I was told the gorge that the boat traverses by was one of the filming locations of the iconic end scene of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now note 1. In the hour boat ride - entirely in a dugout canoe - the guide shoots the rapids as the sun overhead begins its descent over the steep edge of the cliff. The late afternoon stillness and quite solitude on the water was juxtaposed nicely with the relative chaos when the dugout that my dad and his friend was on capsized mere minutes after departing the dock in Pansanjan note 2.

But the prize of enduring the hour-long boat ride is arriving at the foot of Pagsanjan Falls where a balsa (or bamboo raft) will take you behind the roughly 40 metre water drop and into the Devil's Cave. The amount of water egressing through the falls drops at such a high pressure that your guide will likely require you to wear a hard hat. You could also rent a relatively cheap-quality poncho at the boat hire in Pagsanjan, but considering you're literally travelling into the waterfall, forgive me for not thinking that a poncho would cut keeping my person dry.

An equal prize is also received on the return boat ride back to the town of Pagsanjan. Not only are you traversing the rapids downstream from the falls, if you time it right your boat will arrive back to town just as the sun is setting on the horizon. Peace and serenity: check!

Pagsanjan Falls is approximately 1.5 hours away from Manila (not including the time on the boat). While I went here via private vehicle, you could either find a tour headed for Pagsanjan Falls or take the Jeepney from Manila to Laguna, and then onwards to Pagsanjan. I personally did half-a-day in Tagaytay/Taal volcano, and then headed to Pagsanjan Falls on the way back to Manila.