Blogs

Imagine peddling and strolling down a wavy road, the breezy air touching your face as you arrive in Bale Batu, Arayat. It is a place where the opportunity to feel the presence of the past is structured. Walking through the place, it was the experience of slowing down the time as I encountered a figure that, up until the present, is standing. Bale Batu was structured in the ‘70s by Jesus Padilla, famously known as Apung Susing. As the others call it the Little Cambodian Temple in Pampanga, Apung Susing began structuring the house with only his bare hands, applying pulverized mountain rocks and cement. The materials were chosen by him to keep their house fireproof because he feared that a wooden house would fall to forest fire, being situated near Mount Arayat. In fact, he built it because their old house, made of bamboo and wild grass, was easily infested by termites. Building the structure took him 40 years to fully make his vision come true. When I was able to travel to Bale Batu for ...