The first leg of our summer vacation: Lake Balinsasayao // Twin Lakes. We crossed off Siquijor and rescheduled it to a later date. Instead, we went for the nearest and the cheapest.

Actually, our trip to Balinsasayao was not well₋planned. The night before it, we were hooked between Bais Dolphin watching and Lake Balinsasayao nature trekking, kkk ^^. Nam Hyun's neighbor invited us for a cup of coffee at their house and talked over our plans for the summer. Apparently, we got several tips and advices from them, got hooked among a list of places to visit and called for the night undecided of which to trek first.

The moment we woke up the next day, we just decided to go to Balinsasayao [the nearest and the cheapest]. Most of my friends told me it's difficult to reach the place with a motorbike. But heck listen to them. Shine and Jerry told us we could reach there with Nam Hyun's bike. We hit the road and ascended to Balinsasayao.

The weather was good, and we thought it was just perfect for nature trekking. We didn't take a bath, and we didn't break a night of fasting. We mounted the bike with our towels, our camera, and a liter of bottled water then took off.

The road was terribly rocky but we enjoyed sightseeing along the way. It was a very steep ride, but Nam Hyun proved to be a good driver. We ascended through the rocky heights as we arrived at the base of Balinsasayao. It was a bumpy 1.hour ride.

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A short descent to the wharf
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Kayaks are for rento. 1 Kayak is for 100/hour. He isn't hydrophobic, but Nam Hyun is a little dastard with depths.

He didn't know how to maneuver the boat, but eventually we had a smooth cruise of the lake. It was really relaxing. He paddled, rowed, and paddled, and rowed. I paddled, rowed, and paddled, and rowed. The place was calm, and all we could hear were the birds' chirping and gentle coos from unseen species lurking behind the trees. We cruised for 2 hours, and we saw a snake pass through us.

I really wanted to go deep into the lake, but I never dared to. I heard a story before about a guy whose body was never found after dipping himself into the water. Just a myth some people say, but my vague presumptions of the lake's depth didn't convince me. And that snake.... So I just stood my balance in the kayak and had my feet caress the icy water. ^^

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Then later, we learned why it was called the Twin Lakes.
A tourist guide informed us about the stairway that led to the other lake.
We pulled our kayak over a wharf, docked, made sure our kayak won't leave us, and went through another ascent.

With the view deck, we saw the other lake. And there were the twin lakes.

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Saw a weird plant, some weird insects, then went for another ride back to the main wharf.
As we descended, we stopped over another lake, Lake Kabalinan. It was a small lake with protruding trees from the under, kk.

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On our way back to Dumaguete, we decided to drop by the hilly sides and took a view of Cebu, Siquijor, and Dumaguete from the top.

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at ang ibang kababuyan sa buhay.