Top: Lin from Sydney eating the "baloot" - a fermented duck egg. He stopped eating when he got to the feathers!!!!
Middle: The Taal Volcano within a lake within the Tagaytay Volcano as seen from the Marcos mansion (long ago looted and abandoned). The grassy area in the foreground was the kidney-shaped pool for Ferdinand - he always had one in all of his mansions.
Bottom: Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos former mansion at Tagaytay, Philippines - now deserted and stripped of everything of value. Just a shell remaining and the swimming pool is filled in (that's the grass in the foreground)!
An action packed day in the Philippines.
Had a great breakfast at the hotel buffet with the best mango juice I've ever had. Yum. Called the concierge to confirm my tour to Tagaytay to see the volcano within the lake within the volcano. There were no others signed up for that tour but there were people doing the volcano and city tour combination. I agreed to take that and amazingly enough I got 2 tours for almost half of what just the volcano tour cost. Great Philippine deal!
The tour picked me up at 9:30 and there was one other couple in the van - Lin and Michelle from Australia. Good tour companions.
We drove for over an hour to Tagaytay - a city and an area on the rim of a huge volcano. Our first stop was a former mansion of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. The mansion had been looted and stripped of anything of value long ago - gold faucets, amphitheatre for Imelda, kidney-shaped pool for Ferdinand, chapel, etc. The main house originally had a glass roof and the Marcos' bedroom was on the top floor overlooking the volcanos and lake. Beautiful view.
I finally got to see what "halo-halo" was and plan to have that tomorrow - a favorite dessert of the Philippino people.
Our driver and guide took us to a nice restaurant on the rim for lunch. An adventuresome lunch with krispy tawiles (small fish and you eat the entire thing), tempura greens, beef, fish, eggplant with crab, and pork cheek. It was all delicious - even the whole fish. For dessert we had "yam" ice cream - purple and sweet. So good. Yum.
The Taal Volcano is closed to tourists now as it is on Level 2 alert for an eruption. It last erupted in 1969 and they say it is overdue.
We left the volcano and our guide took us to a small store where we tried - guess what - "cat pooh coffee"!! YEAH! I bought some more and this was much less expensive than on Bali. On Bali they call it "Lovat Coffee". In the Philippines they call it "Wild Cat Coffee" - or Pusang Alamid Coffee. Lin from Australia was ecstatic and bought a bunch of it.
We headed back into Manila - lots of development happening taking over lots of farmland. The development (as with everywhere is) is changing the landscape of the Philippines, mostly around Manila. The Philippines is made up of 7,207 islands but only 2,000 of them are inhabited. They have more coastline that the United States!
We went to the Shangra-La Hotel and picked up a couple of guys who joined us for the afternoon part of the tour. First we headed toward the American Cemetery. En route we passed a building 2 blocks from my hotel where Imelda Marco lives. She has the entire 43rd floor. She is now a member of their Congress as are her son and one of her daughters. We drove through a very ritzy area of Manila with gated mansions.
We arrived at the American Cemetery where over 36,000 American and Philippino soldiers are buried. The names of another 36,000 soldiers who were missing in action are engraved on the huge structure. The grounds were immaculately kept and the gravestones were beautifully arranged. A solemn visit that was thought-provoking.
We then headed to the CS Asia Mall - the 3rd largest in the world. It was huge. Larger than the Emirates Mall in Dubai that I visited. On the way to the mall, a police escort passed us. It was escorting a black van with license plate "8". Our guide and driver got excited as this was none other than "Pacman" - Manny Paquoia - who is the most successful boxer in the world and just won his latest match. He's also in the Philippine Congress. There was just an article on him in the newspaper and he is worth over 1.2 Billion Philippine pesos.
A drive along the Manila Bay waterfront was beautiful. I had seen a lot of this yesterday but the guide explained what I saw.
One structure was a performing arts center that Marcos ordered to be built in 77 days. Well, they got to the 6th floor and didn't let the concrete cure long enough and it fell entombing over 100 workers. Ms. Marcos came and paid off the workers' families and the building continued - being finished in 77 days. The building is now sinking and is expected to collapse at some time!
By the US Embassy, back to Rizal Park, and then to Fort Santiago in Intramuros. The guide gave more "context" to what I had seen yesterday. We went by the Manila Cathedral and our guide pointed out a man selling "baloot" eggs - 18 day old duck eggs that are warm. They are known as an aphrodisiac in the Philippines. Well, Lin had to try one. I thought I would gag watching him drink the ambiotic fluid from the egg and then bite it. He had trouble when he got to the feathers and couldn't finish. It was a fun experience to watch him try.
Then we went to the San Agustin Church and it was open so I got to see inside. The structure is 400 years old. A mass was underway but we still enjoyed it.
We returned to the Peninsula about 6:30. Relaxed and went to dinner.
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