Asia's Longest Dual Zipline is in Bukidnon

At 840 meters in length, only 160 meters away from the 1 kilometer mark, Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon has the longest dual zipline in Asia. It opened last October 2009 and is already a must go place when you're in Mindanao.

Thanks to Nick, we were there last Christmas holiday. None of us have ever been to Dahilayan Adventure park but locals helped us along the way. From Cagayan de Oro we headed to Manolo Fortich in Bukidnon. From there it was around 45 minutes of dirt road driving towards Mount Kitanglad.

We passed by Del Monte pineapple fields and numerous other crops that I only plant in Facebook's FarmVille.

Driving on a very long dirt road with all its ups and downs that makes the vehicle shudder and pitch in every direction plus the wide expanse of agricultural fields left, right, front and back was by itself an adventure already.

It was past noon when we got there. The weather was fine and the climate was cool. The park is actually twice higher than Tagaytay City and is nearly as high as Baguio City.

There are plenty of pine trees and just look at these dwellings!

Piture taking muna. Smile!

Pati horse may picture taking.

All-terrain vehicles for rent.

Time to talk about ziplines.

Let's observe the 840-meter long zipline. How do you stop? The zipline has an advance arrester system not just an old automobile tyre or person as the stopper.

As you approach the end of the flight, acceleration caused by the pull of gravity is negated by the sag of the zip line cable where you zip along to the terminal point at already a slightly uphill incline. A heavy arresting block is waiting for you to give added deceleration (see the block at the left side of the pic below).

Up close and personal with the arresting block.

A ground crew stretching his arms wide asking you to follow what he does as he clips his arms close to his body.

You'll feel a gentle thud as the arresting block hits your trolley.

Then a series of quick interactions happen in order to stop your flight gently with the use of springs, bungee cords and pulleys.

If these fail, there's a big net farther behind waiting for you.
It was our turn to try the zip lines.

We started with the shorter spans to get the hang of it - literally.
This is the starting point of the 320 meter long dual zip line. See how small the landing point look like.

This is the view from the landing point.

The slide down was high but smooth and it gave us the confidence to do the rest of the course. It was a great start. The cold mountain air gave me shivers as I got of the harness. The next ride is a single zip line 150 meters in length.

This is Nick and Chic zipping down.

My wife as she nears the landing pad with the arresting block and landing crew waiting.

And me finally having my Kodak moment in the zip line thanks to the great shot of Chaz and Corrine.

There's also an elevated obstacle course an the lowest part of the park after you zip down the 150m line.

The helmets, harnesses and trolleys are brought back to the 320-meter flight deck by crews riding all terrain vehicles.

It was already late in the afternoon and the fligh deck for the 840 meter zipline was still packed. We decided to go home then return there in a few days. And sure enough as promised, we did. Watch for the next post about it soon.

Here's a short compiled video I took when in Dahilayan Adventure Park.

If you're going to Mindanao, this is a good place to visit.

Hannah's 7th Birthday - Day 3

Our third day in Hong Kong was a whole day stay in Ocean Park followed by a late night flight back to Manila.

These balloons remind me of the annual Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Subic which is a good place to watch a platoon of real hot air balloons being set up and fly.

The highlight of our visit there was the cable car ride that took us from one end of the island to the other. Being on a steep slope suspended very high in a cage hooked to metal strings then with strong wind in your face as you look far down below is - susmaryosep! Awesome!

The only place in the the Philippines where we rode cable cars was in Tagaytay Highlands.

Nemo and a funny looking fish. Visit Manila Ocean Park to see more.

The dolphins in the marine show did not cooperate that day so the show was very short. The sea lions and dolphins in Subic Ocean Adventure have more talent and stage presence. Maybe the dolphins in Hong Kong Ocean Park woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Now I know how giant panda's sleep. All of them were asleep when we went to the giant panda habitat. The toys sold outside looked more active.

The Skyfair acrobats were very good and we enjoyed watching them. Look! All of them are upside down except for the boy at the bottom of the picture.

1st and 7th birthday celebrations of our daughter - done.
Next mission: Hannah's 18th birthday.

Hannah's 7th Birthday - Day 2

Our second day was a tour around Hong Kong.

Avenue of the Stars is a few blocks away from our hotel but felt farther when we took the tourist bus because of all the stops, straights and turns. We passed by the same buildings twice or thrice as we drove along different streets. Kinda like deja-vu.

Next stop is Jewellery City Co. Ltd. They offer lifetime warranty to all their merchandize. If what you bought gets damaged, just go back there and they'll fix it for free. The reason they gave is that no matter how old your gold is, it's still gold. But they sure are expensive.

You'll see how they make jewelries.

Aside from jewelries, they also make these colorful gem globes.

A big chunk of natural rock found filled with Amethyst. Yummy for jewelers! I want to find one.

Next stop was a sampan ride that takes you around a jumbo floating restaurant and a fishing village. Hmmm, smells fishy.

The last stop of the tour was Victoria peak. It was smaller than what I expected but has a good view of all the tall buildings of Hong Kong. There's a picture guide there that explains the highlights of the harbor view are and the major skyscrapers.

It was still early when we reached the hotel so after an hour of rest it was time to explore Hong Kong on our own, without the tour guides and shuttle buses. Outside the 3-day Hong Kong package tour.

We took the subway from Tsim Sha Tsui station to Mongkok station and finally found out where the Hong Kong folks are. We were already wondering why there were not that many people are in the streets around our hotel, well, they were underground. Busy walking and taking the trains to wherever they were going.

One thing we noticed is the high density of 7-eleven franchise stores. As we walked around our hotel we found 3 of them just 5 minutes walking distance from each other. It's reasonable considering the high density of the area.

When we reached Mongkok station and exit at the Ladies Night Market it felt like Divisoria with the audio set to Chinese mode complete with their version of yummy street foods.

Shopping - a good way to end day 2 in Hong Kong.