Yet settled amidst mango trees, guarded by an aeta settlement area a mile or two from Nayong Pilipino is an ecotourism site called the Paradise Ranch and Zoocobia Fun Zoo. The kilometer-long Sacobia bridge serves as its marker, right after the Clarkfield exit of SCTEX (use the map, here, for directions on how to go there). Sentries guard the major intersections so there’s no reason to get lost.

We were there for an ocular inspection, in preparation for an educational tour that we’re organizing at GoTravelBliss Travel and Tours. Perfect excuse to mix work with leisure. Good time to discover that visits to Paradise Ranch and Zoocobia Fun Zoo should be done ideally early morning or late afternoon.

We arrived at Paradise Ranch around 4:00 p.m. The sun was still up and the temperate still a bit hot, although we could only imagine if we arrived here earlier, right after lunch. It’s really not a problem if we stayed in one area, the Zoocobia, the swimming pool or the boating lake, for instance. Touring and exploring the entire place takes a lot of walking and expends a lot of sweat, what we got by wanting to see too much with too little time.

An overnight stay would have given us enough time. Paradise Ranch allows overnight stay in its external, stand-alone units, like the Christmas House, or a dormitory-like arrangement in the main building, beside the swimming pool and the restaurant. The stand-alone accommodation would allow complete privacy, but would be a challenge to those used to room service, as there’s no in-house phone. This wouldn’t be a problem for the eco-tourism crowd drawn here. The per head cost of P1,200, which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, gives a lot of bang for your buck. Plus the presence of comfortable accommodation amidst the sights, sounds and smell of nature is a treat enough.

There’s a river for boating and fishing, and an obstacle course that would suit team building or corporate outing. There’s a Butterfly Kingdom where guests are treated to the sight of colorful butterflies and the life cycle of these wonderful insects, complete with living, crawling caterpillars and pulsing pupa (chrysalis). There are various parks and gardens where guests could sneak into and relax in relative seclusion.

One garden in particular, the Garden Pavilion, stands out because of the pine trees that make it look like Tagaytay. It could also resemble Baguio. The staff sticks to the resemblance to Tagaytay because this is where a supposed Tagaytay scene between Dingdong Dantes and Marianne Rivera was shot. The tree that was planted, adopted and named after Dingdong is found at the bottom of the Garden Pavilion.

Allow us to burst any bubble of misimpression that this is one refined, fully-completed destination. It is not. It appears to be in the process of evolution. The dirt road, 2 kilometers more or less, that connects the main highway to the Paradise Ranch is a bit bumpy, most likely muddy when rain pours. Same thing would happen to the approximately half-kilometer dirt road that connects the Zoocobia, found at the entrance of Paradise Ranch, and the main building/swimming pool. New trees are being planted (you could sponsor a tree and pay a minimal amount, to pay for the personnel who would maintain it). A waterfalls is nearing completion. New areas are being cleared for expansion. The place would have something different the next time you visit.

We’re saying this to anticipate any disappointment for expecting too much. Let it be clear, however, that the existing structures and facilities would be sufficient to cater to a visitor’s needs. Even weddings are allowed, and had been held, at Paradise Ranch. Why not? It’s picture-perfect. The facilities are new and well-maintained. The place is clean. Flowers and trees abound. Fresh air. The staff are helpful, warm and courteous. Plus an entrance of P375 (Zoocobia + Paradise Ranch), with children below 3 feet free of charge, it’s worth the trip.

The Zoocobia zoo, on the other hand, doesn’t have half the animals as that of, say, Avilon Zoo, but it’s big enough and packed with activities and sights for the kids, that I gave up halfway and went back to the restaurant to wait for my companions.

The uphill walk towards the Butterfly Kingdom, the gardens and other attractions would be a breeze for kids, not for adults, unless they seek to break a sweat and lose some pounds. Those averse to walking and would want a quick visit could spend the entire time in the Zoocobia Fun Zoo. It’s at the left side immediately after entering the main gate. The parking area is found across the Zoocobia entrance.

Zoocobia Fun Zoo, which is derived from the combined name of the three mascots (Zooc, Cobi and Bia), is located on top of Sacobia Valley. It includes the Zoocobia Barn houses animals such as pigs, goats and camel. There are animal-feeding encounters, including love birds, ostrich and Southeast Asian bearcat. There’s a big-bird exhibit, not the one from Sesame Street, but various big birds in an open space for the kids to explore.

Learning is enhanced with actual experience. Zoocobia provides interaction with animals and engages them in fun learning activities. The main structure houses the Animal Bone and Skin Museum, where children can see animals in their skeletal glory properly labeled or gently brush away sand to reveal the bones, just like an archeologist (or what do you call that kind of scientist?). There’s the Philippine Pride exhibit, which showcases items such as the national bird and national fruit.

Get lost, as we did, in the Zoocobia Maze, or experience carts running downhill powered by nothing but gravity, the Zooc Ride. There’s a giant slide (or shall I say very tall and long slide, which, if you add flowing water, would be akin to Magellan’s Drop of Splash Island), adjacent to the children’s playground. There’s also a horse ride on standby, just in case the kids want more.

Wind down at the Zoocobia restaurant and bring home something from the Souvenir Shop. Fully exploring and running around Zoocobia, not to include the other areas of Paradise Ranch, would take around half a day. Bring an extra shirt. You and the kids would need it. Enjoy!

We frequent the airport and sometimes go to the GrandAir ticket office found at the Mercure Hotel, but never got the chance to visit Nayong Pilipino before it was closed for good around 2002. Come to think of it, the now-defunct GrandAir used to be at the long-closed Mercure Hotel at the airport, where the old Nayong Pilipino was located. The property was sold to the airport authorities to give way to expansion projects and for safety reasons.

It “was” an example of enjoying something while available because it was “unlost”. Imagine our surprise when we learned that Nayong Pilipino had transferred somewhere else.  So when a school requested Nayong Pilipino as part of its educational tour, we gladly went out on a standard ocular inspection for GoTravelBliss.

Nayong Pilipino transferred to Clarkfield, Pampanga, to be exact (see map and directions). Formally opened in November 2007, Nayong Pilipino sits on a 6-hectare (per Clark website) portion of the Clark Expo, formerly Expo Pilipino. The Clark Expo is a huge white tent construction that prominently stands on the flat landscape, at a major intersection from the Clark-North DMIA exit of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). Take the right of the fork after the SCTEX tollgate (to the direction to Baguio, as the left of the fork goes straight to Subic), then take the first exit. Just follow the winding exit road and you’ll see the Clark Expo to the right. It’s hard to miss.

Go inside the Clark Expo complex and you’ll see the Nayong Pilipino. The simple entrance arch, with the “Mabuhay” greeting above “Nayong Pilipino”, faces the expansive paved parking area (in the remote chance that you missed it, that’s “expansive”, with lots of parking spaces, and not “expensive”). Trees and well-maintained landscaping provide a relaxing environment to an educational experience into the culture of the Philippines, past and present. It’s easy to get “lost” in the replicas and relics that are interspersed with clean open spaces and manicured greeneries. It’s easy to lose interest and energy with the humid and hot atmosphere. Looking back, we realize that the route we took around the park optimized our energy (and the children’s interest).

We started at the entrance, of course, to pay the requisite fees. P20 for children and P30 for adults. The admission price is not bad, really, except that mosquitoes made us pay more in blood than in money. Probably it’s the time of the year or probably we were wearing shorts, we received our fair share of mosquito bites at the entrance. Just the entrance, though, before stepping beyond the payment counter. We didn’t encounter any suckers once inside.

We veered left and proceeded to the nice nipa hut, the Mabini House, which turned out to be a mini-museum for Pampanga artifacts. The marker indicates that the hut is a replica of the Apolinario Mabini Shrine in Talaga, Tanauan, Batangas. We understand that the shrine in Tanauan houses the remains and personal belongings of the “Sublime Paralytic”, as we we’ve stumbled on the shrine in one of our forays. Maybe they’re referring to an old shrine because the existing Mabini Shrine, as featured here in VisitPinas, is concrete, not a nipa hut.

Anyway, the mini-museum provides a brief introduction through the Paleolithic Age, Neolithic Period and the Metal Period (the most prominent find for the era, we read in the museum, is the Manunggul Jar found in the Tabon Cave Complex, Palawan). On display are potteries and tradeware ceramics, together with some bone fragments. I was expecting, and half-looking, for famous Pampanga dishes (just the representation, even) and information bits (read: trivia) about them. Hopefully they’ll have it sometime in the future.

Opposite the mini-museum are the replicas of Jose Rizal’s house in Calamba, Laguna, and the shrine/mansion of President Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit, Cavite, with artifacts and memorabilia inside. There’s a strange device in Gen. Aguinaldo’s mansion which, we figured, is a precursor of the bicycle, as can be seen in the photo below. We could be wrong, of course, so feel free to correct us if you know exactly what it is.

From the Colonial Plaza, where the impressive replica of the Barasoain church is also found, follow the trail to the featured villages and traditional houses. Tucked in a corner of the Heroes’ Plaza is the statue of Andres Bonifacio, defiantly raising his bolo and the KKK flag. True, Bonifacio’s pose in the Manila shrine looks more impressive, but the one in Nayong Pilipino serves its purpose.

That ended the leisurely walk and the “covered” tour. The heat made the rest of the walk on open spaces not-so leisurely. We had no idea what to expect so went to the Nayong Pilipino after lunch. Wrong decision. We should have gone in the early morning, as the park opens at 8:00 a.m., or late in the afternoon, as it closes at 6:00 p.m. Bring an extra shirt, you would need it. Bring an open mind and your sense of history, you would need them more.

At the back of the Spanish Culture & Religion Museum and Philippine Museum, two separate structures that look like fortresses, is the Lagoon, where guests could go boating and fishing. The replica of the Tabon Cave is just adjacent to the Torogan House. The Nayong Pilipino material states that the Torogan is the “typical house” of our Muslim brothers from Mindanao, yet it also says that the Torogan House is the ancestral home of the Sultan or Datu, the village chief in Maranao, Southern Philippines. Perhaps our fellow Pinoys from Mindanao could help us sort this out.

On to the Aeta Village and the Ifugao Village, complete with traditional huts, like the Tuwali House. We learned that the “Tuwali, one of the three Ifugao subgroups inhabits the municipalities of Hingyon, Hungduan, majority of Kiangan, and the western portion of Lagawe and Banaue.” It comes complete with an Ifugao wood carver under the huts, as these are elevated by four sturdy wooden posts. The carver, we should add, is a real person, not a statue, actually carving various wooden artifacts for souvenirs (you have to pay for it, of course).

At the other side is the Kalinga Village, near the Festival Outdoor Amphitheater, the replica of Mayon Volcano and Nayong Pilipino’s rendition of Malakas at Maganda. More of Malakas (“strong”) and Maganda (“beautiful”) later. We learned that the term “kalinga” literally means “enemy”, widely used during the Spanish period to refer to the mountain peoples adjacent to the lower and middle Cagayan Valley.

One thing in common with these traditional houses is being elevated (the rest of the non-elevated cottages could be rented). There should be a functional reason for this (feel free to share if you know the reason). At that moment, I recalled my scouting days, with our tents flat on the ground. It rained cats and dogs, unfortunately for us. No amount of canals surrounding the tent could save us from the onslaught of water and a cold, wet night, even if our tents were built on sliding slopes.

Then there’s the rendition of Malakas at Maganda. Philippine legend has it that at the time when the Philippines was still uninhabited, a mythical bird flew across the ocean and, tired and hungry from the long flight, rested in a group of islands that subsequently came to be known as the Philippines. It saw a gigantic bamboo shoot and, hoping to find food, pecked on the bamboo (if we may add, maybe the bird is vegetarian, as it chose to peck on a bamboo rather than scrounge around for worms and small animals, certainly not the Philippine eagle). With an earsplitting crack the bamboo split into half. The startled bird flew away, without seeing two creatures come out of the bamboo. From the one half came out Malakas (“strong”), a golden-skinned male, and from the other half emerged Maganda (“beautiful”). They were the first Filipinos, as the legend goes.

[See also: Map going to Nayong Pilipino (Clarkfield, Pampanga)]

There’s a lot to explore and learn at Nayong Pilipino, certainly a great learning adventure for the young ones and the young-at-heart.

See also Around the Philippines at Nayong Pilipino (Clarkfield, Pampanga).

Sounds really deep, huh? These are the words of a wise tortoise, named Master Oogway in the animated movie Kung Fu Panda (kids seem to have this tendency of watching the flavor-of-the-month cartoon over and over again, wait till you have your own). That line doesn’t squarely apply to what we’re about to discuss, but it somehow is related. Besides, it’s more impressive to start an article with a nice quote.

Anyway, what I’m trying to drive at is this – we sometimes discover things that we won’t have discovered if we didn’t get lost. Doesn’t make any sense? Let’s put it another way. I’m sure we all experienced a time when we keep on looking for something, but we can’t find it. We spend the whole day looking for it, but we still can’t find what we’re looking for (I guess this is common, even U2 titled a song from this). Then the moment we stop looking for it, we find it.

Have that kind of experience? Good. It’s a bit like that, except that in this case, it’s about something that you weren’t looking for in the first place. Still doesn’t make any sense? Let me just describe it.

It was a sunny morning, a leisurely drive into the labyrinth of roads within Clarkfield (Pampanga) after a hearty breakfast at the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). We were looking for the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), a task which should be easy considering that we’ve been here a couple of times. That includes visits to Montevista/Mimosa, Clearwater Country Club and, of course, the fun experience at the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Incidentally, the 15th International Hot Air Balloon Festival, scheduled from 11-14 February 2010, is fast approaching. You should go there.

That time was the first we’re actually going inside DMIA. We made it a point to leave early from Metro Manila, even if the DMIA is just an hour’s drive away, to make allowance for the possibility that we’ll get lost. And got lost, we did, which is not really a bad thing because, one, we had plenty of time to kill, and, two, we stumbled on something interesting.

But let’s backtrack a bit. As noted in a previous article, it’s easy to know that Mt. Samat is near — you’ll see the Dambana ng Kagitingan even from a distance and you’ll see the Death March markers along the way.

When Bataan fell on April 9, 1942, it was just a matter of time that the last Filipino-American stronghold in Corregidor would fall. The Philippines would commemorate April 9 as an annual holiday – Araw ng Kagitingan or Day of Valor, also known as the Bataan and Corregidor Day. On May 6, 1942, after months of heavy bombing, the little island of Corregidor surrendered.

Around 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers surrendered. Only around 54,000 reached the destination after what is now infamously known as the Death March.

Many more died in the prison camps. The more than 100-kilometer walk was characterized by inhumane physical abuse and murder (click here for more story).

Today, the path of suffering is marked by white markers, designating the kilometer number. The intersection that leads to Mt. Samat is Kilometer 19 (different in usage from the regular Kilometer 0).

Kilometer 100 is in Clark, marking the entrance of the Clark Cemetery. This cemetery is the final resting place of around 7,559 individuals (World War II casualties were relocated in Fort McKinley, which lies between Makati City and Taguig City) — those who died from the Philippine-American War, Spanish-American War, their civilian family members, some remains of non-WWII Japanese civilians, Philippine Scouts, Chinese/Vietnamese refugees.

More than 1,600 individuals are still unidentified, their graves simply marked as “Unknown”. It’s no surprise that many of us wouldn’t know this place exists, except by accident. (Or, ahem, when you’re subscribed to this blog.)

Read Clearwater Country Club (Clarkfield, Pampanga.

Reasonably priced at under 5,000 per villa a day, with three bedroooms at the second floor and plenty of space at the ground floor (there are also bungalow type residences), the Montevista Villas is a good getaway for the entire family. If you’re on a budget mode, you could bring enough beverage and food to last for the vacation (they discourage cooking inside the villas, which has a refrigerator but no cooking equipment, but you could always bring a rice cooker of some portable cooking/heating device). If you prefer the full-serviced hotel setting, Holiday Inn is just a stone’s throw away.

We (and by “we,” I mean a group of 14) were at Montevista only for a day, so we really had no time, and I was not really interested, to go around. I was planning to try the spa, but decided to sleep and rest. Maybe next time I’ll check out the golf course or try my luck at the Casino Filipino.

There should be no problem going to Montevista, as the North Luzon Expressway is travel-friendly. Take the Angeles exit, which is near the end of the expressway, turn right after you pass the Angeles toll both, then just go straight (or ask around just to be sure). If this article brings up more questions than answers, you could contact Montevista Villas through these numbers: (045) 599-7000, 845-2495 and 299-5800. And if only this article is sponsored, I could also tell you who to look for when you call. Just kidding. =) Enjoy your vacation.