02.15.08

Tagaytay and the Taal Volcano

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:28 pm by Administrator

To continue on with my travelog, one of the sites we tried to hit was the Taal Volcano in Tagaytay. This is a picture of the Taal Volcano, which is the mound off to the right of the picture with the crater in it.

I say “tried” because we didn’t quite make it there. While we didn’t quite make it to Taal, we were able to view it from a distance. We got to Tagaytay, all right, but in order to get to Taal, one needs to take a boat ride from Tagaytay to Taal. So here’s the story. . .

We all have family quirks, right? Well one of our family “things” is that my mom tends to be on the nervous side. Very spunky, but very nervous. One thing that makes her nervous is big bodies of water because she doesn’t know how to swim. She’s okay with “big” boats like cruise liners, but not small boats like the ones that take tourists from Tagaytay to Taal. You actually see water on both sides of you while on those boats. My dad, being the nice guy that he is, tried to soothe her by telling her that she’d like the trip and just take a look at the boats. He felt that once she saw the boats, she might feel safe enough to ride one. So off we went, out of the city.

After two toll roads, winding through roads lined with vendors, and about an hour later we got to Tagaytay. Hmm. Which side road do we take to get to the “boats?” We turned down this way and that. The locals looked friendly enough, so we asked, “Where are the boats? The ones that take you to Taal?” “Huh? I don’t understand. . ., was some of the replies” with their confused looks. “The ‘boats’,” we asked, “banka.” “Oh!, banka,” they said, “Go down further.” Okay, so off we go. Are we going the right way? So again we stop and ask, and again the reply is, “a little further.” Further still but still no signs of the “banka” to Taal. So we pull over and ask again, and low and behold, this time we hit pay dirt. They ALL knew about the “boats!” People swarmed around our car telling us to just follow them and they’ll give us a boat ride to Taal. Oh boy, oh boy were they excited to see us! A car full of “tourists” looking for a boat ride! These guys would not let us go no matter how nice my dad spoke to them. This started to get my already scared-of-water mother nervous. Thoughts of getting kidnapped and tied up and thrown into the lake started swimming around in her head, ha! While I wasn’t as nervous as she was, I did find the situation a bit unnerving, too. So slowly we creeped off to get them to stop hanging in our window. . .

Whew, that was wild! But wait! Look behind us! Those guys are following us in a car! Well there is only one road, so maybe they’re just going down the same path. Down we went, winding, and winding, until finally we got to where more guys were waiting for boat ride takers. The guys behind us pull in front of us and start motioning for us to follow them. Oh crap, mom is starting to get nervous. Dad tells the driver not to follow them. Let’s look for another boat ride service. So off we go past those guys. We turn around and there they are following us again! Mom is going bananas now. We turn off another road but it is too steep. Our driver tells us that our car can’t go down that. Those guys are right on our tail still yelling to take their boat. Mom has now passed bananas and is frantic now, ack! Finally my dad tells our driver, “I think you’d better take us back up before my Misses has a heart attack. . . ” So our driver turned us around, and that was the end of Taal for us, ha ha ha!

But was that the end of those guys? NO! They followed us up the winding road until we saw a landing where there were some people advertising to sell property there. We stopped, and so did those boat men! Sitting there waiting for us. I could hear my mom speaking loudly to the vendors that those guys following us are scaring her to death. And there they sat! My sister, Andrew and I decided to get out and take pictures because the scenery really was rather nice. We could get shots of the Taal volcano from where we were (and that is the landing where I got the above picture). One of the guys asks my mom if Andrew is a foreigner. Just to scare him (since she was already scared of him), she told him, “Yes, he’s half middle-eastern.” Ha ha ha! What a nutty thing to say, but boy did we laugh about it later. My dad told her how nutty that was, too, ha ha ha!

So imagine the above scenario going on as pictures like this one was taken.

Driving down the winding roads were lots of towns’ people moving about, including lots of little kids. They were adorable. There’s something about the way God made kids. It doesn’t matter what nationality they are, they’re all so cute.

The soil looked very fertile. It looked dark and typical of what I had imagined volcanic soil to look like. It appeared that one of the biggest crops they grew in this area were pineapples. There were several fields of pineapples along the way.

This brings me to the issue of the exchange rate. While we were in the Philippines, the exchange rate was $1 to 40P. From one of the vendors, my mom bought 16 pineapples for 500P. That would be equivalent to about $12.50, U.S. currency. Here’s what one of those stands looked like.

We also stopped at a coconut stand on the way back from Bataan. There were lots of coconuts in that area. Now as a health conscious person, searching along several of the health forums, I have experimented with coconuts. Lots of coconuts. You know the “miracles of coconut” stuffs, ha ha! Well, it was easy for me to do because I just love them. Especially the “young” coconuts. And this is what I was looking forward to when visiting the Philippines. What I did not think of was the “price” difference. There were times when one coconut here could cost about $3.00. One young coconut. Well out in the Philippines they had coconuts everywhere! We stopped off at this one stand with these lovelies. . .

So while back in the states I could buy a coconut for $3.00, here in the Philippines we bought 20 coconuts for 200P. That’s equivalent to 20 coconuts for $5.00. . . And yes, I drank them all up while there!

Here’s the nice woman who cut some open for us.

After you finish drinking the coconut water, then they split the coconut open for you and make a little spoon out of the husk so that you can scoop out the coconut meat. This is young coconut, which is my favorite way of eating coconut. The matured coconuts are only good for macaroons and other toppings for desserts like bibinka (Filipino sweet rice).

I just had to share this picture of my dad eating his coconut. I think he looks so cute here! Ha! I can just imagine him as one of those little boys going to school. . .

Here I am very happy with my first coconut of the trip. . .

After we drank up and ate the young coconut meat, we hit the road again. When we got back, my aunt opened up all the coconuts and shaved the meat and put it in a nice large pitcher for me. I guess no one likes coconuts as much as I did because they let me drink all of it! Ha! That is one thing I miss now that I’m home, and I hate to buy coconuts here even though right now they are only $2.00 per young coconut. . . I’ll probably break down and buy one eventually, but for now I’m on strike! But, I suppose business is business. In the country, the coconuts were 10P each, while in the city they were 20P. Still much cheaper than here, but consider what the average wage is there. I was told that it is a common wage to earn about 300P a day. While some things are cheap there, not everything is. Anyway, we also saw coconuts being transported. . . These guys looked happy. Check it out, ha!

The guy in the white waved, but too bad it didn’t get caught on film!

While we didn’t get to go to Taal, Tagaytay was nice. Luckily we found a lovely spot just outside of Tagaytay that made up for it! It’s called, Sonya’s Garden. I’ll make my next post about her place because if anyone ends up in Tagaytay, Sonya’s Garden is definitely worth visiting!

Marlakins

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