January 1, 2009: Scenic View

Despite the very late night, I was pretty much fine in the morning.  As we headed out for Taal Vista Hotel, the weather was still rain and fog; I worried that the lake wouldn't be visible during our entire visit, and at first it wasn't.  But shortly after we sat down in the dining room, and before my slice of buko pie had arrived, the fog appeared to lift.  Seizing on a break in the native dance performance, I rushed outside and out to a patio-like area at which the hotel really lived up to its name.

Taal Lake is fairly awe-inspiring.  There's something very majestic about overlooking a sizable lake, and Tagaytay certainly does that - Taal Lake is well below the highland city in altitude and also some seven kilometers distant, giving visitors a really nice perspective.  Taal Lake is only 94 square miles (obviously that's a decent size, but of course I live right next to 22,400-square-mile Lake Michigan), but from such a nearby vantage point it appears to spread out to infinity (this was probably aided by the fog), and the volcanic cone in the foreground is a striking feature.  Even without perfect conditions, it was a spectacular view, and had it not been so windy I could easily have sat there all day just looking at it.  Alma joined me and we soaked it in for a few more minutes before heading back inside for my pie and the rest of the native dancing.

After a grueling drive across most of Tagaytay's length (guess what, there was stand-still traffic!), we got to Picnic Grove, which also overlooks the lake and volcano but form a different angle.  I don't know that it was really worth the time.  For one thing, the fog had rolled back in, so even though Picnic Grove notionally offers a slightly better and closer view of the volcano, it wasn't as good because of the lessened visibility (see pictures).  In addition, Picnic Grove, being open to the public, was overcrowded (where at the hotel it had been just me and the view) and muddy, and just generally somewhat of a hellhole.  Not to mention that I had seen a place that offered carabao rides near the hotel, but darkness was falling by the time we left Picnic Grove and we weren't able to get back to it.  After a brief stop back at the house, we returned to Manila to prepare for our trip to Romblon.

Alma had been talking about trying to take in some native dancing while we were in the Philippines, and then it just fell into our laps while at the Taal Vista Hotel.  At one point they tried to recruit audience members, somewhat predictably coming up to me and the white guy at the next table, with both of us begging out rather limply.  In retrospect I sort of wish I'd done it if only for humor value, but I wasn't feeling it at the time.

My first view of Taal Lake with the volcano in the center.  This became my desktop background at work; I just love looking at it.

The shores of Taal Lake do not lack for people, which is kind of impressive since Taal Volcano is actually still active.

Boat rides over to the volcano are a relatively popular tourist activity.  While we were driving from Taal Vista Hotel to Picnic Grove, we saw at least four or five guys with signs offering rides out to the volcano.  Alma's uncle actually opened the window and questioned one of them for a few minutes, but getting out to the volcano is a somewhat time-consuming activity and it was already getting on in the day, not to mention the weather conditions were less than ideal for a trip on a boat, what with the wind and light rain.  At first I thought about how it would be neat to return someday and make the trip, but after I found out the volcano wasn't dormant, as I had thought, my enthusiasm for such a trip lessened slightly.

The zoom lens treatment on the shoreline.  I believe this is the town of Laurel, home to around 30,000 people, all living in the shadow of an active volcano that went off as recently as 1977.

Originally I thought that the entire volcano was the cone in the center of the photo, but it's actually a small part of the larger Volcano Island, which has a lake in the center that is a popular part of the tour of the island.

Yours truly with the volcano over my right shoulder.

Another pan of the area, although the fog was starting to return at this point.  From the height we were at, you could really see the fog and clouds blowing past in the wind, making it obvious when visibility was going to drop again.

Picnic Grove seemed to be a little closer to the volcano.  But conditions had worsened by this point, at least from a photography point of view.

Taal Lake is more than just Taal Volcano, you know!  It also has, er... well, whatever else it has, it's probably in this shot.

I actually got "lost" for a while at Picnic Grove - forging ahead to get pictures of the volcano before the fog completely obscured it, I separated from the group and was subsequently unable to find them.  Picnic Grove starts at the top of a slope and heads down in two directions, and I walked up and down one way twice and the other way once, working up quite a sweat before I finally ran into Alma's cousin again, back at the top of the hill.  Hardly seemed worth all the trouble.

Visibility was becoming a real issue, and the rain was picking up a bit as well.

One more look at the cone.

The cone is the picturesque part, but yes - that entire island in the center of the photograph is part of a volcano.  Holy cats.

The Tagaytay house.  At the top is the area where the karaoke was set up; my room was directly behind that.

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