Thursday, from Manila to Tagaytay, which is as I discover the hard way is pronounced 'Tageyetye'.
I start out in a taxi heading for the bus terminal. Hearing where I'm going the driver recommends various places to visit. After negotiating a particularly terrifying cut across the traffic he gestures at the door and shouts 'Out! Quick!' at me. I'm wondering why, since we're clearly nowhere near a bus station when I notice he's pulled in front of a coach and has his hazard lights on. The coach driver is waving at me wildly. 'You wanted bus Tagaytay?' he shouts, 'There!'.
Oh... OK... Err thanks...
The majority of the journey is really just a prolonged escape from Manila. I'm pretty sure we're no longer in the city itself about an hour and a half later, but it's hard to tell. Mind you, if you started at Victoria Coach station on a bad day it would be a long time before you saw fields. Everytime the coach stops (and sometimes in between) we're boarded by guys selling nuts and drinks.
Quite suddenly after about two hours, we arrive in Tagaytay City and the coach drops me in Alvarez. I've still not got the right idea about 'cities' in the Philippines. To me a 'city' is an identifiable conurbation with grotty outskirts, a suburban bit and a downtown. This doesn't apply at all here - a city is really what we would call a 'district' so although I'm again slightly confused not to be deposited somewhere signposed 'Tagaytay Central Bus Station' my anxiety is unfounded.
The coach driver explains that all I have to do is take a trike to get to the hotel. Not apparently a taxi - there are no taxis in Tagaytay.
Oh... OK... Errr thanks...
Unsurprisingly a trike driver willing to take me soon materialises. And so begins my first brush with death today. Round here, a tricycle is a small motorbike and sidecar. The sidecars are pretty much homemade and like the jeepeneys involve a large amount of chrome and polished aluminium as well as a lot of individual style. Each each has it's own paint job and logos such as 'Superman' or 'Queenie' are common. You can get two adults (or three at a pinch) in the sidecar and one or two riding pillion before things start getting really hairy. As if negotiating the traffic in a massive 4x4 wasn't scary enough. So I'm bumped along the road, weaving in and out of the slower vehicles and jeepeneys, leaning out precariouslyto take photos as we pass the unbelievable view across lake Taal to the right.
Travel by trike is an experience rich in danger, exhaust fumes and local colour. You're certainly much closer to the fruitsellers, arc-welders and peanut guys along the roadside than you are when travelling in a 4x4!
The journey of a couple of kilometers takes about 15 minutes and I arrive at the 'Acoy San Haus & Room For Rent' both shaken and stired but in one piece and with all bags present and correct. About three hours revolving-door to door.
The room is a hoot. Seeing that I've come from a top notch hotel in Pusan by way of a second class place in Manila to here, my journey has most definately been downhill all the way!
But although the sign should read 'Hot Or Cold' rather than 'Hot And Cold' it's all very clean and the aircon works nicely so I'm relieved to be out of the heat and dust.
The loo is flushed using a pail filled from the tap under the shower, but the fly screen on the window is intact (which is a lot more important if you ask me) and it all smells fine. There's even a telly and the remote control actually has batteries in it this time!
After a wash and change of clothes I meander back into Alvarez for lunch at a take out place called 'Andoks Grill House'. This I choose because I recognise some of the things on the menu and the prices are written up clearly for Johnny Foreigner.
Two of the things I now recognise are:
Sinigang - a thin spicy soup which reminds me of Cambridge Thai pub food. The main flavourings are Galengal and an aromatic herb like basil, but it has chunks of raddish, potato, onion, okra and tomato plus whatever meat is involved, in this case pork belly slices.
Crispy Pata - roasted pork hock shredded like we shred crispy roast duck. A delicious mixture of crackling skin, soft fat and greasy meat. Good grief I'm gonna pile it on if I carry on like this.
With these come pyramidal portions of rice which arrive neatly wrapped in greaseproof paper.
For a total bill of about PP350.
After this I manage to find a coffee shop in the mall and enjoy aircon and cappucino for a half hour.
In the afternoon I meet up with some of the other occupants of the hotel, a Jewish guy and his Filipina companion and we go exploring the People's Park In the Sky, a local tourist attraction. Again by tryke and this time hair-rasingly up hill, the noble Kawasaki struggling under its load. The People's Park was (according to Wikipedia) built by the Marcos's for President Reagan who (again according to Wiki) never actually visited.
What we find amounts to some empty concrete buildings clustered around a military radio facility - the park is under re-development and most of the pretty bits have either been or are being demolished. The view is grand though and we manage to find an ice-cream and some snacks before risking death by tryke to return to the hotel.
For me, tea is a bag of roast pork remains (seems like I've been eating crackling since I got off the plane) and some mangos. The Jewish guy makes sandwiches out of 'American Bread' (presumably too sweet then) and slices ofavocado pear. I know - pork probably not a subtle choice here, but I had no idea at lunchtime with whom I'd be sharing the evening meal.
All washed down with bottles of delicious San Miguel (PP25!) from the shop below the 'sala' (living room shared between the hotel rooms). The shop is cool. Its about 4 foot wide and includes a 3 foot wide bed occupied by the owner. She sells Amoxycillin from a jam jar of green capsules on the top shelf and San Mig from the cavernous freezer. In Korea if I wanted an antibiotic I first had to convince someone I didn't need acupuncture to sort out my chi before any of that nasty western medecine was prescribed...
Similarly amusing is the re-appearance of Bluetooth. Seemingly unknown in hi-tech Korea, everyone here is using it to share photos, ringtones and MP3s. One of the guys has a very nice Nokia which works flawlessly (thank the deities, about time Mr. BT-Sig although why oh why Mr. Microsoft can I only receive one file at a time?) when transferring a photo to my laptop.
Thus we are blessed with the shot of the ape in the tryke.
