Daily Report: Jungle Swimming

On Sunday, after a fair morning of work, Epril and I climbed onto the Motorstar Panther 150 and headed out to the swimming resorts of Jasaan. It was our first long trip on the motorcycle since our failed attempt at driving to Jasaan 3 weeks ago. This time, however, we made it without a problem. (I will say that I have a sinking suspision that the top speed of this bike isn't governed like it was on my PGO Tiger in Thailand... I think that this bike really does top out at an embarrassing 80 kph.)

Well... Epril and I still looked cool driving there, if nothing else.


The pool at Basamanggas Resort.

Inday and Doreen splashing around.We went to Epril's family's house and picked everyone up and drove them out (2 passengers at a time on the back of the bike) the 1 kilometer into the jungle to the Rock Springs Resort. Unfortunately, after we got there, we discovered that the place was jam-packed with 400 people, and there were no bungalows left to sit at. From there, we decided to go about 300 meters across the small valley to the Kahulugan Springs Resort, only to find that that was even more packed with even more people. (If you own a bit of jungle in the Philippines with a stream running through it, you apparently can make quite a bit of money by building a bunch of cement collection pools, and letting people swim around in them.)

So, instead, we gathered everybody up on the motorcycle and drove to the third pool resort in this otherwise-tiny village, Basamanggas Resort. That place only had 200-or-so people swimming, so we were able to find a place to sit down and order some cokes and food and had an enjoyable afternoon splashing around. (There are fourth and fifth resorts as well... but more than 1 kilometer distant.)

At about 4:00, Epril and I climbed back on the motorcycle and made our way back to Cagayan. From Epril's parents front door to our front door on the far side of Cagayan was 45 minutes exactly.

We stopped by the Chinese restaurant in SM Mall, called Chow King, and bought dinner. I bought some pork dumplings, fried rice, and egg rolls, which were pretty good... but not too much like American Chinese fast food, which I have yet to find in Asia.

If any of you feel like going out to the pool resorts in Jasaan, it would be laughable for me to try to write directions. Instead, click here for a wikimapia satellite view of the places, and you can find your way there that way. (I'm sure if you hop in a jeepney heading out of Cagayan toward Jasaan, just ask the Jeepney driver to drop you off at the proper place on the highway, as they all know where the place is, and then there are lots of motorcycle taxis and other ways to make it the last 2 kilometers out to the resorts. A taxi from Ororama will cost you about 300 pisos one way.)