In the BPO industry, holidays are but usual working days. Hence, the long weekend that just happened (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Black Saturday, Easter Sunday, Valor Day (Araw ng Kagitingan), were only ordinary days. Five days! Yup! Five days it is! So where was I? You guessed it right--- how intelligent of you---yeah, I was in the office until Saturday afternoon and was working from home on Araw ng Kagitingan. But hey! I managed to take one day off last Maundy Thursday and spent time with my family in Daranak Falls in Tanay, Rizal.
It was actually an invitation from my sister-in-law's auntie. We travelled 2 hours from Taytay going to Tanay passing by some parts of Rizal: Morong and Baras, a few of which I can remember.
We never expected that this place will be jam-packed with visitors. Until we came to the site and saw the number of people walking to and from the parking area of their vehicles and the main entrance of the resort to carry things they brought for their outing.
This made me realized that Daranak Falls is still a well-liked summer get away for tourists, people from the neigboring towns and even for locals themselves. It is probably due to the cheap entrance fee (Php 20.00 only) and accessibility to the site of the locals and nearby communities.
Cottages are available but were not enough to accommodate the number of visitors. For some, they were able to find conducive spots to place their foods and other stuffs. While, our group was also lucky to get a table which we got for free, good enough for our us to set our foods.
While Ghee Anne and I were grilling our foods (shrimp, eggplants, hotdogs, Tilapias, pork and chicken barbeques--- yes, we had this much food, not to mention, green mangoes, shrimp paste or "alamang" and other bulk of finger foods / chichirias) ---- ooops, that made me crave again! These are the typical Filipino picnic foods I must say. --- so, what was I suppose to say? oh yeah, while these foods were being cooked, it came to our attention that there is another Falls --- it is the Batlag Falls. There was a sign directing to Batlag which I think was further up Daranak Falls. Plans of going to Batlag have already entered into my mind, which should follow after I would find Daranak Falls because our place was far from the Falls itself.
It was past lunch when we arrived there and foods were cooked at about 2:00 in the afternoon. We rested for awhile after our sumptous meal. We decided to take a look at Daranak Falls by groups so somebody will be able to take a look after our stuffs. It was my group who had the first chance to stroll away from our "kitchen and dinning table".
Going to the spot, we passed by a long line of women going to the rest room. I actually had the experience of using the toilet but because of the long wait I have endure, I decided to use the "men's". Though there were at least 3 or 4 cubicles for each "men" and "ladies" comfort rooms, it seems that it is not big enough for those who wanted to utilize it. Apart from these rest rooms, there were also hosepipes available outside for those who are amenable to take their showers in public. The thing is, you would still need to use the comfort rooms to change your clothes. A five-peso fee is also collected for using these rooms. Note that there is also a hose of water placed outside the toilets' door, which make it an accident prone area. A lady who just had her shower, dried herself and put on her dry clothes was so unlucky to have slipped and fell on her butt right after she made her first step on her way out of the comfort room. Not so comforting at all eh?
Back to the Falls, we saw that there was a rope dividing one part of the basin to the bigger part of the water. This delineates the shallow and deep part of the pool. It is why most of the "swimmers" did not go beyond the rope. They merely "dipped" their body in the water and stood there for as long as they want just to experience how it is to bathe in Daranak Falls.
Unfortunately, as I was starting the photoshoot, light rain was starting to drop, little by little by little, until there was no more opportunity to have the lens capture the scenery and the enjoyment of the people.
We had to go back to our place where we left our things so as to save them and ouselves too from getting wet. However, the rain was really unrelenting and it poured almost half equally how the Daranak Falls is gushing. We then had to walk back to our van and jeepney carrying our belongings. And yes of course--- we got wet! wet! wet!
The rain stopped almost 5:00 in the afternoon and it saddened me that we have to leave because visitors are only allowed to stay until 5:00 pm.
It was really a different kind of experience but I promise that I will be back to further see the beauty of Daranak and Batlag Falls.
