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Wee hours:
barely had a good sleep, mom woke me up to prep for our Pinatubo trip. Lawrence picked us up at home then we picked up my older sister at People Support around 330am.

5am:
I was asleep most of the trip,  but I can feel how we are “flying” in NLEX. Lawrence was driving crazy (if I may call it) just to meet our 6am call time. We woke up hearing my mom asking for directions because I think we missed the street going to Sta. Juliana (please post more signboards!! ). It was just 530am and we’re already in Tarlac. talk about speed  It’s a good thing that there are some who are already awake at that time. The last person we asked for directions really amazed me. I’m not being judgemental or anything, but this old guy who works in an old vulcanizing shop, confidently replied this when asked ..”ahh, mga 6-9 kilometers pa ang layo…layo papunta sa O Donnell arc..tapos mga 3km pa simula dun papunta sa tourism” whoah!!! He was giving us the distance instead of saying the usual line – “ah malayo pa un“.

6:30am:
Lo and behold, it was that far but thank God for their smooth roads, we reached Sta. Juliana and found the tourism office around 630am. speed speed speed. We just registered our names in the office then we’re off to go with our guide and driver in the 4WD vehicle. Exciting!

The adventure began when we started to cross rough roads and streams. According to our guide, Dodie, the water from the Mt. Pinatubo crater is the same water that flows down to the foot of the mountain. It’s always refreshing to go on a trip like this where nature is around you . Though, it was hard to take a good look at it esp. when the ride is very bumpy, swinging us side to side. (I remember Obet commenting that the place is similar to Lord of the Rings – Mordor )

The almost-one-hour-thirty-minute ride ended as soon as we reached the 4WD main parking lot (there’s another parking lot which is farther from the start of trek, and we asked the driver NOT to park there …).

The 20-30 minute trek to the crater starts with crossing streams and walking up and down the stony trails. The guide even got my mom a “tungkod” to assist her in walking which looked like Moses’ staff .

I’m so proud of my mom and my older sister, Carla for doing this even if they’re not the super athletic type and can get tired easily. Well, it’s a good thing the guide carried some  of the stuffs .

Reaching the stair-styled steps, we knew we’re closer. And, hwala! Hello, Mt. Pinatubo crater! .

According to our guide, during summer the water is dark and can be as dark as coffee, during rainy season, it turns green, and if its super rainy season, it turns blue…. It was green when we got there. And indeed it is a magnificent scene to see.

When we reached the top, a landscaping project is currently going on  to provide more rest areas to tourists. So, we walked down to the crater where there’s another resting area.

Swimming is prohibited by the govt because of undetermined depth of the crater. But in layman’s and hard-headed-people’s term: swim at your own risk   .  We planned to go swimming but ended up just holding my mom because the sand easily sinks once you step in.

So we just took a lot of photos then rested. We’re already setting up our lunch but to our surprised the time is just 10am. But nevertheless, we still had “lunch”.  We wanted to take the boat ride going to the Hot Spring (yes, there is one at the other side of the lake), but unfortunately we didn’t know that we have to secure a pass first from the main office (down the mountain) before the boatman can accomodate us . So we resolved to just rest for a little.

Then a group of men came along with three Koreans…next thing we knew, the other guy is asking for 8 people to ride the new boat …for FREE . wee!

It turned out that the newly-arrived Koreans own the place (literally and figuratively), and they want to see if the boat is working as designed. so yeah, we served as guinea pigs . The boat is patterned from the Burnham park’s boats and is made by the same designer.

We left the crater around 1130am, trekked back to the parking lot, then the uber-bumby-four-wheel-drive adventure began.

The ride back to the tourism office was no longer as fun as our first time. I’m starting to hate the rocks and anything in between that makes the trip super rough. Maybe because my body is starting to ache because of the “super tag-tag biyahe“. And because I can’t sleep hehhe. No matter how careful manong driver is, we still kept on shaking inside the jeep. After enduring an hour and 20 minutes ride, finally, land!

We’re lucky to have a guide like Dodie. He still remembers what day and time the Pinatubo erupted. He also told us that due to the weakening of the water barrier years ago, three governors decided to dig a hole at the side of the crater to allow the water to slowly flow to Pampanga and Zambales. This action prevented Tarlac from being wiped out from the map due to massive flood. It’s him who said the almost the entire renovation for Mt. Pinatubo was initiated by those Koreans, from the tourism office, spa, hot spring, and even the path going to the crater. It’s them who exerted all the effort for us to have the Mt. Pinatubo we have now. And it didn’t stop there, because right now, the renovation still continues. – I don’t know what to feel about it, all I know is I’m still thankful because it created jobs for the local, even the Aetas, who painstakingly arrange the stones at the crater. But I can’t help not to ask, how come we don’t see what these Koreans can see. How come, we become more and more tourists/foreigners in our land?

1:30pm
The trip won’t be complete without trying the the famous Korean spa located same spot as the tourism office.  We’re so excited to finally try the Volcanic Ash spa wherein individual will be buried in the sand from neck downwards for about 30 mins.

Under the pool of sand is an oven-like structure that heats the entire pool. So once you’re buried, you can feel the heat from your back. There are two types of ash, one is Sulfur and other is Salt. We tried the Salt ash, which is (accdg to our attendant) is good for burning calories and stress reliever.

The experience is so unique because I haven’t been buried in my entire life  and I realized I am claustrophobic pala when ate started piling up sand on top of me.. The temp started to rise and it was indeed hot. We’re already sweating after a few minutes so ate have to wipe our pawis haha . yeah, it’s part of their job. We got up after 20mins because we can no longer take the heat .

Next was the Mud Pool. Stupid of me to think we will swim in the mud, it was for the full body mud pack treatment pala. .  We had to shower first  then went to the mud-well area. Ate was supposed to apply the mud onto us but since we outnumbered her, she advised us to do it by ourselves . Then she’ll just check it later on if we did it rightly ). We applied the mud on exposed areas such as  arms, legs, face and stomach  According to her, it’s good for the skin and it also help whitens and that  the  mud was taken from a specific side of Pinatubo crater.

There’s another group who joined us in the mud pool, and from what we’ve heard they are Mayor’s guest. And to our surprise, Mayor is also at the pool watching his guests . Honestly, we didn’t know him but we still asked him for a photo op which he gladly considered. It turned out he’s the mayor of Capas, Tarlac – Mayor Rey Catacutan. His guests are part of a Medical Mission team and that he too is a doctor.

He’s friendly, saying that the advisable schedule to  take this adventure was like ours,  and was glad to engaged in conversation about the Pinatubo tourism. My sister bravely asked him if the Pinatubo improvement was all to be owed to our Korean neighbors and he replied, “no, it’s a partnership between them and government“…  But he’s honest enough to admit that there’s a lot of Koreans now, not just in Pinatubo but in other parts of the country as well, that are now either tourists or businessmen. We’re really starting to be foreigners in our land.

It took some time before the mud dried out because the rain started to fall when we’re in the ash spa, so the weather is a bit cooler.

After 30 minutes, we again took a shower then change to dry set of clothes (which is by the way included). The final treatment was the signature “Pina-thai-tsu” massage, a combination of shiatsu and Thai massage. I rarely fall asleep during a massage, but this one is indeed relaxing  and rejuvenating. What a perfect way to end this tiring trip 

Since the place is owned by Koreans, everything in it is in Korean spirit. If you’ve watched Koreanovela, you’ll be familiar with their public bath and communal area  (except for the changing rooms, of course ). Even the attendants are greeting “????? = An nyoung ha se yo” or in Tagalog “ano nga sayo“ . Their food specialty is also Korean, but thank God they also have Pinoy food set that consists of: Samgeatang soup, chicken adobo, potato salad, pancit bihon, chopsuey and rice. The soup is good, but everything else is… below average . If there’s one thing they can improve on, maybe it’s the restaurant’s menu. But overall, the spa town is great.

Sunny day. Blue skies. Rain in the afternoon. Safe trip. It was a God-given day indeed. And I thank God for giving us Mt. Pinatubo for it is nature’s wonder and it’s an experience each Filipino should not missed.

Today is the debut of my site. I’ll be posting my entries real soon, kindly bear with me thanks for dropping by!