Pagsanjan Falls, Laguna, Philippines

Three bengalee families, nine of us including 6 month old mini drove down to Laguna to experience the very famous Pagsanjan falls on 25th Dec, 07. Its a very pleasant drive for two hours from Manila. The roads are great and the country side of Philippines is just awesome.

We did the ususal hagling over the kayak price and then statrted the journey. Shenna was apprehensive initially, speecially whenever we faced the rapids and there were many rapid on the way.

The boatmen are very skilled and its delight and awe inspiring to see them skillfull manage the rapid and take people safely ahead.

The views on the way are what movies could be made off. Being on the small kayak, one gets the sense of being truely small while looking at the stones rising on both sides covered with dense jungle everywhere eyes can travel. Looking up, one can just see bits and spices of fragmented sky.

Bangkok water market is very famous and this place could be a better sucess if only anyone paid that attnetion to it. Living in Philippines, I often the sense that this is a country which never realised its true worth. One probably needs frustrations and irritation regarding the present status to achieve progress and Filipino's are too happy to feel much sadness!

The falls is really worth seeing. The water gushes out of the fractured stone and one could see particulate moisture everywhere, such is the speed of the gushing water! There was cave behind the falls and we took a banana boat to go there. We didnt know what we were asking for! As we neared the falls, more and more water engulfed us very rapidly and it became difficult to keep ones eyes open! Once we entered, the caves, it was pitch dark and we took some times to recover from the beating from water that we got! It took sometime to fathom what was it actually! Coming back was lot easier. In the picture, the cave is covered with the water curtain!

I feel small children below four and people with heart problem or ashma shouldnt venture to the cave,they maynt be able to manage this bit of extreme experience.

There were not too many food joints around that place in Laguna, so we made peace with Jolibee.

The drive back was equally pleasant but we came back tired. Shenna slept throughout the drive back home in Manila.