I remember my grandfather bringing our papag or wooden bed at the stream at the back of our house in Cabanatuan City during Holy Week. He’d place it in the middle of the water, put up palm fronds as shades, and my aunts would bring in all sorts of dishes for lunch. We’d eat, swim, and eat again right in the middle of the stream. It was an annual thing back then; but as summers passed, the tradition somehow faded until it was totally forgotten. 
Yesterday, we got a chance to somehow relive that tradition as the whole clan rode for an hour and a half to the neighboring municipality of Gabaldon, a town east of Nueva Ecija. The original plan was to visit the Stone 8 resort in the area, but due to the massive influx of vacationeers, we had to settle for the Dupinga River instead.