Coming To Manila, Day 2: Tagaytay

So after drinking lots of alcohol at dinner the night before, I had a feeling the usual would happen to me.

You see, when I usually drink a lot, I end up waking up earlier than I normally would because I feel dehydrated and I find myself craving a lot of water. And, that (combined with some jet lag I guess) is why I woke up at 4 A.M. on Monday morning in Manila. Luckily, after drinking some water, I was able to fall asleep again about half an hour later and woke up around 7, 7:30 A.M. to get ready for Tagaytay.

TJC and I got some breakfast at the hotel's Jeepney Cafe, and we basically feasted again as it was a buffet. It was a good combo of western and Filipino dishes, and I gleefully partook, along with some mango juice.

Around 9:45, got a text from Nonoy that they were downstairs already so we headed down. With him were Vanessa, Manang Tata and April (April is Nonoy's cousin from his mother's side of the family). We got into the car, with Rodel driving again, and we proceeded to head to Tagaytay.

It was a bit weird at first seeing the city in the day time; for the first time I really got a clear look at the city I spent a good deal of my life in and I couldn't help but get nostalgic again. As we drove along further, TJC was looking at one side of the road, while I was looking at the other. All of a sudden, he turns to me and goes: "What are those on your side of the road?" Nonoy said "Rice paddies". "OH!!! I KNEW IT!!! I COULD SENSE IT!!! The Chinese in me was looking for rice paddies and all of a sudden I could feel the pull to look in your direction!!!" Ha. Typical TJC.

The more we drove along, the more Nonoy started playing tour guide; he was actually doing a very very good job of it until he started talking about the sunflowers found in the Philippines not being comparable to the native sunflowers in Holland... Everyone: "Uhmmm, tulips, not sunflowers, are Holland's native flowers". That's when everyone figured out Nonoy was probably making up half of the things he said just for fun and we all should take it with a grain of salt, hahahaha.

We got to Tagaytay, and the big thing about the place is Taal Volcano, an active volcano in the middle of the lake. Within the volcano's crater itself is another lake, and in that lake is another volcanic island! Think about that...


You could actually take a boat to the volcano if you wanted to, but Nonoy ixnayed that. The ladies wanted to go, but hey, I'm in Nonoy's voting block so even though it would have been cool, I was fine with not going.

We stopped for lunch at Leslie's, which had great food and a phenomenal view of Taal.


Again, we feasted on food --- all TJC and I have done since we got on the flight it seems has been eat. But like I said, it was really delicious, especially the Bulalo (it's a beef soup with vegetables, with the marrow still on the bone, a local delicacy in that area.

We decided to get coffee and dessert somewhere afterwards, and the ladies pushed for Starbucks, which turns out was right next door. TJC and I at that point discovered the magical Starbucks Holiday Planner, which seems to be the biggest thing for the ladies of the Philippines for the last few years now. Turns out, every time you buy a drink at Starbucks, you get a sticker. Said sticker goes on to your Holiday Planner sticker book, which has slots for 24 of these stickers -- 12 for "regular" drinks, 12 for "special" drinks. You get all 24 stickers, you get a planner. What a racket! But we got the impression that this planner is to a lot of women in the Philippines the way Don Quixote's quest was to him. April was the big winner today though as she got 6 stickers in one shot. Ha.

After coffee, we went to Calarejuega, which was about a 20 minute drive from there.


Caleruega is a very nice area of prayer and retreat, with a chapel all the way at the top of a hill. You get treated to some nice scenery along the way up there, and it really wasn't that much of a climb.
Uhmmm, we weren't there for prayer or retreat, we were just doing the tourist thing. Nonoy did step inside the church though, and God must have said: "What are you doing in here?? It's not Christmas or Easter... OH, Tedted's in town. Carry on." :-P


We headed back to Manila after this, and Nonoy wanted to go to the Ayala Museum, which is not that far from our hotel. We got there about 4ish, but turns out the Museum is closed on Mondays. So we ended up going to the Greenbelt Mall, which is like a 5 minute walk from it, and while the ladies did their thing, Nonoy, TJC and I went to the Oyster Bar and sat outdoors for some drinks. The ladies joined us after an hour and we drank some more, and ate some oysters also.

Unfortunately, the mosquitos started attacking us and it was misery. They started with TJC, then moved clockwise towards me. Around 8ish, 9ish, we went to dinner upstairs at the Banana Leaf, a Singaporean restaurant where your plates are -- surprise, banana leaves. I thought that was an awesome touch.

Manang Tata's husband Eric and April's brother Jon joined us; I had just seen Jon in New York about a month before that as he was in town visiting, where he and I got fairly drunk. He ended up throwing up on the bus home, while I ended up wandering the Village, unable to at first find this restaurant where I was supposed to meet TJC, the Woos and some friends for a birthday dinner, even though I apparently walked past TJC a few times. But all's well that ends well: Jon got home, I found the restaurant.

I felt a bid bad though, as by the time Eric and Jon joined us, I was so out of it. Exhaustion caught up with me and I did not really talk to them as much as I wanted to. My body was in rebellion at that point and it just wanted to shut down.

We finished up around 10, 11 PM and Nonoy proceeded to drop us off at the hotel where I proceeded to conk out.

Day 2 was so much fun though, not the least of which was because Nonoy and I hung out all day just like old times.

Day 3 though, it turned out, was going to be very interesting...