Escaping the city

My last Saturday in Manila was the perfect opportunity to get OUT of the city and see some of the countryside. My willing tour guide for the day was the Manila team leader, a girl with whom I’ve become rather close during my time here. We’ve bonded over our Starbucks addictions caused by early morning shifts, and I was excited to spend a day hanging out with her.

We got on the road around 9am and headed south. Traffic was, as it usually is in Manila, congested. But once we got outside the limits of Metro Manila, the road opened up, as did the scenery. The farmland, rice fields and small villages are a relief to look at after the concrete jungle of the city. It was about 2 hours before we reached our destination. Along the way we saw squatter villages – little shantytowns by the side of the road populated with half-dressed, dirty adults and children selling whatever they can in an attempt to make some cash. We saw the pineapple fields laid out across rolling hills, and the pinapple stalls selling not only the fruit, but the juices, liquers, and wooden knickknacks from the pineapple plants. We also saw store after store of freshly constructed wooden furniture, made in the local region from natural timbers. This stuff is what you’d see in our boutique furniture dealers in Sydney, stamped with a fancy brand name and sold for a premium price. The air smelled like freshly cut wood.

Tagaytay

Our destination was Tagaytay – a popular vacation spot for Filipinos. Tagaytay is situated on the ridge of an ancient, inactive volcano and looks down into Lake Taal, which contains the Taal Volcano. A volcano within a volcano – a site I’d read about and was looking forward to visiting. We turned left when we hit town and headed towards the less-populated areas. We visited the People’s Park, which offers an amazing view of the valley, lake and volcano itself. When we first arrived, thick fog clouded our view. But as we walked around the jungle trails in the park, the clouds gradually rolled away to reveal the volcano out in the lake, like a mystical island.


As usual, we were followed by hordes of people wanting to sell us everything from zipline rides to boat rides out to the volcano. All the prices were hiked up to cater to the many tourists visiting the area, so we didn’t bother, and stuck to walking around the area instead.

We also drove along the ridge until we couldn’t drive any further. There were some great views out either side – the lake and volcano to our right, and the open valley full of farm land to our left.


Lunch was a rather late affair, at a restaurant called Lesley’s, which looked out across the lake and volcano. We tried bulalo, a beef soup made from a giant beef bone;, pinakbet, eggplant, bitter melon and okra sautéed in pork fat and shrimp paste; and finally seafood bicol express, sliced chillies and random seafood in coconut milk. NOM.

It was a pretty relaxing day compared to my previous adventure, but it was nice to kick back, relax and chat for a day to recover from what had been a pretty shitty week