a trip with a surprising twist…Typhoon…
What supposed to be a relaxing trip to Mount Banahaw, with all it’s legends, and little old town Pansanjan, with it’s beautiful gorges and waterfalls, ended up in one big wet weekend without seeing much else then rain, water, rain and…uhm…coconutwine. I’ve got again little taste of what a serious typhoon can be. In less then 10 hours the river rised about 3 meter! Our guesthouse was flooded at night till half our body. Nasty wind made it all a bit more dramatical.
What normally would be a beautiful boattrip through rapids and waterfalls along the sides, with lots of wildlife to spot, ended up in a big shower, with our boatmen trying their very best to conquer the wild river. We didn’t get as far as we wanted, only halfway and were forced to return because it was simply too dangerous. No pictures, but rather stress to save the camera and gear. A totally different experience though, also one not to forget. After the damage was done and partly rebuilt, the men invited me for some coconutwine and other mindtreaters to ease the sorrows. These people are used to it. Their house was flooded, some things were lost, cabanas at the riverside were totally devastated, but oh, they still laugh and joke around like the best. Yes, I will come back, as I promised, so they can take me on the bambooraft under the falls.
Hardly pictures, due to the circumstances…
This was the small bangka in which we conquered the rapids.
the street of our guesthouse…before the flood.
look at those stairs…before the flood
after the flood, water is still covering some streets and the river is still too high to be good.
