming, why didn’t I think about them before hand and take some more cash with me? I calculate in my head and figure I have enough, even to buy some food from Dal Cielo Restaurant later on. I hope I am correct.

The scenery continues to flash by and eventually, we take the Calamba exit and enter Los Baños proper. “I’m looking for a place called Magnetic Mountain in the UP Los Baños campus,” I tell Alan. “Have you heard of it?”

“Magnetic Mountain?” he asks.

“Yes, supposedly, on that mountain side, you don’t need to step on your gas to accelerate. Something about the mountain pulls you along, like a magnet. You can even shut your engine off and you will run.”

Alan raises his eyebrow. “Well, we can’t turn our engine off because this is an automatic car, and shutting the engine off would lock the steering wheel. It would be fine on a manual car, but not on this one. We can put it on neutral and see if it will work.” He pauses for a few seconds and repeats, “If it will work.”

We continue on in silence, each of us grappling with our disbelief, and fifteen minutes later, we arrive at the campus.

I roll my window down and ask the guard where the Magnetic Mountain is. He smiles and gives us directions. “Wow,” I think to myself. “That was easy.”

I relax and enjoy looking around the campus. I had never been to UP Los Baños before and the reason I had chosen this particular assignment is because once my research project to find a local wood suitable for guitar production with Sir Nathan begins I will need to travel here a lot, and I figured coming here before the project begins would be beneficial. I was hitting two birds with one stone.

I notice then that the scenery is changing and I’m getting nervous.

“This doesn’t look like it,” Alan says, as if reading my mind.

“Let’s stop and ask that guy over there,” I suggest.

Alan pulls over and I roll my window down. “Excuse me, would you know where the Magnetic Mountain is?” I ask.

“Magnetic Mountain?” the guy asks, confused. “Are you sure that’s in Los Baños?”

“Yes sir, it’s supposed to be in the campus,” I reply, getting even more nervous.

He thinks a little bit. “I’ve never heard of it, but there is a guard house down the road. Maybe you can ask them.”

I thank him, and Alan and I go on to ask the guard. He points further down the road to my relief, and we continue on our way. We start climbing uphill and I’m excitedly thinking that we are getting there – until we are blocked by a sign.

“If the Magnetic Mountain is in there, we can’t get to it,” Alan says. He makes a U-Turn and we start driving back to where we came from. “Maybe you should ask some students,” he suggests. I think it is a great idea, so we pull up beside a pair of students.

“Excuse me, would you know where the Magnetic Mountain is?” I ask.

The guy stares at me.

“The Magnetic Mountain,” I repeat.

With his mouth open, he uncertainly looks over at his companion.

I start getting extremely annoyed. People who stare at me blankly instead of simply answering “I don’t know” always irk me immensely. To make matters worse, I read something in his companion’s face. It seemed she knew something but did not want to speak up. I wonder to myself if I look like a brain-eating zombie.

I take a few deep breaths and try to calm down. “The Magnetic Mountain, it’s supposed to be in your school. Have you heard of it or not?”

Finally, he reacts and uncertainly shakes his head and says, “No.”

“Thank you for your time,” I say as politely as I could considering my irritation at the pair and roll up my window.

I am starting to doubt myself. The guard at the gate had heard of it. How come no one else had?

“Maybe they’re freshmen,” I say out loud to Alan. He agrees.

We spot another pair of students and stop by them.

“Hello, have you heard of the Magnetic Mountain?” I ask.

“Magnetic Mountain?” the first girl repeats. “Maybe you mean… the Flat Rocks? Or the Mud Springs?”

“No, the Magnetic Mountain,” I repeat.

The girls discuss between themselves and say, “No, sorry, we don’t know it. Normally people come here to see the Flat Rocks and the Mud Springs but we haven’t heard of the Magnetic Mountain.”

I thank them and Alan and I drive off again. I’m getting a little frantic. Where is this mountain? Alan and I decide to drive back to the gate and ask that same guard for better directions.

We take a few wrong turns and I’m sitting in the back seat wondering if I could ever understand the set-up of this campus. I once thought UP Diliman was confusing but after a few months, it all made perfect logical sense to me. If I spent more time in UP LB, would I come to understand its winding roads as well?

We had just more or less found our way to the gate when Alan jerks to the side of the road to ask a man sitting on his motorcycle.

“Have you heard of the Magnetic Mountain?” Alan asks him.

“Ah, the Magnetic Hill,” he says. I quietly rejoice in the backseat as Alan takes the directions from this very helpful man.

           

         We easily follow the directions but stop once more to ask a jeepney driver at the side of the road if we are heading the right way. “Yes, just keep going straight,” he confirms. “When you see women washing clothes at the side of the street, turn right, and you’ll be there.”

           

             Alan and I thank him and soon find the women and turn right.

            “Is this it?” I ask Alan uncertainly as we climb up another slope.

            “It should be!” Alan says. We reach the top and as we begin our descent, Alan shifts the gear to neutral and sure enough, we’re rolling down. “This is nothing, we’re going downhill, of course we’re cruising along without the gas pedal,” Alan says. But we soon noticed something: Even when the road evened out, we kept rolling. And not only did we keep rolling, we were accelerating. For some odd reason, our car kept going faster and faster and Alan occasionally had to step on his brakes to control the speed.

            We reach the end of the road and both of us are laughing. “It actually worked,” I said. “But I needed to take a picture of a sign board. I didn’t see any coming down. Did you?”

            Alan says he didn’t spot any either, and we agree to go up the mountain again – from the other side this time, just to see if we would be magnetized again if we went the other way.

            We didn’t, and nowhere could I find a sign board, so I take a shot of the only official looking sign I could find.

  

             I refuse to go down and up the mountain again, so I tell Alan that this sign will have to do and it was time for us to head to Dal Cielo Restaurant. It is on our way out of UP Los Baños that I had two more field work realizations: First, it truly is important to plan ahead and be extremely alert when you are on the field. You probably won’t often have the time or money to keep going back to look for things you missed, so it is important to take in as much as you can in one go. Second, it is dangerous to go out into the field with an expectation. Perhaps I could not find the sign because I was looking for a particular kind of sign I had in mind, something I had seen in another one of my travels. But maybe the sign here looked different. Whatever the case, I realized the importance of keeping an open mind out in the field.

            We drive out of the campus and easily find the restaurant.

 

             I step inside and a little awkwardly ask the waiters if the owners are around. I am hit with another field work realization: of course it is important I know I am here for research purposes but at the end of it, I need to simply relax and talk to them “normally.” I don’t need to strut around with my notebook held up to my chest and my nose in the air. There is nothing wrong with having a casual chat with the people in my assigned field. It may even be better for everybody.

            Unfortunately, I was told that the owners – Pinky and Marissa – were both not around, so I contented myself with taking their calling cards and ordering some food for take-out since I needed to get home to check on my mom. The pesto spaghetti I ordered was pretty good, but the strawberry muffin I took home was absolutely divine. I may pass by the restaurant the next time I am in the area again. 

            Or you know, on second thought, I may look around for a new place to try, because that’s the spirit of field work and adventure, isn’t it?