Unveiling Pinamungajan's Hidden Gems

Sometimes, beautiful things are not served on a silver spoon. Sometimes, you need to exert effort to unveil them. And that is why I love to travel. Taking on adventures without a clear plan often lead to beautiful destinations. You get to appreciate the little things more and realize how wonderful life is.

The Hidden Valley Resort in Pinamungajan was famous for its wave pool. When I went there, I never thought that I was in for a treat. The resort does not only have a massive wave pool but has other pools other than the wave pool. It has 5 other pools and out of them all, my favorite was the pool named “raging river”. This was because I got to experience what it’s like to be tossed around by waves and surprisingly it was fun. Though it doesn’t last long and the interval was about 30 minutes, I guess it contributes to the excitement. Waiting for it to comeback and experience it again. Besides the multiple pools, what amazed me was the overlooking scenery that it offered. Despite the exhaustion of climbing up to the place that I was staying at, I still considered myself lucky to be able to look at the sunset and sunrise at the comfort of my own bed.

The famous wave pool for me was not as fun as I expected it to be. Maybe because I experienced the raging river first. Compared to the raging river, the wave pool was a piece of cake. It was too shallow for my liking. But the children seemed to have fun there and it was still exciting with the waves and all.

The moment that I arrived, the first thing that I noticed wasn’t pools nor the magnificent view but the waterfall that sits perfectly in the middle of the jungle and comes out from a cave at the side of a mountain. At that moment I knew to myself that I will get to the bottom of that waterfall and bathe in its waters. And so, the next day, together with some family and friends, we started to our journey to the falls. We first went to a pool of water where some locals bathe so that we can ask some of them to take us to falls. When we got there, we asked a woman who was sitting at the edge of the pool on how can we get to the waterfall. She said that the waterfall was far away and it was hard to get close to the it. Disappointed, we bathe in the pool to cool off. She then said that there was another waterfall that was close and easier to get to but was a lot smaller. And so, we continued our adventure with the help of some of her kids.

Unlike other streams that lead to the falls that are often visited by tourists, this stream was filled with fallen leaves from the surrounding trees. The rocks that you step on are filled with sediments and other particles that clearly shows how the place was not often visited by people. There was that fear of what if there are snakes lurking beneath the surface and we accidentally step on them and bite us but it did not stop us to continue on to our journey. Every time the kids that guided us to stop in certain area in the stream, we always ask what is beyond it and continued the journey until we reached an area where we can no longer climb and so we stopped there and took some pictures. That journey proved to me that it’s not all about the destination but how we get to the destination. While we were following the stream, two of my cousins were left behind at the resort. When they decided to follow, they went to the waterfalls since that was the original plan. They reached the bottom of the waterfall but they were afraid to bathe in the water because of the fear of now knowing what’s lurking beneath. So, they went back to the resort to tell the story of their journey. They told us that the path going to the waterfall was definitely difficult. They had to move across large rocks and the thick bushes covering the path. We also told them about our journey until we went home.

When I came back last May, the dream of getting close to the waterfall never left my mind but I let go of the thought because I thought to myself that I can never fulfill that dream. I wanted to follow the stream again but when I went there, it was almost dried out. Some of the locals said maybe because it was summer and that it would comeback when the rainy season come. Luckily, the pool was not dried out so we bathe their again. Who could resist such refreshing water? Walking back to the resort, we came across the path that two of my cousins took to get to the waterfall. With the spark of interest beginning to envelop us again, we asked locals if they could take us there. They gladly agreed and even told us folklore that was very much interesting. Indeed, the path wasn’t easy. We climbed up a mountain and climbed down, moved across large and slippery and move through thick bushes rocks for us to reach the bottom. All I can say is that the trek was worth it because we get to see the beauty that nature has to offer. The rock formations were unbelievably beautiful. I was very thankful that I get to fulfill my dream and share the story of it to the rest of the world.