TAIWAN | Shifen, Waterfalls and Sky Lanterns at the Old Street
[BEYONDPH] Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Dusk was settling as we walked through a quiet neighborhood in Shifen. A red giant lantern, scrawled haphazardly with unintelligible words and doodles, suddenly bobbed above the roofline, swayed slightly with the wind, before finally flying off into the twilight. A few steps later, the narrow road opened into a rail track. Vibrant shops filled both its sides, with crowds of tourists milling around the sidewalk and the single train track running in the middle. Most of them were holding a similar sky lantern, lit, poised, and ready to take their wishes into the darkening sky.
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| THE SHIFEN TRAIN STATION IS NOT CONNECTED TO THE MRT |
Shifen has been elusive to us. Located at the Pingxi District in New Taipei, it’s about an hour away by bus from Taipei’s MRT Brown Line. Near as it was, it still took us several hours to finally reach this place. Shifen is a popular daytrip destination for Taipei tourists and is usually paired with tours at Pingxi, Yehliu Geopark and Jiufen.
Down some hundred steps from Lazi’s main road is a scenery as magical as Siquijor’s mystical reputation. The afternoon was steadily progressing on as we made our slow way down on stone steps leading to Siquijor’s famous three-tiered Cambugahay Falls. The treads were evenly made with natural stones, probably procured from the river that feeds the waterfall. The falls cascade all the way from a small rainforest above the mountains, some freshwater springs, and watersheds.
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| UNEVEN STONE STEPS TO CAMBUGAHAY FALLS |
A hint of light green waters, reminiscent of Palawan’s famed Kayangan Lake, springs into view in between the foliage as we made our ever downwards progress. And in less than five minutes, we were holding on to our jaws, lest it fall all the way downstream with the green gushing waters of Cambugahay Falls.
► SEE: SIQUJOR TRAVEL GUIDE
I wasn’t really aware that Siquijor has more than one waterfalls gushing down along the island. There’s the famous three-tiered Cambugahay Falls at the town of Lazi, and then there’s Lugnason Falls; a lesser known attraction located at Barangay Napo in San Juan.
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| LUGNASON FALLS DETAIL |
There are a couple of reasons why this particular waterfall is relatively unknown to tourists visiting Siquijor. First, I heard it closed down sometime ago due to its spring source drying up; we’ve been told by our guide that it has only been recently reopened.
► SEE: SIQUJOR TRAVEL GUIDE
After flying almost 200 meters above ground through Lake Sebu’s Seven Falls Zipline, we huffed and puffed our way to the park’s second waterfall. The path was easy enough but adrenaline was still pumping through our blood. After a few minutes, a sheer rock wall lined with layers of time led to the seventy-foot Hikong Bente waterfalls. It was almost the end of our Lake Sebu day tour and all our weariness of riding the habal-habal motorbike all day seemed worth it.
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| HIKONG ALO, THE FIRST WATERFALL WITH A HEIGHT OF 35 FEET |
I have read a lot about the Seven Falls Zipline and the famed seven waterfalls of Lake Sebu but I actually have no idea how we would proceed about it. Do we have to hike from one falls to another like at Negros Occidental’s Seven Falls of Mabukal, do we see all the seven waterfalls by riding one zipline, or do we actually zip from one waterfall to the next?
It turned out to be a combination of the three.
Unfazed by our minor motorbike fall and a flat tire during our morning visit to Pai’s Chinese village and Mo Paeng waterfalls, we again ripped through the town’s empty highways in search for its second waterfall. We were quite hungry since we haven’t had anything substantial since our very early breakfast at the House of Love and the single bowl of noodles we bought at the village.
En route to the second waterfalls, we made the mistake of ignoring the Pai Land Split where there’s a stall selling some organic food. We thought we’d pass another one selling something less organic since we wanted sinful meat for lunch. We were quite wrong; there was nothing in the seemingly unending kilometers until Pam Bok Falls.
THAILAND | Pai’s Chinese Village & Mo Paeng Waterfall by Motorcycle
[BEYONDPH] Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Move farther up the seat, move farther up! We’re gonna fall! We are gonna fall!
And, ladies and gentlemen, we indeed fell from the scooter we rented for the day.
It was our second day in the sleepy town of Pai and unlike the past week we spent in Chiang Mai, where we simply winged it from day to day, we actually have a particular plan today. Waking up very early, a sign that we’re actually gonna do something, we packed our gear and roared away on a motorbike we rented at the Pai House of Love where we were currently staying. Our targets, two waterfalls, a Chinese village, Pai’s World War II memorial bridge, a land split—whatever that means—and Pai Canyon, again.
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| GOING TO THE PAI CHINESE VILLAGE BY MOTORBIKE |
Our motorbiking skills were quite amateurish, to say the least. We were more comfortable pedaling bicycles, but biking through kilometer after kilometer of undulating roads didn’t appeal to us. So motorbike it was. Anyways, it was a steal at only a hundred baht a day.
It was unlike any other waterfall I’ve seen. Gushing from a solid rock wall, the Bridal Veils Falls in the town of Tuba, cascades down from a great height before rumbling into a dark pool surrounded by craggy boulders that looked as though it has been carved eons ago. From afar, it indeed looks like a very long white veil, resting on a towering rock face.
When they said that there’s a waterfalls in the vicinity of Baguio City, it was wrong of me not to believe them.
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| THE VIEW FROM KENNON ROAD, EN ROUTE TO BRIDAL VEIL FALLS |
Azalea Hotel introduced me to the Bridal Falls. It was part of our Baguio Itinerary, and it was my first time to visit a waterfall near the city. But near is really not quite the term for it. Located at the border of Camp 1 and 2 in Tuba—Barangay Twin Peaks—Benguet, it was a good hour of a drive along Kennon Road before we reached the hiking point to the falls.
► SEE: AZALEA HOTEL BAGUIO REVIEW
It was the same as my last visit, this time with the folks from Le Monet Hotel in Camp John Hay. Everyone was constantly asking if we’re there yet. No, we are not there just yet.
► CHECK: LE MONET HOTEL REVIEW
