Taal Lake and Volcano

It was our last weekend after two and a half months of living and working in Manila ... and our collegues had very kindly organised a trip out to Taal volcano. It was time to escape from the crowds, the traffic, and the malls, and swap the pollution of Manila for the sulfuric emissions of Taal!

 

Once we boarded various cars ... the landscape slowly (and I mean slowly, the traffic in Manila is notoriously bad!) changed from a dull concrete jungle with obstrusive billboards, to little " villages" with home designs that were really out of place (such as log cabins, and miniature mansions, etc) , to lush, fertile agricultural land with hills covered in pineapples! The pineapple plant is a strange looking thing -- unfortunately we didn't stop for photos ... :(

There are many ways to get to Taal and Tagaytay (which is about an hour and a half from Metro Manila) ...

 

We soon reached Tagaytay, where many touts were trying to sell boat rides to the volcano ... some even jumped in front of the moving car, forcing us to slow down and drive around them!

Upon arrival at Lake Taal, we noticed the abundance of life ... alive ...

 

... and dead!

 

We were soon shown to our Bancas ...

 

Safely on the other side, we begin out ascend to the top ... many tourists hired horses, the lazy buggers!! :P

 

 

It wasn't exactly a long trek to the top, but the really hot weather and the steaming piles of horse dung (and stampeding hordes of tourists on horseback) made the journey slightly less enjoyable. I stopped to admire the view now and then, when I'm not concentrating on avoiding horsepoo, and jumping out of the way of the horses.

The view was more than worth it tho!

 

After a long day of trekking (ok, ok, so it was a few hours) we rewarded ourselves with a feast in Tagaytay ...

 

Food is served! Time to replenish lost cholesterol ...