My first visit in San Pablo, known as the City of Seven Lakes, transpired in 2013 when my high school buddies and I decided to go on a weekend day trip to Laguna. 📍Lake Pandin, San Pablo City
🇵🇭SAN PABLO AND NAGCARLAN ADVENTURE PRIMER🇵🇭
🏄🏝🚴 Sites to Explore/Activities:
⏺ Lake Pandin of San Pablo
📌Ride a bus bound for Lucena and alight at SM City San Pablo (travel time: 2.5 – 3 hours depending on traffic condition).
📌Ride a jeepney to get to the city proper.
📌Transfer to a jeepney going to Ilog and remind the driver to drop you off at the jump-off going to Lake Pandin.
📌Walk for a few minutes to get to the lake.
📌You can also hire a tricycle from the city proper if you want to visit the other lakes of San Pablo.
We checked out some of the crater lakes in San Pablo but we agreed to stay longer here at Lake Pandin.This lake actually has its twin sister, Lake Yambo, which we visited by trekking for a few minutes from Pandin. I was not able to take pictures of it though.The most enjoyable part of our trip in Lake Pandin would be cruising on a floating bamboo cottage while eating freshly cooked dishes that the staff serve. This is also one of the family-friendly destinations near the metro that you should consider.Fast forward to 2018, I joined a travel event in San Pablo organized by a friend of mine. Lake Pandin was the highlight of our tour.The weather, as you can see in my photo, was so gloomy yet it didn’t stop us from having fun.This is undoubtedly one of the most photographed spots in Pandin. Just be patient and wait for your turn to have your photo taken in this swing especially during weekends.If there’s one thing I noticed, it’s the number of tourists that day. The lake was virtually deserted during my first trip here in 2013. But considering the advent of social media, this place quickly gained popularity among travelers.I could still remember how quick we were in getting these shots specifically at this spot as more visitors arrived every minute. But we still enjoyed cruising the lake despite the huge number of people that day.
⏺ Bato Springs Resort of San Pablo
📌Ride a bus bound for Lucena City, Quezon (e.g. JAC Liner and DLTB in LRT Taft-Buendia) and ask the conductor to drop you off at Bato Springs Resort signage in Maharlika Highway (travel time: 2.5 – 3 hours depending on traffic condition).
📌Charter a tricycle to get to the resort.
📌If you are coming from San Pablo city proper, ride a jeepney bound for Lucena to get to Maharlika Highway then hire a tricycle to reach the resort.
If you’re looking for a nice place near Manila where you can spend quality time with your family, you should definitely consider this place. It’s the perfect getaway to feel the comforting vibes of nature in this resort. 📍Bato Springs Resort, San Pablo CityIt was one early Saturday morning when we arrived at the resort. I noticed that only a few cars dotted the parking lot. I was so fidgety since I badly wanted to go straight to the pools to take pictures. Now’s the best time since there were no people yet.We headed to our rented cottage and left our belongings so we could check out the swimming area of Bato Springs. We could just prepare our lunch later once we’re done with our pictorial.Boy was I so happy that the overcast weather cooperated that day. The clouds covering the sun provided the motion blur I needed for my long exposure shots.The truth is, I’ve been to Bato Springs in 2013 with my high school classmates but I was not able to take any decent photos worth posting here in my blog.I thought of this place and suggested to my friends from the travel community if we could include Bato Springs in our weekend itinerary.This time, I could properly document our adventures with my camera. This trip transpired 5 years after my first visit here.I am not really a fan of man-made resorts and swimming establishments but I honestly enjoyed the soothing atmosphere here.If taking a dip in a typical swimming pool is too mainstream for you, you may try out the cold refreshing water in this resort’s natural pools.We were also lucky that the place was not crowded that day that’s why I was able to capture loads of pictures for my blog.Even if it was already nearing lunch time, the resort still was not full of people during our visit. We immediately packed up after enjoying our snacks. The town of Nagcarlan was next on our list.
⏺ Underground Cemetery and Bunga Falls of Nagcarlan
📌If you are coming from the jump-off to Lake Pandin, ride a jeepney to get to Nagcarlan.
📌Hire a tricycle to get to Underground Cemetery and Bunga Falls.
📌If you are coming from San Pablo City proper, ride a tricycle to get to the terminal of jeepneys bound for Nagcarlan.
📌Take the jeepney to Nagcarlan town proper then charter a tricycle to get to Underground Cemetery and Bunga Falls.
Upon arrival in Nagcarlan, we decided to have a proper meal for lunch at a restaurant near our next destination which was the underground cemetery.As you can see in this picture, it was still cloudy by the time we entered the premises of the cemetery.We shot a few photos before agreeing to finally see what’s underneath. For someone with sixth sense, you have no idea how excited yet nervous I was.
⏰⏳ Sample Itinerary:
4:00 AM ETD for Bato Springs Resort
6:00 AM Ride tricycle to resort
6:30 AM ETA Bato Springs
9:00 AM ETD for Lake Pandin
11:00 AM ETA Lake Pandin
12:30 PM ETD for Nagcarlan
2:30 PM ETA Underground Cemetery
3:30 PM ETA Bunga Falls
5:00 PM Wash up
6:00 PM ETD for Manila
💰💶 Estimated Budget (for a solo traveler): Php 2,500 – Php 3,000
***Expenses may vary depending on personal consumption of food and other necessities. If traveling alone, you will solely shoulder the transfer rates via tricycle.
As soon as I stepped on the stairs going down, I was trying my best to hide a whole gamut of overlapping emotions. It’s as though one of my alter egos was warning me, “Are you sure about this?”Admitting that I was scared was an understatement. Seriously, I envy “dense” humans who don’t feel and get affected even by a single drop of supernatural energy in their surroundings.If I were asked to transpose the words “horror” and “death” into a painting, my masterpiece would look like this.I brushed off the thick energy that envelops the place. I didn’t go here to wallow in fear. Time to set up for my long exposure pictorial.The color and the seemingly abstract impressions on the run-down walls as if they were caked with blood, together with the eerie feeling inside, were the elements I tried to capture in my low-light photos during our visit.Magnified by its heavy preternatural aura, the cemetery is extremely frightening for someone with paranormal senses like me (I wouldn’t dare share the details), but I actually liked this place. For me, it is oddly beautiful.We went back to our friend’s car and traveled to our last destination that day, Bunga Falls.Because it was a weekend, I actually was not surprised to see lots of people here frolicking and we had to wait for the photobombers to get out of our frames. We were not in the mood for a swim anyway so we only took photos.
***For other destinations in Laguna and CALABARZON, you may visit this link.
