Saturday, December 11, 2010

Revisiting Nasuli Spring Resort in Bangcud, Malaybalay City


Nasuli Spring Resort is a picnic and swimming spot located in Bangcud, Malaybalay City. It is about 20 kilometers away from Malaybalay City proper. 

Way back when there are still no spring resorts in Bukidnon, Nasuli is a favorite outing spot of the local residents because of the ice cold spring water sprouting on its natural pool. Due to its proximity to Malaybalay (my hometown), we used to frequent this place during our high school years.

The road going to the entrance of Nasuli Spring.

A signage near the entrance.

Nasuli Spring Resort is used to be maintain by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), a volunteer, non-profit organization which carry out linguistic research and documentation of Philippine indigenous languages. According to www.sil.org/asia/philippines, "SIL also promotes literacy, health, and community development projects among speakers of those languages, as well as translation of materials of high moral value into the vernacular."  

About four years ago, Nasuli was turned over to its original owners, the Ducusin Family of Malaybalay. We were able visit Nasuli a few days ago and we talked to the caretaker, who happens to be the father of my high school classmate. He narrated a bit of history about the place. Accordingly, Nasuli was a bank-foreclosed property which was bought by SIL many years ago. But since foreigners are not allowed to own lands in the Philippines, it was agreed that SIL will turn over the area back to its original owners after a certain period of years. 

 Entrance fee is P10.00 and alcoholic beverages are prohibited.

Nasuli ground is ideal for picnic and camping.

Presently, portion of the land is already owned by DECS and is being rented by HANDS Foundation. On the other hand, the Ducusin Family owns twelve hectares including the Nasuli Spring and the former SIL airstrip. Still according to the caretaker, the family is selling the area to any interested buyers at 500 pesos per square meter or a total of P60,000,000.00 for the twelve hectares.      

Today, Nasuli Spring is still surrounded by trees and lush greenery. These are views of the pool from above:



The concrete stairs on the right and left sides that lead down to the pool:



The pool side is still the same as it was years ago:


The last time I visited Nasuli, almost the entire swimming area is very deep and the pool's bed is not visible due to the deep blue water. On this recent visit, however, I observed that some portion of the pool are already shallow.

 The wooden platform is now submerged in water which I observed is shallower than before.

A closer look.

The water beneath this diving board is still deep, though.

Dilapidated diving board and wooden hut.

A view of Nasuli from the opposite side.

Getting there: 

Nasuli Spring Resort is located in Barangay Bangcud, about 20 kilometers away from Malaybalay City proper. It can be reach by passenger bus or multicabs going to Valencia City or any other private vehicle. There is a "habal-habal" station from the national highway going inside to Nasuli. But if you want, you can walk to the spring resort as it is less than a kilometer away from the highway. Entrance fee is only P10.00. Bring your own food and snacks as there are no stores near the vicinity of  Nasuli Spring Resort.


13 comments:

  1. hello earl, i just would like to correct the information written here, actually SIL rented two portions of land, one side was owned by the DUCUSIN and the other side was owned by somebody( i forgot the family name). the other portion was the only foreclosed property NOT THE DUCUSINS LAND. they bought the foreclosed property years ago that was the other portion which they donated to DECS after the said period of time.

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  2. @anonymous: i stand corrected. i guess i just didn't heard it right when we talked to the caretaker.thanks so much for the info. that was really helpful.

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  3. During my relatively recent visit to Nasuli, I found loads of mosquitos inhabiting the place already. And there was lumot everywhere. (Or maybe they've always been there before but I only got to notice them then?) But without a doubt, there was an odor that was definitely absent during my younger years. :-(

    I hope Nasuli will go back to its state when SIL maintained it. Don't get me wrong, though. The grounds (picnic grounds, etc) are still spic-and-span and still photoshoot worthy. But the lake, which used to be so inviting, has begun to have a marsh-y feel to it.

    Also, there used to be a tire swing, much like the one in Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" MTV (pardon the reference: I was an MTV baby) hanging at the left side of the lake. Any chance that they'll put it back? *wistful* :-D

    Cool shots, as always.

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  4. Lei, I agree with your observation. How I wish that Nasuli would be restored to what it was before. I've got lots memories in this place during my high school years.

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  5. i grew up here and so much has obviously changed already, it makes me so sad that i will never ever be able to take my children somewhere and tell them this is where i am from, this is where shaped me snd made me who i am tody, this is the reason i am who i am! all that is gone now forever and will never be replaced it can only live on in our ever fading memory...

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  6. Thanks for the photos and the info as well. My mother worked at SIL before and I used to visit the place. Reading through your entries reminded me of my childhood days spent in this place. I hope I can visit the place again. =D

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  7. I spent quite a bit of time here myself. Most of my grade school to 7th grade. I roamed the ranch to the back, down to Muswan Agricultural College where Dr. Monte Mayor took me under his wings--45 years or more later and I still remember that kind man with much love. I would climb the large mountain visible from Nasuli. I once got lost and ended up a number of kilometers down the road from the crossing half way to Malaybalay. So many wonderful memories.

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    Replies
    1. Hello everyone, I am a student, I just have a question for those of you who know the Theoretical Framework of Nasuli Spring Resort in Historical analysis. Please help me with my practical research so that I can do some research for my studies

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  8. In middle of 1960s I used to be here in this very place. I used to take care of my younger sister while my mother worked as language helper of the irungan (long noses) translate the Erumanen ne Menuvu' epic, songs, folktales, etc into english aside from translating the New Testament into Manobo. White children were my playmates on those days. We fly kites of different colors (kites given to us by Mr. Ashley, SIL missionary from Arizona, USA), swim in the pool, walk, ran around the neighborhood. Sometimes the fathers or uncles of the white children played with us operating a remote controlled toy plane which we all enjoyed to watch in the clear blue sky of Nasuli. Whew! I also remember an Umiray Dumagat language helper named Aladin from Casiguran. We watched him in the pool's downstream sitting in a strewn bamboo poles chewing and spitting red-colored saliva to the clear running water. He smiled at us with his red lips and colored teeth. He enjoyed his chewing sessions a lot as much as we enjoyed watching his long thrown spits to the water of Nasuli.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello everyone, I just have a question for those of you who know the Theoretical Framework of Nasuli Spring Resort in Historical analysis. Please help me with my practical research so that I can do some research for my studies.

      Delete
  9. Interesting facts. A classmate of mine back when I was in highschool was actually spent some years somewhere in this part of Brgy. Bangcud, so to make it short, that got me here trying to take a glimpse of the area through digital tourism. The place as said is now no longer a managed or run by the whites but maybe one day it'll bloom and be restored to its potential inviting and more captivating paradise-playground kind of lagoon and still in a way, can make young children the great kind of people they can be in the future as what it did for some of the locals in the past which now according to them have been a part of they're being. I am looking forward to see this place come in full circle convertion into something more of a tourist attraction. However, I realise that maybe the area deserves to be go back to its undiscovered form. The never been touched version like it used to be many years ago. I think that's how its very nature works. I think that's how we can see its potential to develop into something more of a nature-at-its-best form. Let it beautify itself naturally, unless the owner or the group that manages it wanted to commercialise the area.

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  10. I attended school in a tiny school at Nasuli, near the airstrip. I loved swimming in the spring-fed pond and hiking the dirt trails. All my friends there played guitar and we hung out, smoking banana-leaf stogies. It was - for a kid - a sort of demi-paradise I shan’t ever forget.

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