Morong, Bataan

daniellecuaresma
Apr 29, 2012
3 min read

I was thinking about what to do when Holy Week comes. I already pictured myself doing nothing, staring at my monitor watching the newsfeed on my Facebook. Mom asked me if I wanted to go to Bataan with her and her friends to spend the week. Since I've got nothing to do here in Manila, I said yes.

Wednesday, April 4, me and my mom went first to Novaliches to wait for her friends and to hitch a ride with them. We left Novaliches at around 1am. We had a long trip from Manila to Bataan and with the van we were riding, the trip got even longer. We even had to stop at the highway because the van was malfunctioning, we had to stop every 30 minutes or so to fix the radiator of the van. But it was fun though. The stops we had made us see a very beautiful sunrise.

So the next day, at around 10am, we reached Morong, Bataan. The people there was so happy to see us and immediately offered us foods and arranged our stuff for us. After we eat we went to the beach. Before we reached the beach we passed by a small bridge and the scenery there was already beautiful, it was an untouched nature.

So we reached the beach and played with the water there. It was very clean and the water is so nice and blue. It took me a couple of minutes to just look at the open sea and inhale very fresh air which Manila can't offer. Haha. The younger kids already swam and played with the sand, burying their legs. We, "adults" did the same. Haha.

I love staring at the ocean a lot, though I rarely see an ocean in my life since I grew up in Manila. I love oceans. I love water. They are very relaxing. They look calm. I never get tired of watching how the waves splash and land on shore. Everything was relaxing. And I get to watch the sunset! :P

We went home when it got dark but after dinner we went to the beach again and this time I made a few friends in Morong. :D

I didn't spend so much of the night at the beach since mom came and told me that we need to sleep. The next day, we went to the beach again. Before we soaked ourselves in the water we went first to Pawikan. I don't know what it is called but they call it "Pawikan". It is like a preservation center for Pawikans. They are taking care of the endangered specie. They even told us that only one of 100 eggs makes it to the ocean alive.

This baby turtle made it! Yay! :D

The next day, we finally went to the river and the hanging bridge. I was so excited about it because it's my first time to go swimming in a river. Haha. So before I soak myself in the waters, me and my friends took pictures first.

This is Lovely. She's not just lovely but her name is really Lovely. :D

The river's full of rocks. Different sizes. You might be stepping on a little rock then take another step and your knee already hit a large rock. It was hard to like adapt to the place. Haha! The water might be shallow at one point and it might be deep at some point. It's really hard to know the part where I should be staying so I just held on to my friends' arms so when I stepped on at the deep part I have someone to save me or go along with me. Haha! After we waddled at the shallow part of the river, we decided to go to the hanging bridge.

We spent like a couple of minutes walking and climbing until we reached the bridge. The view was really awesome up there. Seeing the mountains, the trees, the entire river, and everything nice.

I didn't really have an acrophobia (fear of heights), but the thought of me or someone jumping off this bridge frightens me. We were like 40m above the river and the river down there was ~20m deep (they say). While I was taking pictures of the magnificent scenery, I saw this group of men jumping off a tree which is about 20m above the river. They jump, we scream. Haha.

We didn't spend the entire day at the river. We went home to clean ourselves and eat then went back to Manila. I wish we could go back there at Bataan next year. The place was really beautiful and relaxing. The beach is clean and the water is sparkling. The place isn't crowded which gives us the solace and peace we cannot find in Manila. I hope to go back there again. :)