Out of desperation to get out of our hotel from the night before, I called Sonya’s B&B for a room viewing the very next day. However, the transportation was still a problem to get around Tagaytay, the hotel arranged a 3 hour “tour” for P1,800. As soon as we got in the sedan, the driver suggested that we head to Taal Volcano for a very beautiful scenery. The best in Tagaytay, he said. I agreed happily. Afterall, that was the purpose of the trip! The road from the hotel to the volcano was windy and it wasn’t until we started descending that I realized that we were so far up in the highlands. About 30 minutes later, we stopped at a “resort”. “Why are we here?” I asked. “This is where you take the boat to the Volcano! Mam, you have to go on the boat, then the horse, then you will see the volcano.” The driver replied. “Seriously?” I thought to myself. I have to transport my senior citizen parents on a boat and then a horse to see the volcano?
After a short bargaining with the owner of the boats, we agreed to pay another P1,800 for a motor-powered long-tail boat to the bottom of the volcano. The long-tail boat chopped through the lake while the lake water occasionally splashed onto us, we arrived the destination about 20 minutes later.
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| base of Taal |
You can imagine my astonishment when we reached the bottom of the volcano that there was nothing but horse feces, horses for rent, and bus loads (or boat loads) of Korean tourists. Each tourist saddled over a tiny Filipino horse guided by a skinny Filipino guide. Off they went to see the volcano up close and personal. By this time, I already feel like a silly tourist after the car and boat ride. “Mam, each horse is fitted with a personal guide, go see the volcano where it shot up steam, you have to go on the horse to see!” “How long is the horse ride?” I asked. “Thirty minutes going up Mam”. Thirty minutes up and thirty minutes down the volcano will murder my folks, I thought. “Too long, we will look from here” I replied. The salesman looked at me as if I was from another planet. He must be thinking, “what is there to see here?” We bought a few coconuts and sipped the juice while we sat and watched the tourists line up one after the other and took off with their horses and handlers.
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| coconut seller |
The smell of animal waste permeated the air and the horse-riding vendors were a little too enthusiastic, so we decided to head back onto the boat after about thirty minutes. I asked Winston, our motor-powered long-tail boat driver, to take us further away from the base of the volcano so we can have a complete view of the sleeping beauty. Winston maneuvered the boat through the Tilapia farm that’s set up by the local fishermen and headed to one of the dead volcanoes that’s connected to the sleeping one. Birds were flying all over the bamboo structures that are floating on water, waiting to catch their lunch in the Tilapia farm. The lake water splashed and splattered and my parents were delivered safely onshore after another thirty minutes has gone by. Taal is definitely not the place to visit for older folks!
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| Tilapia farm |
Our hotel car driver said to me “Mam, we have forty minutes left, where do you want to go?” By the time we got into the vehicle, I was already “sea”-sick from the long-tailed boat ride. “Take us to Sonyas’s garden for lunch,” I groaned. I secretly hoped that Sonya’s would be a more suitable and relaxing place for this short weekend trip…
Out of desperation to get out of our hotel from the night before, I called Sonya’s B&B for a room viewing the very next day. However, the transportation was still a problem to get around Tagaytay, the hotel arranged a 3 hour “tour” for P1,800. As soon as we got in the sedan, the driver suggested that we head to Taal Volcano for a very beautiful scenery. The best in Tagaytay, he said. I agreed happily. Afterall, that was the purpose of the trip! The road from the hotel to the volcano was windy and it wasn’t until we started descending that I realized that we were so far up in the highlands. About 30 minutes later, we stopped at a “resort”. “Why are we here?” I asked. “This is where you take the boat to the Volcano! Mam, you have to go on the boat, then the horse, then you will see the volcano.” The driver replied. “Seriously?” I thought to myself. I have to transport my senior citizen parents on a boat and then a horse to see the volcano? 
After a short bargaining with the owner of the boats, we agreed to pay another P1,800 for a motor-powered long-tail boat to the bottom of the volcano. The long-tail boat chopped through the lake while the lake water occasionally splashed onto us, we arrived the destination about 20 minutes later.
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