Ding Fuellos attended an event at the Mt. Data Hotel in Bauko, Mountain Province and reports on his ticklish experience:

The footspa, according to Manong who gave me one after the conference, is a pasttime of elderly men. After a hard day’s work, their sons give them the footspa in their “dap-ay” (huts). The “technology” uses coconut oil and two sticks of bamboo which are rubbed alternately on their soles, until they doze off.

When I had mine in my room, it gave me that tingling feeling, which really sooths you with the “kiliti” , until it become more at ease with the rubbing of sticks. I think the secret there is the “kiliti” factor which runs up to your spine and head until you get goose bumps (got the idea?). It is synonymous to laughing, which makes you secrete some hormones that will calm you down after.

While we hanker for other Asian-type massage (e.g. Thai, Chinese reflexology), it was a suprise even among the other Cordillera participants that we have this indigenous way of relaxation.