Tagaytay

 Hi Friends!! 

Today we got up bright and early to travel to a suburban vacation town called Tagaytay. It’s pronounced tah-guy-tie in case you were really confused reading that like I was. Uncle Vic has a childhood best friend here in the Philippines, so we will be staying with their family in their vacation home. Auntie Weng and I have been going crazy over how big the plants get over here and the garden in the vacation home did not disappoint!

Since we were eating home cooked food, Uncle Vic’s friends were able to accommodate my allergies and I got to try real Filipino dishes, chicken tinola (which is a ginger garlic chicken soup) and beef bulalo (which is a bone marrow soup). I didn’t eat the marrow itself because the texture was too weird for me but I did enjoy the tenderness of the meat and the bone broth. As you can see on our plates are a fork and a spoon because they don’t use knives here at the table. It didn’t take me too long to figure out how to use the spoon and fork to cut the meat but I will say that I think the Bengalis have it right, eating with your hands is so much easier and the food tastes better too! 

Our afternoon adventure was to the People’s Park in the Sky which was a viewpoint at the very top of a mountain. I’m usually unafraid of heights but it was our driver’s first time driving a stick shift and it was a two lane road the whole way up, definitely not a good idea on any account, but it’s not like I could drive the van myself. We were all holding our breaths when the driver stalled the car a few times up the road! Also, unbeknownst to us cars can’t go to the very top, so Issa and I had to hike the rest of the way in flip flops! At least there was a paved road which made it a little bit easier.

The view was definitely worth the journey. Down below you see the lake and Taal Volcano. Its last eruption was on March 26, 2022  and it is currently degassing at 14 thousand tons per day which made the air smell like sulfur, even from where we were.

With all the hiking we were ready for a snack and I was in heaven when I saw the fruit stalls! Of course I asked everyone if we could stop and stock up. We got half a kilo of mangosteen for $5, which is unheard of in the U.S. There was also a local fruit called lanzones which I tried and really loved! It’s sweet and sour and kind of has the texture of a grape. And I think we bought like 15 mangos since I’ve been pretty much finishing a whole mango myself every day. They’re just too good to resist and don’t taste anything like the ones we get back home. 

Exhausted from our day in the sun and travels we called it a night only to find that none of us were actually prepared for what it means to be living in the suburbs of a third world country. Aka Issa and Auntie Weng took cold showers while I researched the hot water heater. You’ll be impressed, I found the exact Panasonic model and read the entire manual and managed to get the hot water going! Desperate times calls for desperate measures. For those of you that remember I lived in Bangladesh for a summer and took cold showers every. single. day. Mostly because my grandma insisted on showering before me and finished the hot water but either way I was NOT about to do that again lol. And you can forget about having any water pressure, unless you want to shower in cold water. Also, they don’t use mosquito nets here, so we learned the hard way that those buggers could get through the screens on the windows. We basically had to pick between the overwhelmingly loud noise of the AC unit or cracking the window and letting a few bugs into the room, to which we chose the latter. Issa and I went to bed giggling so hard at how Americanized and spoiled we are. Here’s to hoping we adjust quickly!

Love you all,

Carolyn