Can You Count As High As Puppy?

After yesterday's washout, I resolved to be extra productive today, even booking a guided tour through the hotel to ensure I would make the most of the day. This had me getting up at the ungodly hour of 7am to meet my chauffeur, who was waiting outside for me at 7.30am on the dot, as agreed. As I was on my own, the tour was rather pricey, extending into a three figure sum when converted to pounds, but the opportunity to escape Manila and see some of this country's magnificent countryside was not one to be missed, particularly as it is this rather than the capital which is one of the main things which draws tourists here.

My driver and I headed south out of Manila, on a two layered highway, the top one being a toll road and thus congestion free while the bottom one was for the paupers. We took the bottom one. Many of the roads here are tolled, and drivers have a special electronic device in their cars which makes the barriers open as soon as they drive up to them. This saves them the effort of queuing to pay in cash - think Oyster card but for toll roads - it's quite a neat system.

My driver and I hit it off instantly and we spent most of the 90 minute journey to Tagatay discussing a range of interesting subjects from politics to license plates (apparently the license plates here are colored according to type of car - diplomatic, private or hire vehicle. Furthermore, to ease congestion, cars with number plates ending in 1 or 2 are prohibited from driving on Mondays, 3 or 4 on Tuesdays etc. Owners of these cars must get public transport or risk a large fine on the days they are not allowed to drive).

Tagatay is about 55km south of the capital and is perched on a ridge overlooking Lake Taal, which at its centre contains the world's smallest active volcano. Before we reached Tagatay, we had a brief stop to observe the pineapple plantations, which were clinging to the hillside next to the road we were driving up. It apparently takes 13 months to grow this fruit here but there were still plenty on offer in the nearby market stalls which were set up on a lay-by next to the road. These contained a variety of exotic fruits such as dragon fruit and the purple mangosteen, which is ubiquitous around here. Next to the market stall was a small shop which specialized in selling the well-known coffee which has been passed through a cat's digestive tract. Exotic and highly sought after in high society in the US and UK. In actual fact, it has been passed through a civet, and I must admit that its delicate and smooth flavour has made me something of a convert to coffee. With a dollop of raw brown cane sugar, it was delicious, and that is coming from someone who finds the general taste of coffee far to harsh and bitter. Afterwards, the shop proprietor, whose premises was crawling with ants, urged me to try a local rum which is made from coconuts. Described as 80% proof, this was a strong start to the day, particularly at 9.15am. While I doubt the rum was actually that strength, it was certainly strong and kinda negated the waking effect of the civet shit coffee I had just drank.

The driver admitted that the tour I had opted for was largely one for the elderly as it only afforded a view of Lake Taal with its volcanic islands rather than inside one of the craters itself. For an additional 3000 pesos (around £45), I could get a motorboat over to the island and trek up the winding mountain trail to the summit. As we had made good time, the weather was surprisingly clement and I was there already, I opted for this option and we were soon on our way down the steepest and windiest road I had ever been down as we headed for the shoreline of a lake from which we would take a boat to the island on which the lake is situated. Along the way, we spotted many homes built by foreigners as holiday homes, a big boon here.

As I have said, one of the islands, known as Volcano Island, is actually the world's smallest active volcano while Lake Taal itself is the third largest lake in the Philippines, again shaped by seismic activity. Indeed this whole region is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a fact highlighted clearly by the rather scary leaflet in my hotel room telling me about the steps to employ to survive an earthquake. Volcano Island last erupted in 1965 with no casualties although people had to be evacuated as recently as 2007 when the volcano started belching sulphurous fumes. In 1754, thousands were killed, while the nearby town of Taal was completely destroyed. Residents still live with this fear although the main town has since relocated elsewhere and off the island.

The departure point on the lake is the small town of Talisay, a bustling market town which relies on the fishing industry to survive. Many ex-pats have moved into the area, particularly Koreans, and indeed many of the tourists I saw were from there. There are many reasons for this but one of them is that it is Korean tradition that it is lucky to visit a volcano at least once a year. The Philippines affords you that luxury, plus its local and the general prices are low.

There were three of us on my boat aside from the two guides - a Singaporean gentleman and his Filipino bride being the other two. As an adjunct, it is quite common to see older gentleman, particularly Americans with beards, walking around with Filipino brides here. No one bats an eyelid, it's almost part of the culture, but it is an interesting observation nonetheless. The motorboat looked safe enough but we had to wear life jackets as my tour company was legally responsible for my safety. I have never worn a life jacket before and I was surprised to discover that they are essentially bits of low density foam wrapped in a luminous cloth. Still, the more you know.

Volcano Island was no more than five minutes ride across the water and watching it come into view, with its lush greenery juxtaposed with its rubescent barrenness was a marvellous sight. Clearly, this volcano had spewed out a lot of ferrous material as some of the rock formations, crystalline and deep red in colour, were a marvel for someone who studied geology for a year at university (as long ago as that was). I took some time, once I was at the top, to study these formations in depth, which was a very enlightening experience for me.

Once we had reached the other side over largely calm but sulphuric waters, we disembarked using rickety wooden bridges and sandbags to ensure our feet didn't get wet by sliding into the lake. Soon we were on the beach, strolling through the small community that lives here and watching the local kids play basketball. As this is a catholic nation, it's growing rapidly, already up to 105 million people, the 10th most populous in the world. Urban migration has brought with it many problems - see my slum post from yesterday - but here was a rural community (albeit one based largely to serve tourists). Anyway, now is not the time to get into all that as it is time to consider horses.

With the trail steep and the weather getting warmer (it was 10.30am by this point and I had already done far more than I had achieved on Thursday), the preferable option was to climb to the summit on horseback. Now I haven't ridden a horse in over 20 years and I pity the poor beast who had to carry 13 and a half stone of me up a steep incline but I was soon paired with a white mare and we were on our way up the mountain, helped by an individual guide who helped with the steering. I'll admit it took me a while to get the balance right but once I did, the ride was quite enjoyable, even though I got the temperamental horse who seemed to be happiest either sniffing other horses' behinds or eating random weeds. The views on the way up were breathtaking although I was spending more time focusing on holding on and ensuring I didn't lose my wallet and passport while simultaneously the stirrups were digging into the top of my feet. Still, once I had got the balance sorted, the ride up was fun and made me want to do more more pony trekking when I returned home.

Kimberley, my mush (or whatever it's called for horses) was very helpful, a 17-year-old who was born in the area and admitted she had few other prospects aside from guiding tourists up mountain passes for a living. At the top, the stall holders guilted us into buying our mushes a drink at the exorbitant price of 100 pesos (£1.40) but as we needed them to get back down the hill, we felt we had to oblige. As I have said, Lake Taal is a tourist magnet, particularly for the Koreans, so they extract money from you any way they can. This is far easier done when you are white - many have pestered me for money or tricycle rides during my stay, it's par for the course - but with money tight, I pretty much had to refuse any requests outright. So much so that my Singaporean friend even bought a coconut for me at the top of the hill so I could sample its sweet delicious milk, and also devour its flesh through the use of a spoon whittled out from another coconut.

The Singaporean was a nice guy but he was quite blunt in his questioning, a cultural thing which is quite common out here. At the age of 30, he was enquiring as to why I didn't have a wife (again, a common observation made by anyone with whom you engage in conversation here), but he meant well and we had a few photographs taken together overlooking the crater. The crater is beautiful, with a green coloured lake in its centre which is of different hue dependent on temperature. Flanking the lake are steep walls of red ferrous rock, some sections of which you can see steam emanating from due to the geothermal energy contained within. The view over Lake Taal back towards Talisay, and the steep hill up to Tagaytay, was also absolutely breathtaking, phenomenal even, and it was clear to see why so many tourists are drawn to these islands due to their natural jewels.

Getting down the mountain proved to be far more difficult than getting up, largely due to the steep gradients and the awesome views, which we were looking directly towards during our descent. However, soon we were back in the village, which smelled like a combination of rich summer pollen and fresh horse shit, before we were urged to tip our mushers with what limited money I had before we got back on the rickety motorboat and headed back to Talisay, where a sumptuous local lunch was waiting for us.

We could have eaten our lunch underneath a veranda on the lake but Singaporean man wanted air conditioning so we had to eat inside. The feast was traditional Filipino fare - telabia (St Peter's Fish) and chicken adobo, served with rice. The former is a whole fish stuffed with tomato and onion while the latter is a form of barbecue chicken. They were served with mixed vegetables in a special Chinese style sauce and pineapple, which was locally grown and exceptionally sweet. I don't normally like pineapple but this was very good, while the telabia was nice once you managed to avoid the bones. I must admit it was odd eating a whole fish, with face and tail present, but I guess this desensitises you to what you are actually eating. The eye was a bit creepy but once that was hidden, it was really nice, particularly the cheek meat which was tender and delicious. It was a very pleasant way to end our time by the lake and prepare for my journey back to Manila, where more adventures were to be had...