MAG-ASO FALLS IS A REAL RETREAT

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MAG-ASO FALLS IS A REAL RETREAT
By: Gerlie M. Uy

            Found at about thirty (30) kilometres from the heart of Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental,  Mag-aso falls is a real find for all-week-long-city-beaten picnickers.

            Once you take the first small step going down the falls, you will go through at least six hundred steps. But of course, the steps are all calculated while you go down and see through the greeneries and huts of different sizes. You will also pass by a mini San Francisco bridge, a pond down under and nearby, banana plants, birds of paradise, and a stream flowing and passing down a nature-designed pool.   

            As you progress to about three hundred steps, you can choose to pass by the ‘mother of the falls’ where the water falls and then again falls to the place where you can later dive in or just dip into. And while you pass by that place, you can see the forest trees and vines.

            If you decide to go farther down, at about four hundred steps, you will see the cottages basically designed with modern steel crust and cement but ornamented with ‘kogon’ ala Vietnamese hut.        

            It was such a respite also to open your ‘malong’ down the open space under the jackfruit trees. The warm summer air will easily be dispersed by the breezy coolness of the wind against the trees.

            But you should not sleep yet. You should still go down a hundred steps to use the comfort room and to have a cold bath or wash you dishes. In the same area, there are concrete picnic tables and you can even set up your picnic bounties under the trees nearby. While sitting at you tables, you can see a very old (more than a hundred, I bet) and very big (yes, perhaps to get its circumference, I have to give five long hugs) tree that fell down and now serves as a bridge for you to closely scan the nearby forest. But my words of warning: Watch out for the slimy moss!

            But the steps do not end there yet. You still have to go down more steps and walk a little on the clayish rocks to get to the falls and be able to finally take your much deserved plunge. Happy swimming.

            Ooops! That is not the end of the journey yet. Id you decide to stay dry, you can just linger inside the mini cave located under the steps, where you can surely get picture perfect poses.

            By the way, for your information, the falls got its name not because the water is steaming but because when the water falls in flowing rush, it creates an illusion that it is steaming. So see it for your self! 

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