After an hour long motorbike ride through the mountains of Cebu, we were finally at Kawasan falls. My bottom had gone completely numb which amplified my joy of finally reaching our destination. We were dropped off at a car park surrounded by what looked like restaurants or some sort of convenience stores, which caught me by surprise. I had expected Kawasan falls to be a lot more isolated than that.
After chatting with the locals we found out that to get to the falls we needed to walk down a track behind the carpark. We were told that it’s a long walk to get to the falls (it was) so we began walking immediately; by that time it was late afternoon so we wanted to enjoy the falls before it was dark.
The walk along the track was heavenly. After being stuck on the back of that motorbike for so long I really appreciated being able to stretch my legs and enjoy the scenery. Along the side of the track was a stream flowing from the falls. The water was the bluest water I think I have ever seen. It almost didn’t look natural, even up close it still looked extremely blue.
After a long walk along the track, we passed what looked like a small power station operating off the water from the falls. Then, a short way up the track was our destination, Kawasan falls. The unusual part about it was the first thing I saw was not the beautiful scenic waterfall. This is because somebody felt it was necessary to build a hotel right on the falls. Somehow they managed to get approval to develop one of Cebu’s major tourist attractions into a commercial enterprise.
The onslaught of young men trying to sell us stuff on our arrival was overwhelming. The second we walked into the area we were surrounded by young men trying to sell us stuff. I was also being told we had to pay to put our belongings somewhere. I had a waiter asking us what food and drinks we wanted. Another guy was trying to get us to pay for a raft ride. It was just chaos, the complete opposite of what I had hoped for.
It made me feel depressed; I had hoped for a serene environment where I could relax away from city life for a while. But somehow they still managed to transform the serene environment into a method of funneling money out of its visitors. They had developed the entire shoreline of the falls so they almost had a monopoly on the place. If you wanted to put your belongings somewhere you had to pay them to use a table.
I was so frustrated by the situation, I was frantically thinking of how to get out of having to pay for a table to store our belongings. This is when I saw a small bit of land on the far side of the falls where there was no seating in place. It turns out this land, although only meters wide is the only spot around the falls not owned by the hotel.
I immediately pushed through the people trying to sell us a table and got clear of the hotel. I had found my way out of being coerced into paying ridiculous amounts of money just to enjoy the waterfall. Once we sorted out a spot to store our belongings the rest of our experience was really nice. We occasionally had a waiter venture over to us trying to sell us something but besides that, we were now carefree enjoying the beautiful Kawasan falls.
It still frustrates me to think a hotel was allowed to develop on a site like Kawasan falls. I feel like such a beautiful landmark should be left in untouched. Developing the site really takes away from the experience; I think a lot of visitors, like me, are there to relax not waste money on ridiculous things like paying for a table to sit on or paying to sit on a log raft.
I think that will be my first and last visit to Kawasan falls. Although it is a beautiful destination ruined by its commercialisation. The Philippines is full of plenty of other destinations waiting to be explored.
So I won’t dwell on the disappointment of my visit, I’m now onto thinking about what’s next?
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