Cycling into Taal Lake

Mark and I did another cycle trip last Saturday May 19th from Tagaytay down to Lake Taal. The bike site helped us redefine 'easy''. This is the beginning of the trail we took and let me tell you it was all down hill from there. The 'riding' part of this outing was riding the brakes. Remember Hot Wheels? Well on the second stop to repair Marks brakes I found out what hot wheels really are - about burned my hands on his rims. Then I checked mine and ended up burning them again. Some people never learn.

Mark's thinking that it doesn't look bad from here - in fact this is going to be easy. But between the above pic and the next one we had quite a ride. See Mark's view of the trip at http://stevenson-stevies.blogspot.com/. Of course you've got to wade through some girlie pictures to get to it. Enjoy!

This is one of the places we got to carry our bikes. And I thought they were for riding. So when Mark reads this he's going to ask 'If they're for riding why did you fly over the handle bars? Huh Bill, How come?" Well I ain't a going there. You'd have to see the skinned forehead, black eyes, and crumpled glasses to appreciate that man can fly but only for a short while. Actually the takeoff and flight aren't bad - it's the other part that I need to work on (avoiding).

There's Taal Volcano - the beauty of that site kind of eases the pain.
We rode about 10 1/2 miles along the lake before catching a jeepney ride up. (What kind of a whimp are you - taking a jeepney up?)

Here's a little about the place. Since 1572, Taal has erupted at least 34 times. Most recent large eruption was September 1965. The volcano has been restless since early 1991, with earthquakes, new steaming areas, ground fracturing, and increases in water temperature of the lake. It is being monitored to understand if the current activity may foretell an eruption.

Map of our Baguio Trip except for....

My GPS says it was about a 180 mile trip. (except for the 50 mile 2.5 hour shortcut I took at Capas. But the way I see it is we saw some country we never would have seen otherwise.) We drove from our place near Brent South to Barry & Michelle's in Manila where we left our car and borrowed their Isuzu Trooper and finished the remaining 160 mi (or 210 - depends on how you count).

Mile High City of Baguio

First thing we had to do upon arriving was to check out the accommodations and get checked in so we'd have a place to hang our hats. Here's Dea poking her head in to check our ours....

And Patricia looking into their room.

Actually the Pine View Hotel where we stayed was more like this.

With a view out the front over looking the city.

We did some shopping...

And Eating ... like at Cafe by the Ruins

That wall just behind Dea's back is the ruins of something. I think maybe something that was bombed during WW II or maybe destroyed in the 1990 Earthquake, but not sure which.

And... did I mention that we did some shopping then after that we shopped a bit before doing some other shopping? Well after all we went to have fun.

And saw some sights...

Including the Baguio Country Club...

And this vintage automobile which didn't seem to fit with the Jeepneys. (Let's see now what do those three round thingies on the side indicate... haven't seen those in years.)

And then we went shopping (again).

Bill & Dea Update

It's Tuesday here in Makati. Yes, I know I live in Brentville! But since Thursday eveing Dea and I have actually been hanging our hats at Barry and Michelle's in busy Manila. Dea has been commuting to work mostly B & M's driver has been taking her too-and-fro. In fact they're likely fighting traffic right now to get back in time for a band concert at ISM that Stevii and Davis are in. By the way, the reason we're hanging our hats here 'til next Monday is that Barry and Michelle took an anniversary trip to Sidney Australia and are taking a tennis school among other things like laying on the beach ( do they do that in Australia during their winter? - Well that's what they said.) and we were hired to fill their shoes. Someone has to suffer.

Two weekends ago Dea and I went with our neighbors for a weekend in Baguio (it was a 4-day holiday from school so the three of them were able to go. I Don't have such restrictions on my life. I was the driver in this adventure). Baguio's up north in Luzon and more than up north it's up at an altitude of over 5000 ft. The Philippines 'Mile High City'. And it was quite pleasant and an enjoyable.

One of the things we did was to visit the original Brent International School. It's now one of seven schools but this one was special in that the setting was in the pines. Reminded me of some of my younger days as a kid at camp in the pines of Prescott Arizona. I'll put up some pictures after I get back to Brentville.

The school certainly made us feel welcome with a super tour of the facilities. Quite different facilities than the newer South campus we're most familiar with. Like I said, in the pines and a bit more spread out than South. Smaller student body, and older buildings though well taken care of. The third grade teacher there took some time to take us around the Baguio area and see some of the sights.

I'll get some pictures up later but have to get together for the band concert. Stevii plays the Oboe and Davis the baritone Sax.