Be sure to take the tired old horse

Saturday morning, Jollie, Ron & JM took me and Pam to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Lake Taal tah-all and Taal Volcano in Tagaytay tah-gay-tie.

We left work about 7am and piled into JM's car. Stopped at the hotel, so we could change, and then headed on our trek. Keep in mind this is only about 55km (34 miles) away from Manila, yet it took us over 2 hours to get there. One word - Traffic. I guess in a small country that has over ~90 million people, and 14 million living in Manila, you are bound to hit a few traffic jams. (I'll be sure to talk about the driving "rules" here in another post) Tagaytay is in a province called Cavite and is considered third world. The drive had both of us in shock. Neither of us had seen such poverty. It was amazing to see first hand images we had only seen in National Geographic or on TV. These really do exist. We have poverty in the US, but this is an entirely different level. Not only are they without a home with walls, clothing or much food, but they are relying on water in the streets as their means to wash themselves and clothes. There is disease here that doesn't exist at home, malaria, yellow fever, tuberculosis, typhoid, schistosomiasis and rabies. Animals found on the streets are killed and eaten only spreading the disease to those who consume it. In comparison, our poverty back home is actually pretty wealthy because of many government subsidies or aid that is available.

---- Enough depressing stuff -----

We arrived and found a man with a sign for boat rides... Jollie begins her bartering. We follow them to a parking lot and take pictures of the area. Breath-taking. She negotiates a price, not sure how far she got him down, but she was satisfied with it and we then begin to follow a local on a red motorcycle. I felt like I was in a movie trying to keep up with a guy dressed in all black riding down this mountain to get to the lake. Hair-pin turns and a long winding road that was often blocked by jeepneys loading people or those passenger scooters zipping in and out of the road. Finally turning into the driveway of what appears to be some one's home. hmmmmm I am getting a little nervous, I will not lie. But since JM, Jollie & Ron do not appear to be nervous I must rely on their 6th sense that everything will be okay. Next on tap - bathrooms. Yeah, I decide to hold off but Pam tries to convince me that if nothing else it is a great photo opportunity in there and wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. There was a sort-of potty in there.. with a bucket that was filled with water and a cup/ladle for you to pour water down the potty to "flush" everything down the hole. Yeah... I will wait.
I am not sure what I was thinking the boat would be, but being a girl from a peninsula state I am thinking small john boat, wooden dock.. we will be fine. Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh, not so much. The boat is almost gondola looking with bars extending out to bamboo that is resting on the water as I guess you would call them runners. I don't know of any other term at this point. So basically, the hull is beneath us and 6 pieces of bamboo (3 on either side) is what we are riding on. My stomach is churning and I think the fear is starting to show on my face. Oh, and the dock - is bamboo resting on the water.... yeah.. not feeling so good. I make it across and onto the boat - at this point Pam and I are both saying our prayers!
The lake and surrounding area is amazing. We come up to the volcano island and make it off the boat safely. Met by smells and sounds that are indescribable. Local people suddenly trying to get us to buy bottled water, what appear to be surgical face masks, sombreros, and cloth arm length gloves saying all the tourists buy them. Constant "Ma'am.. ma'am" holding goods up at our faces, we just keep shaking our heads no and Pam & I are holding our bag/pockets close to ourselves. We walk up and more negotiations begin for the horse ride. Now, the Lonely Planet guide had in there "for the full experience be sure to take a tired old horse up the volcano" And they are not kidding when they say tired and old... but they left out smelly! Two of our other co-workers had done this same adventure a few weeks earlier. George is a bigger guy and said that he kept apologizing the whole time to the horse and knew it was going to go over the edge taking him with it. Flies and mosquitoes are all around and we did not think to put bug spray on... which is worrying me and Pam a little too. Jollie negotiates for us to go would be 500 pesos each, which was down from 900. JM, Pam & I buy water, that was sealed, for 25 pesos... Jollie & Ron get hats for 30 pesos.. So, we walk up to this step area and mount on the horse - keep in mind these are smaller than normal horses... kind of a step above a mule... and they are not fed the best of food, so what they leave behind smells worse than normal! My "guide" is named Zandy or something like that. It was very difficult to understand - he was an older gentleman with only a few teeth. On the trip I learned he is in his 50's and has a child who is a year old. His living conditions have weathered him to look well above his 50's. I don't have Pam's pictures just yet, but please be sure to check back to the picture link for those -- there are pictures of him and of me on the horse.. I have the ones of her and her guide. So we're going along and suddenly the terrain gets to be rough & steep and it is customary for the guide to hop on the back of the horse and ride up. Yeah... this is unnerving for both me & Pam, but what are we going to do? I am laughing to myself and thinking of my Uncle Randy. He has always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon and ride a donkey down, while my Aunt Donna says she's not riding an ass down a big hole. The terrain is very rugged and I am beginning to apologize to the horse at this point! But the view is absolutely amazing. As I look around nothing but pineapple groves, banana trees, and coconut & mango trees are around. There ground cover has all kinds of things from the fun posion ivy to basil which fills the air. We pass a horse that was tied to a tree and it was very thin. I asked Zandy if it was sick and he said yes and was sure to guide my horse to the other side of the trail. Oh, and my horse was hungry - he kept stopping and eating which was not making Zandy happy. Once at the top, I hop off the horse onto sandbags that are stacked as a step and immediately have a young boy holding a soda saying, "Ma'am soda for the guide? 50 pesos". Zandy is standing there looking at me and turns to walk up the remaining steps to the volcano edge. It was a tough trek up and very hot, so I buy one for my guide, Pam's, she didn't have small enough currency and also for Ron's. Little did I know this is a scam.. because they have drinks for the guides. I looked at the boy as my guide walked away and said hand me the soda so I can give it to Zandy. I want to be sure he gets it and see Zandy and the other guides drinking. Ohhh I'm not happy. But whatever, they are trying to make a living and are certainly not living like we do. So, I am out 150 pesos. Our group reconvenes and we walk up the steps to the top.

Incredible.

Inside the volcano is a small lake called Yellow Lake. Taal Volcano is the smallest active volcano in the world. There are hot spots showing signs of activity. Steam is rising from various areas around us and there is a smell of sulfur - thankfully not too overbearing. But we are basically looking at a lake within a lake. We take many pictures and make permanent images of everything around us sights, sounds and smells. After a break, we decide to head back and find our guides to take us down the volcano. Zandy brings my horse over and we begin the ride down. He hops back on at one point and this time I am much more uncomfortable. We have broken off from the group I was with and his arm is resting on my hip and he is up a little closer behind me. We get to a point where he hops off and hands me the rope to guide the horse down - and takes my bottle water and puts it in his front pocket of his shorts. This makes me uneasy again but even more so when he walks a good bit up ahead of me and I see both hands messing with that one pocket. Thank you, I am done with that bottle of water! I don't know that he did anything to it, but I am not going to chance it! We get to a rocky point and I hand him the rope to guide the horse through... well, once below that and agian, there is no one around - coming up or down the volcano, he stops and decides to go to the bathroom on the trail. Not saying anything to me about it - just stops and HELLO... yeah.. I am thinking okay, give me warning here! So I'm looking opposite of him and in shock that he didn't even apologize or say anything about it! We make it back to where we started and the smell of all the horses overtakes you. I see Pam & Ron waiting for me, Jollie & JM have not arrived yet. So I get off the horse, he hands me my water, and says "Tip". Seriously!? After this? Well, I don't know what is customary to tip him... the smallest denomination of bill I have (after handing over 150 pesos earlier) was 500. And I don't think so!! It's not like I can ask for change - so I give him the peso coins I have. Which apparently was not good, and two girls there laughed. But he wasn't deserving of a 500 peso tip (which I believe is about $25) So I walked off to meet up with Ron & Pam trying to find a place to dump off the water bottle. We also learned at this time that the hat was rented... not purchased. And Ron & I shared his hat... ugh! He and I both looked at each other and had disgusted looks on our faces.
We found our boat to ride back across.. but while waiting, notice a woman standing about hip deep in the water with her clothes on, washing and she had washed clothes too because she came out of the water as we were leaving carrying a basket with wet clothing. Again, another scene I had never experienced. Once back at the car, we all pulled out the hand sanitizer and headed back up the mountain to find lunch. What a day!!
Jollie had a great little place in mind that has Hawaiian style BBQ. The place was beautiful and was an open lanai overlooking Lake Taal. I do not know the name of the restaurant, but you can see pictures in there.
Oh, one other thing - we stopped at a bakery for Jollie & Ron to pick up some items for their families and there are security guards - at a BAKERY - carrying guns... yeah. There is a picture of that in there too. Small kids aren't even phased by the sight, Pam & I were more than anyone else. It is normal for everyone else. Wow. There was also a man walking across the road who had a large knife in a carrier on his hip. It was long, almost to his knee. JM is thinking he is a worker at one of the pineapple farms and that is used to cut the crops. At least that is what she is hoping (and so were we!)
We got back to the hotel about 5pm, so we had been up for 23 hours and were EXHAUSTED! I showered and then slept... ordered room service - had a cheeseburger and fries in honor of our Independence Day, called some family and headed back to bed until Sunday morning.
So that is Tagaytay! Amazing in so many ways. It is breakfast time, so I need to go eat. We have to work tonight. I believe Pam and I are going to try to head to Mall of Asia to check it out along with Manila Bay today before taking our nap prior to work.
I have another day, Sunday, to tell you about as well.. but will work on that blog entry tonight.

Paalam Pah-all-am (Goodbye!)

Link to the Tagaytay pictures -
http://picasaweb.google.com.ph/dnole2/TagaytayPhilippines