Revisiting our History: Exploring the Caves of Biak na Bato

       If you are looking for an adventure and in lieu of recent events you feel the need to revisit your historical perspectives, then look no further: this Biak na Bato National Park guide, complete with sample itinerary and budget proposal is exactly what you need.

            Biak na Bato is situated near Manila, and you can visit it on your own time whenever you feel like it--that means no need for scheduled tours which do not align with your day-offs!

Where to Go

            Biak na Bato National Park is located in San Miguel, Bulacan, conveniently only three hours away from Metro Manila. The national park boasts of hundreds of caves, some still remaining unexplored. In our day tour package we explored six historical caves that served as the Katipuneros' reception area, hospital, storage, and ambush sites for  Emilio Aguinaldo and his troops way back in the 1890's.

How to Get There

            From Cubao, ride a bus with a sign going to Cabanatuan. In our case, we took an ES Transport bus and asked to be dropped off at Camias Tricyle Station. Your landmark will be a clock tower with St. Paul University to the right. The fare is only P117. From Camias, ride a tricycle and ask to be dropped off at Biak na Bato National Park. The tricycle can fit up to four people and the travel time is about 25 minutes. The tricycle fare is priced at P150.

Once You're There

            The Park has a fee for entrance regularly priced at P50 for adults. Due to vandalism and other instances that could damage the park, visitors are no longer allowed to spelunk without tour guides. For Biak na Bato, the tour guides are locals in the area and you will need to negotiate the price with them. We took the tour for Yungib caves I, II, III, (Ambush Cave, Hospital Cave, and Imbakan Cave), Tanggapan Cave, Pahingahan Cave, and Bat Cave priced at P800. For this adventure, it was only me and my boyfriend so it was a bit pricey on our end. The more the merrier, and of course, the cheaper the ambagan! According to our tour guide, they can take up to 15 people per guide.

            There's only one carinderia in the national park so it's advisable to bring packed lunch. With all the walking, you'd need to bring some biscuits and loads of water, too!

Spelunking Galore

This is the park's entrance, complete with the map the guides will use to inform you of your tour package.

            Since we came in a bit late, the tour guide led us to some shortcuts through the caves. Cool thing was, she owns a tricycle so we got a ride for free. We visited the Yungib caves first, followed by Ambush and Tanggapan.

Some caves will require you to go through ladders like this

            The tour took us only 3 hours since we didn't go inside Bat Cave due to time constraints. It was already 5:30 pm and the sun was going down by the time we got to Bat Cave's view deck.

            The tour guides will give you a look back to the 1890's, complete with how the Katipuneros strategized to ambush Spaniard soldiers and how they used codes to make sure you were not a spy. My favorite cave would be the ambush cave where the cave ceilings were so low and we literally had to squeeze ourselves into the rocks.

Posing near Bat Cave's view deck

            You also have the option to swim in the river inside the park. No need to worry about changing clothes since there are bathrooms located inside and outside Biak na Bato's national park.

            As promised, the sample itinerary complete with the budget proposal for two persons:

Sample Itinerary

8:00 AM	Departure from Cubao
11:00 AM	Arrival at Camias Tricycle Station
11:05 AM	Departure from Camias
11:30 AM	Arrival at Biak na Bato National Park
11:35 AM	Eat lunch
12:30 PM	Start spelunking!
3:30 PM	Back to the entrance of National Park
3:35 PM	Departure from Biak na Bato to Camias
4:05 PM	Arrival at Camias, eat merienda
5:00 PM	Departure from Camias, ride bus to Cubao
8:00 PM	Arrival back to Cubao Station

Budget Proposal (for two people)

Bus fare back and forth	P234
Tricycle fare back and forth	P150
Tour guide	P400
Food and drinks	P200
Total	P984/person

             The adventure was well worth it. For less than a thousand pesos, you'd get the adventure you are looking for, complete with the tranquil of the province and the historical knowledge on how Emilio Aguinaldo and his troops fought back against the Spaniards. Maybe that's what we need--a little review on our history every now and then--to awaken the sleeping nationalistic Juan in all of us and remind us who the real enemy is.

Summer 2015: Four outings, four times the fun

This summer, I decided to go to every summer outing I can.

Taal Lake, Batangas

Papa's family live in Batangas. My parents wanted to visit them on Labor Day, so we did, and we took a quick swim by the Taal Lake. Although it was hot, we had a quality time talking while relaxing on hammocks.

I consider myself lucky to have such a place to go to.

Posing with the whole family by a hill.

We were just about to swim.

Morong Star Beach Resort and Hotel, Bataan

Ah, this tops all the rest. I asked Mom to pay for all of us, and miraculously, she agreed. It's been a while since we all went to an actual beach so I was pumped up. We all enjoyed the zip line and the banana boat (especially the banana boat! I was in front and even though all the water splashes ended on my face, I felt like a cowgirl so that was fun.). Only Jj and I went for the very boring kayaking experience.

(c) Bro Oliver kindly took this amazing shot for us. <3

Mom, Jj, and I also went island hopping. Papa was fast asleep half the time.

Just keep floating, just keep floating.

La Mesa Dam Eco Park

I thought I'd let this pass, but only a few days after Morong, we went out to the Eco Park in celebration of Gian's 7th birthday.

The Geronimo family sans my brother who took this photograph.

Don't worry, there are a couple of swimming pools and no, I didn't swim by the lagoon behind me,

A lifeguard saw me struggling to learn how to freestyle and taught my cousin and I how to relax by forming bubbles, three floating types (turtle, jellyfish, and back float), and the correct freestyle techniques. Thanks manong lifeguard, my faith in humanity is now restored by 1%.

Splash Island

A friend got hold of free Splash Island tickets and invited my brother and I to come with her and her family. I was hesitant at first after reading all of the negative comments about the resort from their official Facebook Page, but Mom said we should go and try to enjoy the slides, and so we did, and I'm happy we did.

My favorite is the Magellan's Drop! Moja and I went to it twice, and if there weren't any schedules, I'd have gone there every hour. My second favorite would be the Rio Montanosa, followed by Big Bam Boo, and then the Tausug Trails. Due to clothing issues (no, I wouldn't remove my shirt for this ride) we couldn't try the King Pilipit. (This makes me sad, even now.)

With Moja Maan and her family, sans Jj again who was our photographer. I kind of feel bad for Jj now.

Posing by the Water Wahoo.

Splash Island is famous not only for its water park but also for its rules regarding food and beverages--guests are not allowed to bring their food and drinks inside the resort. We went there for free but the way they charged the food was unreasonable. They only sell drinks in one size. It sucks.

So there there, all in all I had fun this summer. It was like making up for lost time.

Untitled

I am the opposite of a social animal. I didn't know when it started but I suddenly found it hard to approach people. At some point my brother said my outlook of the world was that "people was there to hurt me." Of course I denied it until I realized he was probably right. Cham also mentioned that I was looking down a lot while walking, as if I wanted to disappear so as not to be noticed.

Cham is who she is. I have learnt to not expect anything from her and I thank God that at least she's there to bear with me.

I tried a website with "listeners" when I had no one to talk to. A stranger told me that my attitude might have sprung up from my abandonment issues. You see, two of the people I considered most important left me. Since then, she said, I must have been avoiding making contact with anyone else so as to protect myself.

With Jj

It was a eureka moment for me. I was quite wondering since when I didn't like knowing strangers or making connections with people until she pointed it out. My subconscious must have been driving in automatic for quite some time. I can't function well in crowds anymore. As much as I want to make friends, I can't make the first move until they approach me. I don't like forcing myself in anyone. I also don't like the front that people put out. I don't like how some tend to stab people in the back.

I'm trying to work it out. I'm joining crowds again but it's been proving to be a challenge. I often find myself alone with my thoughts in crowds, unless I have a trusted someone beside me (that someone being either Cham or my brother.) This is why kids are way easier to connect with. I'd been making friends with a lot of kids lately.

This kid is so hyperactive and so is her imagination.

Ping is so cute and adorable!

Without knowing why, I distanced myself from my then-friends. I was probably burning bridges, checking who'd be genuinely willing to stay versus those who were there to use me. Guess what, none of them stayed. I am now required to get back with the same group of people to do what I'm supposed to, and it's been triggering dramatic moments.

Here's to a brighter future.

Rumiko Takahashi and Progressive Love (or why I love InuYasha and Ranma 1/2)

When I was young it was my daily routine to watch Hero or Animax for at least an hour. I was addicted to anime at ages 12 to 13 until it mellowed during my last two years of high school--that was when I started to take interest in reading.

Out of all the anime I'd seen, my top two would be from the same mangaka (or comic illustrator): Rumiko Takahashi. She created InuYasha and Ranma 1/2, and I am indebted to all of the laughs and kilig that I felt as I watched hundred-something episodes from the mentioned shows. I could have chosen more dark-themed anime or more action ones but somehow Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Naruto, Dragon Ball, Gundam Seed, One Piece, (not to mention Death Note which was agony to watch because it was as pretentious as raisin cookies) among others didn't make me feel as I did with her classic masterpieces.

Rumiko Takahashi. Photo stolen from the web.

Rumiko--it seems--made 2/5 of her anime as action, 2/5 as comedy, and only 1/5 was reserved for romance (Disclaimer: This was of course, pure speculation and made-up for the sake of argument). This combination makes the romantic scenes much-awaited for and it builds up enough tension for the characters involved.

InuYasha and Kagome. Another image stolen from the Internet.

Since we are already using made-up statistics regarding Rumiko's works, why not invent vocabulary to fit this article? I mentioned progressive love from the title: simply, it means a love that wasn't romanticized from the first encounter but is rather hidden and develops within the characters who are destined to be together under unavoidable circumstances (for Ranma 1/2, it would be their engagement, as for InuYasha it would be the necessary collaboration to collect the Shikon jewel shards) as the couples face various challenges.

Ranma and Akane were very shy and would hide their feelings toward each other. The author would only hint with some misplaced stares, jealousy, concern, and verbal slips. It was the same with InuYasha and Kagome--they were fighting a lot at first but would later reconcile with shy faces. You can see Ranma's concern over Akane, it is obvious with the little things: the constant way on which he catches her, the need to protect her whenever a creature would attack her. Akane, with her weak state, would do all she could to save Ranma as well. It is this similar formula that was used with InuYasha and Kagome.

The scene that almost caught my heart on fire: Ranma was really shy when he offered his hand to Akane. I think I just melted again. Even this snapshot is stolen.

This is the kind of love to root for--the kind where you're sure you are protected by the one you care about. There's not much need to talk romance; you can feel it in the air, you can almost taste it with their actions, you can see it in the way they just are. Their feelings strengthens as the show progresses and it is only when it's in full-bloom that they talk about it. This kind of love could only grow as time passes: this kind of love progresses into the future, and this is why I love InuYasha and Ranma 1/2.

Sixteen empty pages

I have all I need but a dream. I want to be nothing and everything at the same time. I am not even sure if my aspirations are my own, or if some time in the past my parents inculcated in me a certain career.

Since I was young my parents indoctrinated me with the same old "Finish your school and earn for us." As a kid, I knew that my parents were right: they sacrificed many things for me and my brother. It is only fitting to give back. As a result, somewhere in the middle I lost my own.

In the third grade, I started having interest in script-writing. I had a notebook filled with stories of a perfect young girl--the type you read from story books, practically telling you what it takes to be good. In high school, I finished a story of a group of friends with a Super Gals-Mirumo-Endless Love type of story line. Tragically, the day I took interest in reading is the same day I lost the will to write. There was a lot of well-written books to read and mine were badly written, so what was the point?

I've learnt new vocabularies from reading, it widened my horizon in understanding the human race, it made me travel to places I'd never been in, and it also killed my characters--my protagonists, villains, the extras... all of them. I remember imagining worlds and places of my own before sleeping, now I go into worlds of others. I couldn't amount to the genius of the world. My imagination was not original enough, my stories biased, and they lack the depth of character you read and watch from novels and TV series.

What is to become of me?

At 20, I should be able to gracefully string words and make magic out of them. There are hundreds of thousands of vocabulary to choose from, and somehow they are all hidden in a cave in my brain, hindering me from utilizing them in my prose. I cannot make fiction anymore. I cannot write. What is it that I can do to make this world a better place?

I'd been in limbo for ten months. You'd think I'd have done something to improve myself or the future, but I'm stuck.

The first 16 days of my January had been empty. How much more before I write the first page of my book?

Twenty things and twenty-one mistakes

I remember lying in bed, imagining a sophisticated woman wearing red heels and tight skirt. She has makeup all over her face, her shiny black hair in a bun, and you can almost smell success from her scent. I thought by the time I was 20 I'd be her.

Seven years later and instead... I'm me. I haven't finished college. I have 1.25 per cent--which equates to 3 units of research--left to receive that much-awaited diploma. I am not sexy nor confident. My hair is longer than my arms and it still sticks out no matter how much molding clay I apply. I don't even know how to put makeup on and I don't wear perfume anymore. Success is twenty feet high and I am stuck on the ground. 

My defense mechanism to this dissonance was, of course, to do nothing. All my life, I learnt that by not doing, I couldn't be blamed for anything. I can, however, blame my parents for bringing me into this cruel imperfect world. For so long this was my mindset: I don't like my existence and the responsibilities that came with it.

Eight months--this imperfection troubled me for eight months. I was paralyzed. I needed to rethink my life and thank God--thank God He enlightened me through His words. I know now how my heart is deceitful and how I shall not let it fool me.

I've done twenty things and twenty-one mistakes. I'm willing to accept that, pick myself from the ground, and start again.

Success is not about what people think of me. I am the measure of my success and I don't need my family's, friends', or society's opinion regarding my choices. I am rebuilding myself with this philosophy in mind: I don't need to fit into anyone's preferences. My choices will be wrong, I will stumble again, and I will try again the next day.

This is my imperfect life and I am willing to accept it now--to let it flow freely, knowing that God will be there to support me.

False awakening and lucid dreaming: The terror and the fun

A plain grey door is facing you. You turn the knob and encounter a gruel-looking monster whose features are similar to Marvel's Groot, only he is less adorable. Of course you become frightened... but then you realize, "Where am I and why would such a creature exist in the real world? A-ha! I'm dreaming! I am now lucid, I can make it better!" And make it better, you did. The walls become clearer, the monster become kinder. Everything is light now. Just as you wanted.

For a few moments you are actually having fun and feeling triumphant since you've been wishing to have another lucid dream for a long time. What makes it better than just being aware is that you were also controlling it. Still joyous, you look to your right when all of a sudden, you find that something dark is eating up the wall. You become afraid and lose control: the whole place becomes even bleaker and worse than before. What should you do? You bite your fingers and you feel the pain but you are still there. Your brain is making a fool out of you by stimulating the sense of pain. How do you wake up? Com'on body, wake up!

The thought of not being able to escape the nightmare that you have created is eating up your insides and making your heart beat fast. How do you wake up? How do you wake up? You struggle for what seemed like five minutes looking for a way out until everything turns black. Your eyelids open and you find yourself lying on the floor, the thought of escaping the previous nightmare making you happy. You look around and you thought to yourself, "Where the hell am I? What the hell are they?" They look a lot like horses but if they were horses, shouldn't they be standing on four feet? You are still dreaming. You have not awoken. You have been fooled again by your own subconscious.

This makes you panic even more: what the actual fudge? This is similar to what happens to movies--Inception much? Wake up! Wake up! How do you wake up? Contrary to popular belief, biting and the sense of pain won't do it. The world collapses around you, the familiar blackness engulfed your sight, and all of a sudden you find yourself lying on a hard floor. This might be it. You don't know how, but maybe you have woken up for real. You open your eyes, and lo and behold... another fantasy world with queer surroundings and surreal creatures. Seriously? You know you are dreaming but you have no idea how to wake up, so you list all the inconsistencies you experience in your head. In the real world, no such colorful tree with candies as fruits exist. In the real world, people look human, not like hairy animals wearing suits and carrying suitcases. Damn it, why aren't you still waking?

You are trapped. You jump in your dream and you walk but your body seems to be still: you must have woken up if your body was acting out together with your mind. And then that does it--it makes you remember that 9gag post you read about sleep paralysis. You might not be able to wake up at all unless somebody wakes you hard. What if you end up trapped here until you die?

Another blackout. Your head feels light and you wake up to the familiar light-blue misplaced tiles in your house. You are home. You brush your teeth and you talk with your brother. It's dinner time and you were watching a movie. Wait, what? Why is everything happening like you were still in a dream, in such a way that successions were really fast? This isn't the way in the real life. Time. Where's the time your spent idle? You are still dreaming! Your heart beats faster than ever. How long will you be trapped in your dream world? How much sense of fear of being trapped, being lucid, and being helpless all at the same time should you suffer before it all ends?

Something shakes you and you wake up to a mere blackness. You feel the familiar pillow you used and the mini comforter you spread out on the sofa. You are awake now... aren't you?