Tagaytay

With JoAnn's first birthday coming and me needing a break from the Manila scenery, I talked Daniel into taking us somewhere outside of the city for a couple days. At first we were going to try to go to a city north of Manila in the mountains, but we decided with a 1 year old we didn't really want to drive the 6 hours it would probably take to get there. Instead we opted for about a 2 hour drive and went to Tagaytay. It is the city right next to Taal Lake and volcano. Of course we had to pick the couple days when there is a tropical storm hitting northern Luzon and we are getting a lot of rain. In a way I am actually loving it though. Since we are at a pretty high altitude we have a ton of fog and you can't see any of the amazing views that are supposed to be around. However, the part that I love is that the temperature is great. I haven't felt much if any need to turn on the AC and have actually gotten a little cold outside. Its been great!

Earlier today we went to a place called People's Park in the Sky. It is an old Marcos' palace that is built on the top of one of the tallest mountains around. Back in the day it was supposed to be amazing. It has a view of the lake/volcano on one side and a spectacular view inland on the other side. I was reading about it online and it said that it was actually so over the top when they would throw parties there that it was one of the final straws that brought down the Marcos rule. Today you would never know. The views are still amazing, but it looks more like one of the WWII ruins than an old palace. Here are a few pictures from our trip (or should I say hike). In order to get there you have to park about 1/4 mile away and walk, but it is a very steep incline and Daniel and I both were sweating by the time we made it there.


You would never notice from the picture because of the fog but the view from here was great. This is actually overlooking the lake/volcano and what looks to be like a really nice golfcourse.

This is what the palace looks like now...
This is what it looked like back in the day...