by twos… or more

Yesterday we rode the habal-habal going to the Twin Lakes of San Jose/Sibulan. That’s San Jose slash Sibulan because the Twin Lakes can be approached two ways, either from the town of San Jose or the town of Sibulan. And one can get there by two ways, by a four-wheel-drive vehicle or by habal-habal.

We chose to go by San Jose, 14 kilometers from Dumaguete, and decided to park our four-wheel-drive vehicle at the town plaza so we could get a habal-habal ride up to the mountain.

I have heard so much about these habal-habals. First: from relatives and friends who frequently go up the mountains of Negros as these are the main means of transportation there. Affordable, fast, readily available, and the only ones capable of navigating the difficult mountain roads. I’ve also heard that many teachers-to-the-mountain-schools got married to habal-habal drivers because of the frequency and ‘intimacy’ of the rides.

Check this out:

Cheche in the 'front seat' right on top of the gas tank. Jinjun leans on my seat; her seat is at the backmost part. Our driver is a 'ninja' named Tata.

Jaja speculated that as the habal-habal made its way up the mountain roads, the driver would whisper to his passenger(the teacher)-sitting-on-the-gas-tank: “Iloveyou. Iloveyou. Iloveyou.” Repeat that every Monday (teacher goes up the mountain) and Friday (teacher goes down the mountain) and at the end of the school year there will be a barrio wedding.

Here’s another picture: Ric is the one sitting on the ‘front seat’ and bummer for him, his seat does not even have a cushion. He said if the driver whispers 'Iloveyou' to him he'll surely give him the elbow. That's Tanya and Jaja behind the driver. If you look carefully, you will notice, there is still some seat-space behind Jaja and indeed along the way their driver picked up another random guy on the road who wanted to go up the mountain, too. So they were FIVE people in their motorbike.

The motorcycle is a Honda TMX, the popular ones used for city driving. I did not know this 100 kilogram manual transmission motorbike had the power to carry loads several times it’s own weight up and down steep slopes!

The other reason why I have heard a lot about these habal-habals is that many of our trauma patients were victims of vehicular accidents involving motorcycles. Wearing of helmets is a law that is not being followed here in Dumaguete. I was shocked to hear one city councilor say that he doesn’t mind if the law is not enforced, he said even his own daughter (who by the way is below the legal age for driving!!) drives around without a helmet and nothing has happened to her!!

Anyway, back to our story. After some haggling (finalized at 120.00 PhP each for a round trip ride), off to the mountains we went. And I am glad we chose this way up, it was exhilarating! The view was fantastic (we could see the Tanon Strait and the island of Cebu in the distance) and the air was getting cooler the higher up the mountain we went. I have to give credit to our driver, Tata. He was a very good driver, with perfect balancing skills honed through frequent practice. Part of the road was cemented and part of the road was rough/rocky. And many times we would be riding on the EDGE of the road, very near the steep cliffs. There were no railings, of course! Sometimes the incline would be about 40 degrees and I could hear the motorcycle engine really straining.

After that 40 minute ‘joy ride’ we went on a 30 minute hike up and down a partly cemented/partly rocky road. I saw some really huge brown rocks (approximately 2x3x4 meters in dimension) that looked like they had been burned. They said the lake we were going to was previously the crater of a volcano.

And now here’s the beautiful and serene Lake Balinsasayao.





We unpacked our gear and Ric, a biologist, photographer, cyclist and mountaineer who swears has seen Shark Tales 500 times with his daughter, started heating water in his portable kitchen. Yes, he had one complete kitchen in a little black pouch! A gas stove powered by denatured alcohol, a tiny pan and a tiny pot, and a Swiss knife, of course. Soon we had hot soup, coffee and an assortment of packed goodies for brunch.



It was a wonderful place and time to talk about ecology (these mountaineers are passionate about protecting the environment), favorite books and movies, mga 'noong unang panahon' stories and animal anecdotes. (The animal stories are really amazing. One day I will write about them. Must!)

By noon the sun was way up and the water looked really inviting. We wanted to go kayaking but first we wanted to go to the other half of the twin lakes, Lake Danao. So we packed our gear and hiked another 30 minutes to the other side of the mountain, passing through man-made walkways made of flat stones under the canopy of flora and fauna in that rich ecosystem. I loved that hike! Up and down the cliff, sometimes under bent tree trunks, sometimes over fallen logs. Along the way we met a lot of butterflies, lots of birds (we thought we saw an eagle, based on its flying pattern), some centipedes, Japanese snail eggs, and a miniature strawberry (pea-sized, sweet to taste!).

the trail to Lake Danao

Lake Danao is smaller than its twin and seemed more secluded, like we were truly in the middle of wilderness. We sat on the big rocks on the shore and were generally afraid to swim there because there was a broken banca on the shore that had what looked like (monster?) teeth bites on its side… or was it just our imagination? ;p

After a while we hiked back to Lake Balinsasayao and found a nice spot for swimming. I was scared at first because the water is green and not clear and they said the water is VERY DEEP as in, unfathomably deep. But the water’s invitation cannot be resisted so I went in and boy did I not regret it. It was the most wonderful water to swim in, ever! Cool but not cold. Still, I did not dare venture into the middle of the lake so I was sort of frog-leaping/swimming among the big rocks near the shore of the lake. I would swim to one rock, rest there, swim to the next rock and so on. Like a sissy swimmer. But still. It was such fun. Not fun was that there were some plants with long leaves growing between some rocks and a couple of times I got entangled in that. Later I learned to steer clear of those plants. Good move.

Swimming in that mountain lake was just so wonderful we did not have time to go kayaking anymore as our habal-habal drivers would be picking us up in a while so we had to go and start our trek back to our rendevouz point. This was mostly a downhill trek and I found it more taxing on the knees. At times I thought maybe it would be easier if I curled up into a ball and just rolled down the mountain, right?

The habal-habal trip down the mountain was something else! There was this thing called Gravity and it had a tendency to pull us downward. Or be clumped together in front of the motorcycle. At times I heard the motorcycle engine NOT running and the driver confirmed that we were indeed free-wheeling down the mountain slope. Not a good thing. In my mind I debated a plan. If worse comes to worse, should I jump out of the motorcycle and cover my head or should I spread out my arms? Head injury versus limb fractures? Ugh.

Overall trip rating: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!