Lake Sebu is one of the municipalities located in South Cotabato, Philippines, gifted with amazing flora and fauna. Indeed, it is one of the best Philippines vacation places. Local and foreign tourists have easy access towards the place via the General Santos Airport and will take them, more or less, 30-45 minutes of land travel to reach it. Peace and security along the way and at the place are stable and roads were completely upgraded into pave already.
Photo credit: Janet L. Delegiro
While travelling towards the place, one can drop by along the way and pose for some instagramable pictures. You can stop in front of the City Hall of Koranadal and make its gigantic façade as your background. The City Hall also gives you a wider breath of spaces right in front of it. After the warm-day poses, you can stop for some refreshments at the most-sought Apareja Buko Halo-Halo. The place is so cool and landscaped with ornamental plants. They have Bahay Kubo (small hut) where you can rest and enjoy your Halo-Halo (shaved ice with sweetened ingredients such as nata de coco, kaong, red beans, banana, etc.).
Perhaps, it isn’t just the place that people are looking after in visiting Koronadal city but also the one of a kind Halo-halo of Apareja that has convinced a lot of local and foreign tourists to try it. This can certainly get into your bucket list of Philippines vacation places. After that deserving rest and getting your body recharged, you can directly proceed to Lake Sebu and be ready to the more exciting adventures.
Photo credit: Janet Delegiro
What to expect
Lake Sebu welcomes all its visitors with some winding and steeper roads, a sign that you are about to embrace the lush green mountains from everywhere you look. The natives are usually alongside the roads and under the shaded trees. Some are in their motorcycles, lines one after the other, and are ready to transport individual passengers. Tourists are brought to the top where the first waterfall is located and also where the zipline adventure starts. Reminder: Zipline opens at around 8am until 12 noon and resumes at 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon.
I believe that their zipline is the longest in Asia. It has 2 rides. The first ride will take you, more or less 45 seconds with a length of 740 meters and shows you the 1st to 5th waterfalls while the final ride will be almost 25 seconds with a distance of 420 meters and shows you the 5th to 7th waterfalls. Therefore, it is a 1.16-kilometer zipline. Aside from its length, the breath-taking heights and waterfalls will surely put color and excitement to your rides ,and in fact, raised my adrenaline to the moon! The highest point is, more or less, 600 feet from the ground. Its uniqueness makes it one of the worthy Philippines vacation places.
Take nothing but pictures
The breath-taking views you have are never lost because the zipline management and crew have their own cameras and even videos on standby to take your most amazing ride of your life, but of course, after you pay the reasonable fees with them. Soft and hard copies of the pictures are available where you can immediately upload them to your social media accounts.
However, if some of you have acrophobia, you can take photos on one area where they have the “simulated” zipline with a waterfall on your background. You may also rent a T’boli costume that they have to look more stunning. T’boli is an indigenous group in South Cotabato who believes with gods and goddesses. They often wear colorful dresses coupled with colorful accessories which they themselves make.
Photo credit: Janet Delegiro
If you wanted more adventure, you can go on hiking to the 7 waterfalls. The natives named them: Hikong Alo, Hikong Bente, Hikong B’Lebel, Hikong Lowig, Hikong K’Fo-I, Hikong Ukol and Hikong Tonok.
Where to stay on your vacation
After a day of adventure, you can take your rest to one of the resorts in the area. One of those is the Punta Isla Lake Resort that abuts the biggest lake in Lake Sebu. The resort has a T’boli inspired hut that has a view of the lake. The huts have no air conditioning units but you get to experience the natural coldness of the air during night time. Tip: Bring insect repellant as there are a lot of insects.
Other things to watch in the place
When morning comes, don’t let the time between 6-8am pass without experiencing the magnificent blooms of Lotus in the lake. In one area, you will witness a lake full of Lotus flowers, and of course, get hold of it. Also, you can ask the resort to take you in their floating restaurant and get your food served and eaten there. They will tour you around the lake for 1 hour and will be entertained by their native music and dances. While enjoying our meal, we can notice various sizes of fish cages put up around the Lake that grow tens and thousands of Tilapias. The deepest part of the lake is, more or less, 180 feet and the fresh water overflows towards one of the seven waterfalls in Lake Sebu.
Before moving out of Lake Sebu, you can drop by one of the recognized National artists named Boi Lang Dulay. She was recognized and awarded the Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan for her weaving traditions. She died at the age of 91 in April 2015 but her art works are kept and continued by her son, Florencio Dulay, and by her grandchildren until today. We can observe that in a very small hut, Lang Dulay was able to do the weaving, make the designs and apply colors using natural ingredients with the of use leaves or fruits that are abundant in their area. It paves the way for the locality to be known in the world because of what Lang Dulay has contributed in the field of arts. In choosing the Philippines vacation places, you should not miss Lake Sebu or South Cotabato in your itinerary.
