A Big Adventure

Monday 29^th December 2008 – Manila to Tagaytay

Well we have to check out of the hotel by 12:00 but are we not expecting to get picked up until around 3:00pm.

My wife’s Mother now lives in the Philippines and is unfortunately undergoing treatment for cancer, the prognosis is very positive and according to my Brother in Law who also lives in the Philippines the treatment she is getting is superb. Sofia has not seen her Mum for about 14 months and the children (except for Stefan) have not seen their Grandmother for over two years when she left England for the Phills, so this is a big day for everybody.

We booked out at midday and then sat in reception waiting to be picked up, Sasha had forgotten her iPod  and left it in the room, but, luckily the Hotel staff found it before we left.  The kids had lunch over the road (Shakey’s Pizza) while we watched the bags, then they watched them while we ate some very mediocre fare there as well. We did not eat much so I got it bagged up and gave it to some of the street people. There are whole families sleeping on the streets around the hotel and some sleeping on the roofs of cars. We always try to buy food for the street people but on this trip they seem to have become more pushy for money.

My Mother in Law turned up earlier than expected and for somebody who had just undergone her latest bout of chemotherapy she looked very good. We headed down to Tagaytay and dropped the kids off at Grandma’s, RC (the driver) took Sofia and I off to find a hotel.

We tried Days, it was full to the brim for the holidays., wWe tried the Royal Parc Hotel, nothing royal about it, we looked at a room and it was full of mosquitoes, worse than basic, it was shabby with a capital S. the Royal Park was ok for those on a strict budget but bloody hell it would have to be very strict and anyway considering the quality of the room  it would not be money well spent.

So sod the expense we headed to the Taal Vista hotel, this would be our third visit and this time in the new wing. This is almost four times more expensive than the Royal Park but really we need somewhere nice to stay in Tagaytay.. It has a fantastic view over the Volcanic lake below. They are having a soft opening of their new block so we got a better price but still more than we really should be spending. We are on the second floor, no working lift (yet) and miles of corridors.

The Taal Vista has one very big positive in my eyes it is across the road from a casino! Casino Filipino is a real fun place with live music, happy croupiers and enough second hand smoke to ensure almost certainly that your health will suffer at sometime in the future! But the Casino was for another day.

Back at Sofia’s Mothers, her  Brother was on the phone so she had a chat with him, it was good to hear his voice but she was sad we had missed him whilst in Manila.

The children had all made themselves comfortable, Sofia cooked everyone ham and eggs on toast but they had all been piggling the naughty their Uncl had left for them, things like crisps, cakes breakfast cereal, pot noodles etc.

Well the lack of transport struck again with the net result I had to drive my mother in laws car to our hotel. I asked her if we could get a taxi but she said there were none. She may be living in the area but after two years she still has not sussed out the travel options so what chance have we got.  We had a few mishaps trying to work out which side of the road we were supposed to be on, but we did it!  I am sure the locals know the local transport options but they just are not clear for foreigners which is crazy as Taal Lake offers a real world class amazing view and attracts many visitors.

We went into the bar and had a san mig and played some cards in the lounge area the waitress had to check if we were allowed to play cards before retiring to our rather pleasant room We watched some Boston Legal and then sleep.