Visit to the Philippines

This year I had the pleasure of visiting the Philippines for 1 week. I went to Muntinlupa City, which is just south of Manila on the island of Luzon. I travelled there for work so I didn’t have the opportunity to see very much, but my co-worker Jeever took me on a drive one afternoon to a town called Tagaytay City. Tagaytay City is on the top of a large hill (approximately 2400 ft). On the way to Tagaytay, we passed pineapple plantations, Jeepneys (more on that later) full of people, rows and rows of fruit stands and a motorcycle with a sidecar filled to the brim with bananas. Tagaytay is somewhat economically depressed, but people there make their living off of fruit crops, hand-crafted wooden furnature and selling Philippino coffee. Amazingly, there is a Starbucks built right at the top point in Tagaytay. After getting our coffees, I followed Jeever to the back, where there was an outdoor sitting area and a panoramic view of the Taal Volcano. We were offered a boat ride across the lake to the volcano crater (1500 PhPs for our group, or a special price of 4500 PhPs for our group in which the seller would make 1500 and my friend Jeever would make 1500 – how nice!) We declined, but I don’t blame the guy for trying. On the way back from Starbucks, we stopped at a fruit stand where I bought a bundle of mangosteens. A mangosteen has a semi-hard purple shell. When you press on the sides, it pops open so you can pick out white pods of sweet/tangy fruit. It tasted a lot like a sweet plum – in pod form!

Although I didn’t go to downtown Manila, I was told the traffic is much like the traffic in Bangkok. In the Philippines, people can catch rides in Jeepneys. Jeepneys are adapted from US military jeeps which were left in the Philippines after WWII. They transformed them into jeep-like buses and they’re used to transport people, produce, and livestock. They’re painted bright and shiny colors and sometimes I saw people hanging off the back! Overall the traffic was not bad in Muntinlupa. In fact, it was a better commute than I have at home! It was not completely safe for me to roam around by myself (mostly because I am about a foot taller than everyone else and I stick out like a sore thumb as a western woman). People thought I was a movie star. I hear there are famous resorts on other parts of the island. If I ever come back for longer than a week, I will bring Rob and we’ll go to a beach resort! All in all, it was a nice trip – a good break from the overcast, cold winter at home. There’s nothing like a little sunshine and warmth in January!!

Here is a link to my Philippines photo album on Flickrr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamers818/sets/72157629160631207/