I Got a River for a Soul (Minalungao National Park, Nueva Ecija)

Hey.

I'm tempted to make a pun out of Closer (by The Chainsmokers feat. Halsey because I've been hearing that song at work literally all the time) but I'm much to sleepy to actually think of any good ones right now. 

Anyway.

HELLO! It's been five months! I'm so so sorry for being away for far too long. I've sworn for like a thousand times that I would try to be active in this blog and not to compile everything for far too long but well, life happens. Lol. I don't have a valid excuse and I'm starting this habit of not making excuses and owning up to my shortcomings so yep. I have two more travel posts after this and one coming in November (Cebu! Yay!) so I'm doing my best to catch up and blog them all before the year ends.

Moving on, I think I've hinted about this trip in my latest blog post (dated FIVE months ago, Jesus) so yes, this one indeed happened last May. I'll try to describe the experience as accurate as possible and if I fail at it, I have pictures to give the place justice. 

But would they? Nope. Because really, Minalungao is a place you should experience yourself.

It was a three hour drive at most from Bulacan and we even got a little lost finding the place. I went together with my whole family and few of the people who work for us plus their families. We were quite a large group so we used the shop's ELF 300 truck. We were off at 3am anyway so the no roof thing was not much of a bother. 

We arrived for about a few minutes before 7 in the morning and it was a Sunday so people were expected to flock the place in no time. There were two types of cottages, one was the rows of kubos situated by the shore and the more popular one were the floating cottages we got for ourselves. It was 500php per floating cottage and since it's a Sunday, we were given a maximum for 4 hours until the cottage would be hailed back to the shore for another costumer (the cottages don't have limited hours during weekdays.) So Tip #1, if you're planning to go (which you should!) I highly advise that you'll visit during weekdays.

The cottages by the shore. I think these ones cost less than the floating cottages.

Another thing, as soon as you arrive and find the floating cottages, they are sure as hell more appealing than the stable ones. We preferred the floating ones even. But if I were to come back I would actually choose to stay with the ones by the shore. I'd tell you later why.

Floating cottages look like this one!

We were cottage no. 4 (it's no. 3 actually but it looked too small to carry us and our belongings.) We got two cottages, one for us and one for the other families. We were fortunate to have come as early as we did because then we got the chance to savor the place with only a few people around.

There's a hanging bridge that connects the main area to a spot for those who wanted to try the zip line (or just curious what's on the other side really.)

Quiet and peaceful at around 7 in the morning

People are starting to arrive at this point

Seriously, these pictures don't even come close to the beauty of the place. Ap and I talked about coming back in a weekday so as to appreciate the place even more. We only got the place for ourselves for about an hour or 2 before cottage after cottage were crowding the place and soon there were too many people everywhere. 

About 10 i think, Ap, Bebe (my niece) and I decided we're done swimming. There were too many people already anyway and Kuya has started drinking with his friends (who came with a different group.) We opted to explore the place and take pictures while the rest of our family swim their heart out.

We walked our way back from our spot to the shore, it wasn't that far and a cemented way was paved for those who chose to travel by foot instead of the floating cottages.

People can walk on the side due to a built in walkway the locals or the officials must have built for the park's visitors.

Since there were a lot of people already, looking for a good spot to take pictures was quite difficult lol. Managed to get a few though.

With Ap and Bebe :)

 We crossed the hanging bridge which a lot of people seemed to get really terrified of. I grew up with a best friend who live in a place we need to cross a hanging bridge to reach so, crossing it was pretty much a piece of cake to me lol

Got a pak ganern moment on the other side of the bridge.

Just looking out from our veranda nbd

So here's why I said earlier that I prefer the cottages by the shore and hopefully, some others would as well. To be honest, it doesn't matter that cottages are rallied across the river (I can't help it if it's popular.) What's annoying was the litter were just about everywhere! You're casually swimming and enjoying the clear and cold water and then you'll see some empty 1.5 liter Coke bottle floating in front of you. There were also plastic bags of garbage left on the side of the huge rocks (which God knows from when because it was there when we arrived and we're among the first ones.) It's just sad to see people not take care of a beautiful place like this. We shouldn't let something as enthralling and enchanting as this river go to waste.

But of course, the choice still goes to you but please please, learn to look after yourself and your trash! Don't let something as beautiful as this die.

I should have come up with a more creative way to end this but it's also 3:34 in the morning and I have to be up in a few. I'm hoping this ain't the last post I'll have in a while (I have two more to write about!! and an album to review.) Well anyway, I see ya when I see ya!