Cory has kindly allowed me to gank some of her pictures from our vacation, which will help in telling the ridiculous story I'm about to tell.
Enter: The Vacation Where Most Everything Went Wrong...But It Was Still So RightGetting everyone back together
Now that I've gotten my dramatic title out of the way, here goes. We started off on our weeklong excursion by heading to Seoul to take our flight to Manila. The plan was to spend a three days in Manila, three days in Boracay, and a final night in Manila. Post-vacation, the three of us agreed that skipping Manila altogether would've been better, but eh, you live and you learn. (Lesson for my trip to India: Skipping New Delhi and Mumbai and heading straight to smaller places!)
For various reasons, Cory had to take a significantly later flight than did Sophie and I, so she spent the entire day at the Seoul airport--a struggle that stinks, as I can testify, having spent more hours/days in airports than I'd care to share. The plan was that Sophie and I, having arrived in Manila in the morning, would spend the day figuring out the city a bit and return at midnight to pick up Cory. That seemed simple enough.
Womp!
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| Manila: Steer clear of these exorbitantly overpriced airport taxis and just hail one on the street. |
So Sophie and I hailed another cab and went on what was about a 15-minute ride to Terminal 3. It was taking so long that I checked to ask the driver, "You're taking us to the airport's Terminal 3, right?" He said yes, and I figured that I could get angry with him in a mix of English, Spanish and extremely basic Tagalog if he was trying to pull a fast one on us. Luckily, that wasn't necessary, and we finally were able to pick up Cory at around 1am.
Sophie and I had been checking out the city's Makati area and stumbled upon this AMAZING food fair! They were selling everything from barbeque to fresh fruit (like, good fruit, not frozen fruit that costs nine dollars per pound). We asked the workers what time they closed.
"3 a.m.," they say.
Lies and blasphemous falsehoods! (Maybe not blasphemous, but everyone knows I can be a little dramatic.) By the time we had returned to Makati with Cory, everyone had closed up shop. Defeated, we walked around near our hotel and found a cool, ridiculously cheap little restaurant that was all but empty. Sophie ordered the "butter chicken," which, to me, sounded like an Indian dish that I've loved ever since the first time I had it. Surprise! It was like...
In short, this mess was gross! Even in the most whacked-out reality, movie popcorn butter does not go well on chicken fingers.
Climbing a Volcano...or Not
Over the past two years, volcanoes have been involved in my travel plans more than once. In 2011, when I interned for the Foundation for Sustainable Development in La Plata, Argentina, I experienced the unfortunate wrath of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle Eruption, which led me to a bus ride through the Andes Mountains and some really interesting times with amazing people along the way from Chile to Argentina.
*getting back on topic*
This time, I would interact with a volcano on purpose!
We took a taxi for about $1.25 to the bus station, which was less of a station and more of a bus stop. Here, dozens of buses rushed by on a regular basis. There were no bus numbers or names; rather, each bus had a paper in its front window with the name of its destination. After a ten or fifteen minute wait, we noticed that most of the buses were headed to one location, which was not the one that we were seeking. We asked someone and quickly figured it out.
On the bus to Batangas, en route to Taal Volcano, at least ten vendors came onto the bus while we were waiting for passengers to load. Selling everything from oranges to empanadas, these people could make sure you didn't get hungry on your two hour bus ride. I can deal with this kind of service!
11:51 am finally taking off on the bus!
About two hours later, Sophie checks her phone - - having magically found WiFi somewhere on the highway-- and discovers that we have gone too far on the bus. I consult with the bus driver, who advises us to get off in Lipa City and continue our trek from there. We hop off and walk to a convenience store to seek directions...we're told to walk "down the street" to the McDonald's and catch the bus there. Great!
So we walk for a while...
and walk...
and keep walking...
and don't see the Golden Arches anywhere. I'll point out that I'm not a lazy American; I DO walk places. But this was not "down the street." Not wanting to wander aimlessly for ages since we were already behind schedule, I asked a jeepney driver and a bus driver. They said to go across the street to catch the bus. Anyway, we finally found the right bus and then got to Tanauan City. On the bus ride, we finally saw the elusive McDonald's. From here, we had to get to Talisay. As a group of three, it seemed impossible to find a vehicle that could take all of us together, and splitting up into separate trikes was not an option. We found a trike driver and he said, "Sure, all three of you can fit in here." He pats the space behind him on the driver's seat and gestures to me, so I hope on and the girls shuffle into the attached...umm...carriage thingy. He takes us to the jeepney stop (a pretty sketchy place), from which we ride to the Talisay Public Market. It's right on the coast, and you can see the volcano in the distance.
We were almost there! All that was left was to take a barca (boat) to the island. BUT there was one small problem.
A trike driver offers to take us to the boat driver for 1500 pesos, which we knew was absurd. Like, REALLY unreasonably expensive. But absent other options and with the sun quickly on the descent, we acquiesced to being gypped. We ride for about 3 minutes to this random house ostensibly owned by the boat man, and the driver ran inside. He returned to tell us that there was a hold on rides to the water.
"A hold? Meaning that we can't ride to the island now? "
"Yes, sir. The water is too rough for the boat to leave."
"How long does the hold last?"
"Until tomorrow."
AAARGH!
We released a collective sigh and decided decided to take him up on his offer to drive us us to People's Park, a location from which we could view the volcano. (Disclaimer: You CANNOT see Taal Volcano from People's Park, although you can enjoy beautiful views of the rest of the island.) The ride was...interesting. I'm again riding behind the driver, except this time we go on a winding route through hills and mountains. No, but really--we were riding in a trike up mountains. Did I mention trikes yet? Here's one.
After maybe 35 minutes, we get to the park and go shoot some photos. Since its at the summit of a mountain, the air was cold, and the wind had picked up during the ride. We hastened our steps and headed back to Talisay--not before stopping on the side of the road to pick up a jeepney driver who had run out of gas, though.
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| This is a rather spiffy-looking trike in the Philippines |
After maybe 35 minutes, we get to the park and go shoot some photos. Since its at the summit of a mountain, the air was cold, and the wind had picked up during the ride. We hastened our steps and headed back to Talisay--not before stopping on the side of the road to pick up a jeepney driver who had run out of gas, though.
So I was suddenly jammed in between two men on a single seat for the duration of the ride. It wasn't the most comfortable thing ever, but I've been in much worse travel situations, so whatever! As an aside, this long ride was only 200 pesos, or about $5. I think the trike driver felt badly about our not having been able to see the volcano after seven...count 'em...seven hours of travel.
We then do everything in reverse (except without mistakes this time) and get back to Manila sound 10pm.
So, our aspirations on hiking up a volcano and such were dashed today, but that's OK. We leave tomorrow for Boracay, so hopefully that'll go smoothly.
In case anyone wants to go to Taal Lake, here's how to do it from Metro Manila...
From your location in Metro Manila, get to Buendia Bus Station. Have the conductor hail you a bus to Hilpuyat LRT station. At that station, we took a bus going toward Batangas. Get off in Tanauan and take a trike to the jeepney station, or if you're lucky, get a jeepney all the way to the Public Market (which is basically where the boats dock). From there, take a boat across Taal Lake and you're at the volcano.
Boracay!
The island of Boracay was hands-down the best part of our vacation. It went a little something like this:
Once we arrived on the island, we took a trike for about $4 to our resort, which I had found at a steal of a price. (No but really, it was really cheap.) As I filled out the check-in papers and surrendered my passport for a day to the front desk clerk, the restaurant staff gave us awesome fruit smoothies. Why did the lady hold my passport overnight? She said they needed it for verification purposes and blah blah, which I was extremely uncomfortable with. I woke up the next morning and promptly marched right to her office to claim my precious identity book.
We had read about a place called Ariel's Point. This place would have been AMAZING! You can go cliff diving, paddling, kayaking, snorkeling...all kinds of good stuff! We booked our tickets the day before we wanted to go, and had gotten our water gear ready. At breakfast, the front desk lady -- with whom we were basically best friends by the end of the trip -- informed us that the water was too rough to take the boat to Ariel's Point, and that we could go back to the club house to get a refund.
NOOOOOOO! Not another cancellation!
I was singularly disappointed by this because Ariel's Point was the #1 thing I had been looking forward to in Boracay. Oh well. We ended up finding an ATV place and then going horseback riding. My horse was ratchet because he wouldn't move any faster than a slow walk for more than 5 seconds, but it will still fun! Despite my Oklahomanness, I wasn't experienced in horse riding, whereas Sophie and Cory had both done in numerous times. It's OK because my horse and I bonded during our slow trip.
After this, we found miscellaneous things to do and ended up having a great time together. ATMs started taking money from our cards without actually dispensing any money, an ARC (Alien Resident Card...it's your lifeline in Korea if you're a foreigner) was lost, and some other things went really wrong. But we managed to get back to Daegu all in one piece, and I'm biding here until my next adventure.
Until next time!
~WTRJ
