The Hidden Treasures of Majayjay Falls

April 6, 2013: Our First Chilling Dip

It was a bit difficult to smile when the skin felt so cold, but when photo opportunity came in, everything else was just manageable.

At the outskirts of Mt Banahaw:

The hidden treasures of Majayjay Falls 

     We took on that trip without knowing how that trip meant to each of us. For others, they traveled to places with people they had known for so long--- people they had lived with since day one of their lives, people they had shared precious stories before, people they had sense of familiarity and a lot of similarities…

     But God has special ways of connecting people to each other. He has special ways of crossing paths and when His ways work, and we start to realize it, then we will just be left in awe. And one of the amazing ways of crossing paths is the multiplier effect that friendship has. I think and had felt for several times the beauty when the friend of your friends become your friends too. Sahid or Toi, as what I would prefer calling him has been my friend because of my graduate school classmate and Hongkong-Macau trip buddy Dhitz. And as the multiplier effect in friendship goes, Jaytee (I know I should call him Kuya, but his coolness seems to be of same age as mine, and I actually don't feel younger talking with him too) has been introduced to me by Toi. 

     From Buendia, me and Toi took a bus going to San Pablo, Laguna while Jaytee traveled his way to meet us there. It was there in the bus where we had experienced the first drop--- out of the many other doses of bloopers for that day. We were so engaged in the Gandang Gabi Vice Replay episode that we forgot guarding where we should alight, and more minutes of delayed might even lead us to Quezon Province already as our bus is bound to Lucena. And so there we were, rushing down and really got surprised of the distance that we had to travel back. While waiting for Jaytee, we had our loudest laugh because of our negligence but we had absorbed the lesson that much that Toi was already busy asking the local people of the way going to Majayjay Falls. He was carefully noting in memory where we should get off but we had forgotten to ask something--- that was if how much it would cost--- and it was only revealed to us in a very funny way. We were riding our second jeepney ride after reaching Sta. Cruz (this time, the three of us) and we had assumed of the same eight-peso-fare only to know that its P49. And although our initial reaction was laughing out loud again because of the disparity in the payment we had given, we were surprised because that only means that it would be a long ride, or in short, Majayjay is actually far and we had underestimated it. It was past lunch time already--- and we laughed loud again because Toi discovered that the bottle of sandwich spread that he brought along with him from Quezon City was actually way more than a quarter empty. Looked like big bottles can be deceiving...

    But the long journey towards the falls did not in any way spoil our excitement, but made it more intense. And in the midst of summer heat, we know that it will be worth it. And when God's hands move in the course, He will just give us anything that we need: warm and responsive driver and guide turn into one and his young side kick, a perfect weather, and a very beautiful place to discover. 

    With some u-turns in the road surrounded by fields and trees, just 20 pesos entrance fee and few trekking down, we were welcomed by the fresh air from the woods, the natural sound created by the running water and the music of the chirping birds. Jaytee was even welcomed by a dragonfly and I had seen in his eyes that he was really delighted by it. 

     Because it was already late afternoon, it felt somehow weird to walk going towards the falls while majority of the people are making their ways back home. But it was just making it clearer that in visiting places, there's no such thing as being there first, or being their last, or being there once or hundred times. Visiting places is always a first-hand experience, and for every person, though they had stepped on the same ground, rock or waters, the feeling is still unique. With a new pair of eyes, a new beating heart, a new soul coming from another group of people with different individual past, collective present and different perspective of the future, and a new purpose of a traveler, tourist, pilgrim or explorer, there will be a new memory of the place. Each moment will be an authentic piece of life experienced in a piece of paradise on Earth. 

    Finding for place to stay has been a challenge somehow, because of the crowd and the presence of many tents in the area. Majayjay falls is a camping place. I've seen cooking pots, grilling areas and a lot of empty bottles of beer around. After finding where we will place our things, we excitedly headed to the falls, and that has made me forget the road trip and the bloopers. It was truly worth it. The water was very cold, that it made us shivered. I had trauma in falls as I had creatively described in a paragraph in my blog entry Finding New Life. But Toi and Jaytee's presence and the laughters of people around have made me overcame it. And Toi had even made me experienced how it was to be showered upon by the rushing water. The coldness had made me forgot it was summer and from there, I had understood why these two people had developed a liking of discovering falls. Falls is something to find, and that's why I prefer describing it to be hidden and that it has treasures on it. And I think the treasure comes not only on how it is being seen by the naked eyes and felt by the skin. Its treasure also comes from the story of its formation, of erosion, of becoming wider, or shallower or deeper, or hitting up the bottom. Its a story of having many names and even forgotten names. Its a story of being at the foot of the mystical Mt Banahaw. Its a story of people coming there and people wanting to go back. 

     And so I thank Toi and Jaytee for making me laugh out loud non-stop for a day; for their soulful videoke performances during snack time; for sharing our well-deserved classy dinner at Si Cristina Gateau Sans Rival at the heart of San Pablo Plaza, and for making me sing and for guessing the songs that fast thereby making our agonies faster in our standing ovation journey back home. And though, it was knee-aching bus ride, It has just made the trip even special for it gave us something to experience aside from the usual, which I had imagined myself doing because of having full stomach "I slept on my way home." 

    And thank you Majayjay Falls for revealing your hidden treasures to us; for your chilling waters; for the nature, and for another splendid day of experiencing God's creation. 

    And before that trip ended, I had known what that trip has meant to us. For sure, it is not just for Toi to add another blue color on his map and for Jaytee to assess another place for family getaway, and for me to record another blog entry here. I strongly felt that it was also a trip of personal reflections and of getting a charge from people who used to be strangers. I don't know to others, but for me, when I travel with those who doesn't know much about me yet, I get to discover much of the things too that I had not known about me, or possibilities of who I can be. You can be the craziest you---and be you, having no identity to be stood upon or identity to be negotiated. You can feel free and not be obliged to explain the sadness in your eyes. You can deal with the darkness you are in, you get the words from the songs, you get refuge from the water, and you don't worry of taking the fall, for you are in good and God-given company to catch you and bring you back to your senses. They are just as crazy yet as sincere as I am (so I thank God too for the multiplier effect of friendship), that the next thing I know is that I am experiencing joy again; for its just a truly-found-again-treasure, when you realized that you are laughing hard again, and its an authentic one.

I love this picture because other Majayjay Falls explorers posed excitedly with us too.

A glimpse of the mystical Mt. Banahaw

Jaytee and Toi were fresh from singing and getting perfect and almost perfect scores! 

Time to be Home: Few Hours Away from Midnight

Standing with joy and music all throughout.