A Lake Inside a Volcano on an Island In a Lake Surrounded by Volcanoes on an Island

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There's a place in this world called Volcano Island. That makes me smile. I can only assume many super villains have set up shop there... Better go check it out while we're here, right? Off we go to Tagaytay!

It turns out, the night bus to Manila really was as cold as we were told it would be, and we were glad we layered up. Long pants, hoodies, and jackets were barely kept us warm enough to sleep. But we did manage to sleep some on the bus, aided by the fact that we had gotten up at 6 am that morning. It was also much easier to sleep after they finally turned off the movies, none of which were any good.

We were pretty groggy when we pulled into the bus terminal in Manila at 5am, but we were still able to avoid getting ripped off. We needed a taxi to take us to another bus station to catch a bus to Tagaytay, and one driver greeted us as we got off the bus, so we got in his cab when he told us it would be 500 pesos. Keep in mind that the most expensive taxi ride we've taken in Manila is under 200 pesos, and we had just had a long bus ride and were not in the mood for this bullshit. He refused to use the meter, so we got out and took another taxi.

And that's really as aggressive as scams get in Manila (as far as we can tell). They might try to charge you more, but usually when you refuse, they'll turn on the meter. If not, there's no protest when you get out of the taxi, and they might even help you with your bags. Other than the odd taxi scam (which happens in any city) and reports of pickpocketing, Manila doesn't seem nearly as bad as it's reputation. Perhaps it's just how it compares to the honesty and friendliness of the rest of the Philippines that gives it this reputation. Either way, it's good to be vigilant, but there's very little to really worry about.

In our next taxi, a miracle happened. Our taxi actually reached 70km/h! In Manila! Apparently gridlock doesn't start until after 6am (and probably lasts until 10pm), so we actually got to see how quickly you could get around when there's no gridlock, and see the deserted streets of Manila, which is a rare sight.

At the bus station, after paying our 170 peso metered taxi fare (not 500 pesos) Vanessa had just enough time to grab a cup of coffee before our bus left. This bus was showing some Jet Li movie. All the movies we've seen on buses in the Philippines have been in English, and this was no exception, but for some reason it was also subtitled in English.

Ok, I understand that a bit. If you're not fluent in a language it helps to be able to read it as you hear it, that's fine... Except that what was written didn't match what was being said! It was relatively close most of the time, but it was always written a little differently. For example, one time, a character said “I'll kill you!” which was subtitled as “Die!”. Why? I don't know.

Another time the character said “The American government made us do it!” but it was subtitled as, “It was the Japanese government that told us to do this!” That's.... not the same. In fact, I think you might be re-writing key elements of the story right there.

Also, all swearing was changed to “Damnable!”, which seems pretty unnatural. It was very entertaining for our two hour trip to Tagaytay, but the best part for me was when there were Japanese characters speaking, and it was subtitled in English already, but whoever was doing these bad subtitles STILL WROTE SUBTITLES UNDERNEATH!!!! And they were COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STILL! Literally, all the subtitle guy would have had to do was look at the screen, and then look at his keyboard and type out the letters that he saw in the order that he saw them, and it would have been perfect. Or better, yet, do absolutely nothing and, I don't know, just have one set of subtitles appearing on the screen at once? Maybe?

It was pretty amazing. And if I knew where to buy a copy of this badly subtitled movie, I'd have bought it. It would have plenty of replay value, possibly as a drinking game.

In Tagaytay, we took a tricycle to the hotel that we planned to stay at. We were lucky that they had space for us for the next two nights, but the room was still being used since it was only 8 am. So we had breakfast on the patio at back.

A very slow breakfast, with our bags, and our dirty clothes. We badly wanted to crawl into a bed and have a proper sleep for a few hours, but we were not going to be that fortunate. On the plus side, they did have working wifi, marking the first time we've had the internet since Sagada around five days ago. So it was a good chance to send a couple of emails.

After we'd finally finished our pretty tasty breakfast (and we're back to rice, a fried egg, and sausages for breakfast) our room was ready. This is easily the nicest place we've stayed at in the Philippines. It's clean, has a TV, a toilet seat, soap, and towels. That pretty much sums it up, but that's all it really takes for us to feel like we're living in the lap of luxury. We've gotten pretty used to some very basic accommodations. And the rate wasn't much different from staying in hostel in Manila, so what a bargain! Tagaytay is a popular weekend getaway for people from Manila, so you can get a better rate mid-week, which is where we found ourselves.

We had built up some momentum, so we quickly got changed and then went to see about taking the boat tour across Taal Lake to Volcano Island.

There's a couple of points to address right there. First, there is, in fact, on this planet, a place named Volcano Island. And that in itself is worth putting in some effort to get there, just to say that you've been to Volcano Island.

Second, it takes almost no actual effort to get there. Every single tricycle operator will try and sell you the boat tour to Volcano Island, and at all times of the day and in all situations. They will see you walking and drive by and ask you, or hold up a laminated 8-1/2” x 11” sheet of paper with Taal Lake written on it and some pictures (and they all have the same one). So you don't exactly have to go out of your way to figure out how to get there.

In fact, all we had to do was step out of our hotel and there was a tricycle stand across the street, and they came over immediately. We agreed on a price of 1800 pesos including transportation to and from the boat, and the boat to and from the island. You do also have to pay another 50 pesos each to get into the park on the island, and 50 pesos to pay for the docking of the boat, so figure 2000 pesos all in. So it's not exactly a cheap trip, but it's not exactly expensive when you convert it back. And they take you to a place called Volcano Island, so really, no question, we were going to doing it.

It was a lengthy 20-30 minute tricycle ride down the side of the crater to the lake, and then another 30-40 minutes by bangka boat to the island. A bangka is a small motor boat that's long and quite narrow. It's most distinctly characterized by the wooden outriggers that are attached to help keep it balanced in rough water. It was somewhat windy on the lake, so there were some waves, and we did get wet, but the outriggers did their job.

Volcano Island, or Taal Volcano, is located in the middle of Taal Lake. Taal Lake itself is a huge volcanic crater that's around 20km across. Tagaytay is located up on the ridge of the crater which is around 600 meters high. Taal Volcano is one of the deadliest volcanoes in the world and last erupted in the 1970's, and has erupted 33 times since 1572 (thanks Wikipedia!), so it's very much active. And when it erupts, it tends to erupt violently.

It was pretty hot on the island when we got off the bangka. It was the middle of the day, and the temperature had to be around 30C or maybe a little more. It didn't help us much that the trail was hot and dusty, and there wasn't much shade. Fortunately, we'd bought some ice cold bottles of water before coming to the island, so we would be alright. Still, we had to move from shady spot to shady spot through long stretches of exposed hot and dusty sections, and take rests when we got there.

The hike itself was not too strenuous. You have the option of taking a horse up and down for an extra 500 pesos. Not worth it at all for us, but it apparently seemed worth it for almost everybody else. There were a lot of horses on the trail, and people on horses vastly outnumbered hikers. The steady horse traffic has really worn ruts in the trail, and they turn up the dust when they go by. They also poop and pee and smell like horses do. So to summarize, the hike is hot, dusty, smelly, and full of horses. So not a pleasant hike, but it's really about the destination.

And it only took a little more than half an hour to reach the rim of the crater, and we were able to look down into the lake inside the crater. So to summarize one more time, there's a lake inside the crater of a volcano, which is on an island in the middle of a lake which is also an even bigger crater, which is on an island (Luzon Island).

I went for a short walk along the crater, and could see steam coming from under the rocks in some places. We would also see some coming up on the walk down (which I had thought was just dust blowing in the breeze when we were coming up), so there's definitely a volcano under there. It didn't feel hot though.

Apparently you can swim in the lake in the crater, according to a local woman who came and talked to us while trying to sell some handmade bracelets. There's sulphur in it, but not too much, and it's not too acidic, and the heat from below makes the water a bit like a hot springs, but not warm enough that there's steam or anything usually.

She also told us that she remembers the last time it erupted. She was very young and lived with her family on Volcano Island. She says that when it erupted, it sent a huge cloud of ash into the air, but luckily the wind took it away from where they were living. They didn't have a boat, so they were trapped on the island for a while.

That's pretty wild stuff. I would have to say that living on Volcano Island while it erupts is many times more badass than just visiting it for the day and then returning to the hotel on the shore.

Which is what we did. And the boat ride back was a bit choppier. The wind had picked up, so it took a bit longer to get back. And going back up the 600m crater to Tagaytay in the tricycle seemed to take longer than going down... which also makes sense, I guess.

So by the time we returned to our guesthouse, we were pretty tired, particularly given that we were running on a sub-par sleep on the night bus from Manila after waking up at 6 am the day before. So we surrendered ourselves to a mid-afternoon nap. And not much happened after that except dinner and an actual good night's sleep. Wait, we went swimming in the pool for about ten minutes. It was pretty cold and not as much fun as the ocean, so we gave up pretty quick.

The next morning after breakfast, we'd decided to spend the day in Tagaytay eating food. We had read that Tagaytay has some of the best restaurants in the region, and had some pretty good recommendations from some people we had met. We also wanted to find Cerveza Negra somewhere having decided it's the best beer we've had in the Philippines.

But we started by taking a tricycle ride to the people's park to check out a full view of Taal Lake. After taking some pictures, we made our way to Mushroom Burger.

Mushroom Burger would otherwise be just a burger joint if not for the mushrooms they add to the burger patties. Actually, since the place had been recommended to us by a vegetarian, we had thought that maybe there wasn't any beef in the patties, so we were really impressed with how delicious the burgers were... but then we realised that there was definitely beef in there, and that our vegetarian friend would have had a different burger that was just mushrooms.... Still, it was tasty, and cheap like a burger joint.

With lunch complete, we set out on a walk looking for Cerveza Negra and sip away the afternoon! I had done some Google research before leaving the hotel and thought I had found a place that had it. After being asked dozens of times if we wanted to go on a boat tour to Volcano Island and explaining dozens of times that we had done it yesterday, we found the bar I had mapped out only to discover that they were out of Cerveza Negra. So we went next door to the grocery store and bought a few bottles, just in case we couldn't find it anywhere else.

We did eventually find it at an American diner themed restaurant overlooking the lake, and we took full advantage. In fact, for the first time, we had the full list of San Miguel beers available to us. Surprisingly, there are ten different kinds. Mostly we'd only seen the Pale Pilsen, San Miguel Light, and Red Horse. So naturally we tried them all, except for San Mig Zero, the low calorie low alcohol beer... who needs that?

Once we were feeling pretty good, we went next door to a restuarant that had pretty glowing reviews and was recommended to us by a friend we had met earlier. So we were surprised when the food was quite disappointing. We were expecting more, so that's too bad.

Still, Tagaytay overall had some tasty food. It's apparently a popular getaway for people from Manila, since it's not as humid and tends to be a little cooler. So there are a lot of restaurants to handle the crowds on weekends and during busy times of the year.

We also saw some brand new condos that were almost finished construction, and it's pretty mind-blowing to think that someone might consider owning vacation property so close to “one of the deadliest volcanoes in the world”. Seems insane, actually. But it must seem very normal to the people that live around here and have lived here their whole lives. The Philippines has no shortage of volcanoes, typhoons, and earthquakes, so I guess it probably seems pretty normal around here.

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