Welcome back to me! With classes done, I am now officially back! And
hopefully, I will also be able to update my fanfiction. Although rainy season
is officially here in the Philippines, my summer just began and my summer
adventure (wow, maraming balak puntahan?) starts with my outing to Tanay, Rizal
with my officemates. Lemme start my story with Day 0, Friday, June 3, 2016
after work…
Day 0: June 3-Friday
I was all set for the outing – overnight things (check), toiletries
(check), clothes (check), money (check), and most importantly, food (CHEEECK!)
I must admit that from 8:30AM to 5:30PM (office hours) I was giddy and truly
cannot wait for our outing to start. But then of course, there is work to do so
I had to put aside my excitement for a while and do what I must do J
Fast forward to 5:30PM when me and two of my officemates went to the
company’s staff house, where we will be staying for the night (we planned on
travelling to Tanay, Rizal at 4AM the following day). We first went to the
market to buy some rice and eggs for our dinner; an ex-officemate already
bought pancit canton, which we will also have for dinner. The ride from our office
to the staff house was supposed to be short, but goodness gracious, the traffic
was unbelievable that it took us more or less an hour to reach the market. That
hour-long drive was almost as long as my ride home! Anyway, we reached the
market and bought some supplies and went to the staff house.
Of course, we did not immediately cook our dinner upon arriving to the
staff house. Since there is Wi-Fi and TV, we first lounged and busied ourselves
with our own technological bubbles (and barely talking to each other). A little
later, I decided that I should show off my cooking prowess (naaaks!). By
prowess I meant cooking omelet and pancit canton. Goodness, those are the only
food I could cook, I could have cooked the rice too, but Ma’am Rose got ahead
of me. Boohoo.
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| Let us assume that my omelet looked like this ;) |
And so, Jonalie and I started preparing the ingredients for the omelet.
Ma’am Rose said that they have tomatoes and onions… and by onions, she meant a
single tiny onion bulb, which I jokingly said that whoever gets a piece of the
onion is lucky (that was how small it was). Jonalie began the chopping of the
tomatoes and the tiny onion, while I started beating the eggs and later on
mixing ‘em up. I really wanted to put more tomatoes but then they said they
wanted omelet and not tomatoes with eggs (if you get the joke) so I heated up
the pan and stated cooking. I think I did a pretty good job with the omelet… I am
waiting for the comments of those who tasted my recipe, LOL J
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Is it true that the new Lucky Me! pancit canton tastes different?
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Then the pancit canton. Do I actually have to narrate how I cooked four
packs of pancit canton? I mean most people are able to cook pancit canton by
the age of 12 (or younger even) and if I don’t know how to cook pancit canton, I
am so much of a disgrace. Hehe J
We ate, cleared the table and washed the dishes, then we watched TV
while tinkering with our phones, cleaned ourselves, and went to bed. Day 0
done!
Day 1: June 4-Saturday
The following day, I completely woke up at around 3:45AM. There was a
slight change of plans, but what can we do? And so we prepared and left the
staff house at 4:30AM, buying pan de sal along the way for our breakfast and
rode the bus to Starmall Crossing, where we will be having a looong jeepney
ride to Tanay (yep, we went and will go to outings using public transpo… no
cars, no licenses, hehe). We arrived at Starmall at around 5:30 and rode the
jeep where I slept almost all the way. I woke up when we were at Baras, Rizal,
with a ridiculous smile on my face. Perhaps it was the cold air, or the cute
little town, or having slept, or just because I was excited for our trip. Perhaps
one of the highlights of our trip was while still riding the jeep, a tricycle
driver was tailing us and shouting “Ma’am sa Daranak po, Daraitan,” offering us
a ride to our destination. Along the streets were other tricycle drivers
shouting the same thing to us.
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| Daranak Falls |
At around 7:30AM, we reached a Jollibee in Tanay, where we decided to
stop over to pee (as there is still a long way to go before reaching Daranak).
That was when Jonalie told us that she forgot to charge her DSLR!
Noooooooooooo! Good thing, the manager of Jollibee allowed her to charge her
battery there for 10 minutes (or longer if we dine in, which we did). By 8AM,
we were on the go again (and I, secretly praying that the 30 minutes was enough
for the camera to last the rest of the day) and we rode a tricycle going to
Daranak.
I thought the ride would be short, but it was not! It took us around 20
minutes to reach Daranak Falls! Our driver was very kind and acted as a tour
guide. He talked about the specialty foods, Daranak Falls and Daraitan River,
Pililla Wind Farm, Mt. Nova (which has eight falls), Kalinawan Cave, the Groto
of Our Lady of Rawang with 402 steps, and other fun facts. During the ride, I saw
a herd of sheep and I realized that that was the first time ever saw a sheep. Hurray
for me!
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| Batlag Falls |
And then, there was Daranak Falls… it was a very beautiful place, very
nature-y and peaceful. But I must say I did not truly enjoy bathing there (or
at Batlag Falls, where we transferred because it was crowded at Daranak). For one
thing, it just rained the previous night and the ground was a bit muddy. And another
thing was because the floor of the falls was soil and pebbles combined, which
made the river unclear. I was actually afraid of going into the waters because I
could not see the bottom or where I was supposed to step next, although I could
see that the water is only up to the waists of the tourists. Since the river
floor was composed of soil and pebbles, it was awkward (for me) to walk without
slippers and so I was wearing mine, meaning to say, I was not really able to
swim. Personally, I think Daranak and Batlag Falls is good for bonding and not
for swimming. In Batlag area, they have this pool but the water is not flowing
so you wonder how many children already peed there ;)
Don’t get me wrong, I truly enjoyed our stay at Batlag Falls, I got to
know my officemates better and got to relax in such a natural and beautiful
place (while eating junk food, LOL).
By 1PM, more people were arriving and so we decided to pack up and
leave, especially that we wanted to climb the 402 steps to the grotto. We texted
the tricycle driver who drove us to Daranak and asked him to bring us to the
foot of the grotto. There, he told us to leave our things inside the tricycle
and bring only the valuables and water. That was really the best advice,
because I thought 402 steps was a piece of cake, BUT IT WAS NOT! The steps were
uneven and as we climbed higher, the air is also thinning so breathing was a
bit harder.
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| Top of Grotto of Our Lady of Rawang |
While climbing and looking around, I realized that the trail was
actually for the Stations of the Cross. Obviously, I did not have my prayer
book with me and I do not know what to pray for that Stations of the Cross, and
so I just murmured Hail Mary’s while climbing the 402 steps. Reaching the top
is another story. It was such a perfect place to put up a grotto. I realized
there that climbing the stairs is like life, you have to keep pushing forward
(or in the grotto’s case, upward) to reach your goal and when you do, you are
most fulfilled. At the top, I saw the greens of the mountains, I saw the sky, I
saw a glimpse of the world (yes, exaggeration much?) and I was with the
monument of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. Despite the fatigue of climbing up,
it was all worth it because I thought that my journey up strengthened (even by
small percentage) my faith and brought me closer to the Lord. Yes, I am being
preachy, but the blessed feeling and fulfillment at the grotto was truly magical.
I would like to climbed up again, this time, doing the proper Stations of the
Cross.
The journey down was less exhaustive, but it was scary because I got to
see how high we were and given my fear of heights, climbing down was not the
best thing. Good thing there was a hand raid, which I prevented myself from
gripping super hard.
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| Going up |
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| Going down |
If the journey up the grotto was tiring, the journey HOME was equally
tiring. The only edge of the journey home was at least I was not perspiring nor
climbing a very high flight of stairs. Yet still, to get out of Rizal (back to
Starmall Crossing) which took more than two hours plus more or less an hour and
half back home was still pretty tiring.
More adventures to come!
