Tambo Kulit (Indang, Cavite)

I'm terrible when it comes to directions, but today, I was brave enough to try out a slightly complicated route using online instructions and maps. For a starter, I chose a 60km trip, just enough for a 1-day adventure. Destination: Tambo Kulit (hehe). I was also joined by another brave soul in this adventure.

There's a good number of natural spring resorts lined up in this area... and I like them better than beaches because in these freshwater areas: 1) you can swim with your eyes open, 2) the water is very clean (no chlorine, no salt), 3) no jellyfish and nasty sea monsters, 4) no sunburn (plenty of shade from surrounding trees/rocks), 5) no tsunami, etc....

To get there, we had to exit South Expressway at Carmona (Exit 33, this was the easiest), then head southwest (not sure if it's exit 33A or 33B but after the tollgate, it's the road going right) to GMA and take a secondary road that goes to Silang and crosses Aguinaldo Highway. As expected, we missed this road from GMA, drove straight all the way and met Aguinaldo somewhere in Dasmarinas (hehehehe) adding about 7 kilometers to our trip. From this junction we drove south all the way to Silang. The next major junction (right) was close to the small entryway to Barangay Luksuhin and we overshot again by 100m. So much error!

We made a U-turn back to that spot and drove about 10km deep into the area through small towns. There were plenty of narrow roads this time and some of them were quite scary. We went through uninhabited areas, there were 1km stretches of no people, no signs, and no settlements, nothing to guide us at all. We also went through cliff edges, some parts were like Baguio without the fog. There were also bridges made of thin and rusty steel frames (2 tons limit according to the warning but one tricye driver told us it can support trucks) and they only placed 4 long planks of wood on top (nothing holds them in place!) so that the wheels can just roll over them.

We arrived at the church in Indang (St. Gregory the Great) and from there we asked directions to Tambo Kulit from a tricycle driver. After the church, turn right, then left all the way to the end, then turn right, then left to Alfonso, then left, left, right, left and so on (we used the force in this area), that's another 8 or so junctions. By now you should have noticed that this is not a travel guide, but simply an account of my travel.

We asked the locals for the most popular resort and they pointed to Rio Villa Nuevo. We went in and paid 100 bucks entrance. Inside, they have about 7 pools with different depths (I think their deepest was 5.5ft) all filled with constantly overflowing mountain fresh water. There were covered huts, an annoying karaoke machine, a sari-sari store, caged monkeys (?), etc... anyway I was really just there for a swim. The tiles on the pool floors was also a good idea. I am not very comfortable with stepping on natural water trails which woulde be mostly stones, soil and all sorts of natural sharp objects... and in this place I didn't need to wear sandals to protect my feet.

After an hour or so of swimming, we had to leave because it was already getting dark. We tried to go back through the same route and had only little trouble on our way to the church in Indang. We reached another intersection where we couldn't tell which was the right way back. I think we were still on the right track (we saw the scary bridges again about half a kilometer away) but someone on the road told us that the way to Manila was on another road (going through Trece Martires). We took his advice and this route was less scary, but it was longer and there were plenty of areas with heavy traffic. I asked earlier for a brochure from Rio which had a road map so we had more or less an idea of where we were. No more interesting stuff in this dark long stretch... Reached Manila after over 2 hours on the road through the Saturday evening traffic.

I think it's time to go a notch up. My next target: Mt. Romelo (Siniloan, Laguna). Online articles say that after the long drive, and a 3km muddy trek (some knee high areas) rising 250 meters to the campsite, there's a rewarding handful of beautiful waterfalls waiting. Hmm...