I have been on vacation for 5 days, and it started out last Saturday. Our couple friends invited us to their home in Natividad town with two other friends. They fetched us from home to the town they currently live. Beforehand, we have prepared our itinerary though there are some changes.

Day 1

During day 1, we traveled to Natividad, and reached the town around 1pm. We fixed our things as well as the designated rooms for us. Of course, I'm with my wife. Then we went to the supermarket to buy foods that we are going to cook during the vacation.

Around 5pm, we went to the congregation where we attended a meeting. I was tasked to interpret from speaking to sign language. We met new friends, and they were invited to come in to our couple friends' home.

We prepared foods, and I cooked spaghetti for everyone. Around 9pm, we played the game Articulate which we really enjoyed during the night. We slept late that night, and too bad I had insomnia.

Day 2 - Balungao Hot Springs

Our plan is to go to Balungao Hot Springs in the afternoon. We attended our sign language meetings in the morning, but since we're far from the venue, we opted to attend virtually. I served as the interpreter from sign language to speaking the whole time for those attendees who are also in videoconference.

I thought of staying at home because I don't have enough sleep because of insomnia, and I'm glad that I still have energy, and went with them.

After our lunch, we prepared to go to Balungao Hot Springs, and it was around 40 minutes of travel from Natividad town.

There we are at the entrance, with my wife. Aside from hot springs, they have cold swimming pool too. Zipline is also available for those who wanted adventure, as well as hiking to the peak of Mt. Balungao.

I love the trees around. It is in the mountain so it's expected. There are stores, and you can rent those inflatables for the cold swimming pool. There's also a KTV nearby, and my ears suffered from people singing there. Their voices can entice typhoons.

There goes the area for the zip line. It can be seen from the parking lot. It seems there are many visitors around based on the parked cars.

I am not wrong, so many people around. When I saw a lot of people at the cold pool, I decided not to swimming there. Even my friends didn't want to swim in this pool. Actually, the color of the water is turning quite dark, though it's not noticeable in the picture.

There are two cold pools, while the other two are hot springs. The temperature is 40 and 50 degrees. All pools are almost occupied so we're thinking not to swim but some people left the hot spring with 50 degrees centigrade. We decided to drench for more than an hour. It's extremely hot so we did gradually starting from our feet.

That's the peak of Mt. Balungao. It's actually a dormant volcano, that's why there are hot springs. The water from the pools came from this mountain, including the cold ones. There's a way to hike up to the summit but you have to pay Php400, which is quite expensive. There's a hot spring there too which the water is extremely hot, and no one is allowed to drench.

Around 5pm, we left the facility and visited our couple friends' new friend who will assist them to go to Manila the following day. Afterwards, we had our dinner in a restaurant back in Natividad town.

Balungao Adventure, including the hot springs, is located at the town of Balungao. It is a small town with small population as well, at the border of Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija. The entrance fee is Php100.

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