Philippines Guide
For Travelers, Expats and Pinoys
The Taal Lake Yacht Club, A Great Weekend Trip
Taal Volcano is one of the famous volcanoes in the Philippines. It is located in Tagaytay City, Cavite. The Taal Volcano may be an active volcano, but in spite of it being active, tourism is really progressing. Just minutes away from Tagaytay Ridge, you will find the Taal Lake Yacht Club. Here you will have a totally different Taal adventure.
The Taal Lake Yacht Club has been dubbed as the sailing Mecca of the Philippines. The Taal Lake Yacht Club staff think of themselves as a club by sailors for sailors. The club allows entrance to non-members too. Membership is more focused on sports than money. Bringing your own food for camping and picnic is allowed. Boat charters are available and sailing lessons to non-members are also offered.
Environmental awareness and family togetherness are promoted in Taal Lake Yacht Club. The club is also concerned about preserving Taal Lake’s ecological balance. School groups and scout troops are welcome in the Taal Lake Yacht Club aside from regular day-trippers and foreign tourists.
The Taal Lake Yacht Club offers environment-friendly water sports. For sailing, they have a yacht-racing schedule, which is the basis for most of their sailing activities. Programs like “learn to sail” and “sail training” are also offered.
Hobie Racing uses Hobie 16s as the main racing class. More than two dozen boats (either privately owned or owned by the Taal Lake Yacht Club) are available for rentals.
Twice a year, the Taal Lake Yacht Club windsurfing fleet holds regattas. They have other boats like small keelboats and sunfishes. Rowing and Kayaking are also offered. If you have no previous experience in kayaking, that won’t be a problem. The Club’s kayaks are easy to use and guaranteed to be unsinkable and unbreakable. Sculls training is also available for beginners.
The Taal Lake Yacht Club also offers trips to Taal Volcano where you get to climb up to the crater! Three different treks are offered: the Tourist Trail and two other Secret Trails. Whatever trail you choose the experience will be unforgettable. A beautiful panoramic view of the Taal Volcano and Taal Lake before your eyes is a welcome treat.
The Taal Lake Yacht Club is about one and a half-hour away from Manila and 20 minutes away from Tagaytay.
If you’re into a lot of fun water activities or just curious and want to learn, come visit the Taal Lake Yacht Club in Tagaytay, Philippines. It is a weekend trip that will delight family and friends.
Health and History in Quezon Memorial
Fitness, food, and shopping—-all these in a circle of vast grounds right in front Quezon City Hall. It’s a beehive of activity from sunrise to sunset—-no room for boredom. Yet a short trip also offers peace and quiet to the meditative and the bookworm.
Quezon Memorial Circle (or “Circle”) along the Circumferential Road (C-Road) is a choice weekend trip of excursionists, tourists, and the common man who just wants to amble in the park. Employees also cross the Circle going to different vital government offices and agencies along the C-Road.
Before the sun shows up, joggers and cyclists make their rounds on the outer bounds of the Circle. One full round makes for about 2 kilometers of hard work out around Quezon Memorial Circle.
Inside the Memorial Circle, more joggers and brisk walkers take rounds around a smaller circle about the soaring memorial monument. Other health buffs may be seen in areas secluded by trees and shrubberies quietly doing martial art rituals, shadow boxing, or sweating it out in badminton or volleyball. Some tackle a basketball game or rehearse a dance step (there’s a dance studio, too).
More chic athletes for a short trip prefer jerky aerobic maneuvers at the open ground near the monument. Free lessons are offered. Others go for the bike area and pedal their way to health. The bike lanes go up and down rolling slopes amid tall trees.
Some visitors for a weekend trip stay at the Buddhist Bell inside the Circle studying or devouring books. Idlers talk slouched on benches, basking in gentle sunlight filtering through trees. Students review plays or song numbers on mini concrete stages. Many others absently watch other people. These are among what’s buzzing up at Quezon Memorial Circle.
There’s a steep vertical wall for rock climbing at the Circle. Young climbers for a weekend trip, looking like puffing hip-hoppers, gather crowds of stunned fans wishing for the same skill. Kids attack the tough playgrounds of Quezon Memorial Circle by droves, anxious mothers lagging behind.
There’s a massage clinic run by the deaf and mute offering cheap service.
Around lunch time famished visitors stride to clustered restaurants, also at the Circle, just across city hall. They mostly offer chicken in various gourmet styles.
Hot early afternoons are best spent in the air-con museum at the base of the memorial tower. Memorabilia of the late President Manuel L. Quezon, the city founder and national leader of the Commonwealth before the war, are on display. His remains lie in a tomb in a chamber at the center-most part of the monument. So a weekend trip here can be very informative.
Finally, late afternoons at the Circle are perfect for shopping at the flea market in the bike area for souvenirs and cheap but hip shirts and accessories. That’s before sitting down the steep outer steps round the monument to view the sunset and wait for romantic byway lamps lit up one by one.
Quezon Memorial Circle is ideal to spend weekend trips in for energy surges and a recharge before a rigid week ahead. It’s a sanctuary for shaping up body, mind, and soul—-with a little side shopping.
Cut-Jewels in the North Cemetery
Tons of historical vestiges and stuffs of human interest are buried deep in the North Cemetery. A weekend trip can be a time of deference for the departed, discovery of a forgotten history, or even a festive carnival nothing short of a grand community celebration at the North Cemetery.
The cemetery is along A. Bonifacio Avenue in La Loma, Quezon City—a path lined up with snug eateries with the best and crispiest roasted pig (”Lechon”) in town. This exciting trip brings one near the boundary of Manila and Quezon City at the Chinese General Hospital.
The entry point greets visitors a festive welcome. Joggers may be seen roaming in sunny mornings. The interior road leads to small palace-like mausoleums under monstrous balete and acacia trees dotting the cemetery; unique sights said to be decades old.
The exciting trip takes one to leisurely walk past the graves of Manuel Roxas, first Philippine Republic president, and Manuel L. Quezon, Commonwealth president. Though empty, Quezon’s tomb still stands as a memorial of where his remains first were put.
Farhter, a mini churchyard keeps the remains of heroic firemen and some soldiers of World War II. The unique sights show gravestones are worn out by age–dating as early as the 1900s. Nostalgic grave captions cry for the unsung heroes.
This weekend trip can reveal uncommon valor in memorials for boy scouts of the Philippines who died in a plane crash in the 1960s. The enthusiasm of youthful heroes snuffed out by tragedy can move emotions—-one might even hear the plane crash amid this reflection.
The exciting trip covers burials of famous Philippine movie actors and actresses. They played in famous stage plays along Avenida Rizal during the Liberation in the late 40s. One of them, went by the screen name Casmot, was considered a staunch pro-freedom comedian in the Martial Law years before he died.
There’s this popular spot where the Poe clan, stars and pioneers in the early days of Philippine movies, has its grave site. On All Saints Day (Halloween) a crowd of fans watch movie stars pay visit to the demised Poe clan members.
A most unique sight is a pyramid amid the cemetery. Two concrete sphinxes guard its entrance and every Halloween a cadaver is said to be on display being dressed up in public. It’s a big deal to kids on a Halloween exciting trip, but adults know it’s a mere trick.
A weekend trip to a cemetery can reveal unique sights to a pensive mind looking for meanings in the past. The solitude, quiet, and just knowing that thousands who once walked this planet are now buried underneath, give seeking souls a refreshed outlook in life. A weekend trip to the North Cemetery can do just that.
Capitalizing on a Weekend Trip
Weekend trips are overnight or whole day short breaks that often prove too short. So the best thing is to make sure that every weekend trip is capitalized on so that every moment counts and is enjoyed.
Setting up a plan on what to do during the trip is often good. But plans also sometimes take the fun out of vacation trips and spoils relaxation. The goal of the trip becomes the execution of plans, and this can become very stressful. The thing is to make a simple plan for options in case something prevents the fulfillment of a first option.
For instance, the first option is to take a cab to the bus station or the airport. But cabs can sometimes be hard to find, especially in rush hours. Going ahead with that option may waste time and end up spending almost the whole morning just waiting for a cab. Plan for second and third options for each phase. Never be too rigid about following a single plan. If there’s still no cab after waiting for 30 minutes, then take an alternative transportation or route. Why not take a jeepney or FX service?
Enjoy each step of the way by just taking it easy. Keep a time table for the weekend trip but do not be over zealous with it. Provide allowances for unexpected traffic, delays, and emergencies. When such things happen in a weekend trip, relax and remember that the weekend trip is supposed to be fun and relaxing. So while hauled out somewhere (in a bus station or airport) try to relax and look around. Enjoy whatever scenery there is and the people around.
The immediate needs while traveling for a weekend trip are often simple: a bottle of clean water, small towel, extra shirt, and enough cash. When picnic baskets are taken along, the option is not to go for a public transportation. It’s best to ride in private cars or mini tucks or vans. But eating in fast foods or restaurants is also a good option in a weekend trip. It makes traveling easy and convenient. Just tuck everything in a small shoulder or belt bag and that’s it. When you get to the weekend trip destination, enjoy the place and look for an eatery to spend lunch in.
Weekend trips need more time for sight seeing and relaxation than for the hassles of a trip. Weekend trip plans are welcome. But more helpful is the attitude of enjoying each minute and step of the way.
Bulacan: A Town of Caves
Biak-na-Bato in San Miguel (de Mayumo), Bulacan is a town of caves. The name suggests a huge rock broken into several pieces or cracked into several openings. Spelunkers, cave tourists and other tourists will love this tourist spot that boasts of more than a hundred caves, complete with stalagmites, stalactites, spring waters, flora and fauna, the works.
Cave tourists don’t have to be expert cave explorers or dwellers to look inside Biak-na-Bato. It’s been open to tourists as a national park since November 16, 1937 by Presidential Proclamation No. 223. It’s safe. Just go right in. Back then, the proclamation covered a total of 2,117 hectares spanning three barangays: Sibul and Biak-na-Bato in San Miguel, and Kalawakan in Trinidad. Today the tourist spot is limited to 659 hectares–all for cave tourists.
Going to this tourist spot is some two hours from Manila. Just hit the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) in Balintawak, Quezon City and the road signs and directions along NLEX will take care of everything for the cave tourist.
There’s an easier route from SM City at North EDSA to San Miguel. Take an air-conditioned hired van (P 50 or a dollar) and sit back shoulder to shoulder with other passengers. From San Miguel, it will be an easy tricycle ride to the spot. In all, the travel will take one to one and half hours.
It is 1897. Emilio Aguinaldo, a young leader of the revolution and would-be president, retreats from Talisay, Batangas to the formidable cave fortress of Biak-na-Bato with 500 men. He finds the mountainous place abundant with streams, forests, rocks, and caves. Limestones like marble tea rose—nothing like it anywhere else and which will be very expensive a century hence—flourish.
There he puts up the short-lived Biak-na-Bato Republic. He was pressured by Spain to give up the quixotic struggle and his cavernous office, but Emilio is stubborn. Spain appoints Don Pedro Paterno to dissuade Emilio. Don Pedro frequented him in his cave headquarters. After five harrowing months, Emilio finally succumbs to a voluntary exile to Hongkong, with $800,000 (Mexican dollars) for him and his leaders.
Emilio signs the pact with Primo de Rivera, the walls of Bukal Cave, also called Aguinaldo Cave, as silent witness.
Today, there’s an arched bridge leading to the tourist spot, Biak-na-Bato National Park, for cave tourists to cross on—an enshrined connection to the glorious past of Bulacan. It is also a bridge that transports one to a scene a century ago when a nation was at the pains of birth.
Aside from seeing the diverse rock openings of this tourist spot in Biak-na-Bato, a visit can also be an experience for cave tourists in reminiscing the historic past of a struggling revolution, a republic, and its national leader.
Bring Your Family Together to Enchanted Kingdom
Located in Sta. Rosa, Laguna is a great weekend trip for the family. Enchanted Kingdom is a theme park that is perfect for the whole family. Rides and adventures are available all day long where parents and kids can spend some time together.
Enchanted Kingdom has a lot to offer for you and your family to enjoy. Enchanted Kingdom has several theme parks to explore and learn and rides to enjoy.
The Victoria Park in Enchanted Kingdom features the Victorian era and displays it in elegance. Entertainers leisurely stroll around the park dressed in costumes inspired by Queen Victoria’s era. The Enchanted Kingdom’s mascot named Wizard will be among the ones welcoming you. The Grand Carousel is Victoria Park’s centerpiece attraction. Try the magical ride in Enchanted Kingdom through its Victoria Park.
Portabello is another zone in Enchanted Kingdom, which is a replica of a place in the Caribbean Sea. It features treasures hidden by the Spanish sailors. Portabello hosts the Rio Grande — Enchanted Kingdom’s largest attraction — a wet and wild adventure for the family. Other attractions in Enchanted Kingdom’s Portabello are the Flying Fiesta, giant swing ride, Xtreme Paintball, Portabello Show, and 4D Discovery Theater.
Boulderville is a zone in Enchanted Kingdom that’ll be a sure treat for the kids. This zone has a prehistoric theme with dinosaurs as main characters. Rides like Air Pterodactyl, Bumbling Boulders, Boulderville Express, Dinosaurs, and Stone Eggs are sure to excite the kids. Children of any age will be delighted with Enchanted Kingdom’s play facilities like Petreefied House and Rock Quarry. Puppet shows and dinosaur mascots will entertain you in this zone of Enchanted Kingdom.
Other attractions that you are sure to enjoy in Enchanted Kingdom are the following: Steeple Chase Arcade, Anchor’s Away, Roller Skater, Clown Show, Dodgem, Up, Up and Away, Midway Show, Wheel of Fate, Bump N’ Splash, skill and video games, and performances of mime artists, jugglers, and clowns. All these attractions can be enjoyed in Enchanted Kingdom’s zone called Midway Boardwalk.
Brooklyn Place is another zone in Enchanted Kingdom where slapstick comedies and silent movies are reminisced. Rialto, a motion simulator theater is the main attraction where you’re a part of the movie not just watching it. Ride the Funhouse Express, watch the Broadway and Brooklyn shows and enjoy the parade of entertainers down a cobblestone street.
Want to experience a spine-tingling speed flight? The Spaceport zone of Enchanted Kingdom has it. The 11-story-high Space Shuttle will let you experience an upside down turn six times. This is the first coaster ride of its kind in the Philippines. Other attractions are Sky Wizardry, Wizard’s Tale, Go-Kart ATV, Exodus the Ride, and Kart Trak.
A jungle adventure is offered in Enchanted Kingdom’s Jungle Post. A tranquil Swan Lake, Safari Shootout, the exciting Jungle Log Jam, and Amazon Hoop Shot are among the adventures that you’ll enjoy there.
Enchanted Kingdom is the best place for adventure rides, fun, and excitement for the whole family. An hour’s travel from Manila to Enchanted Kingdom is not bad in exchange of your family’s quality time together.
All Needs Met in a Weekend trip to Araneta Center
Planning on a shopping trip this weekend? If it’s one-stop shops inside a one-stop Shop that’s being contemplated, it’s got to be Araneta Center.
It’s a vast shopping complex interspersed with real main roads and streets, real traffic lights and other real things one sees in communities and cities. It’s not a mall pretending as a shopping city but an actual one dotted with malls, theaters, restaurants, fast foods, stores, hotels, stores, and other concessionaries—all amid crisscrossing busy streets and thoroughfares. There is even a police and a fire station in this shopping complex.
A weekend trip to Araneta Center answers all entertainment and hobby needs. Music and sports shops line along main roads. There are also individual shops selling DVD and cassette players and components, photography shops and travel and ticketing offices. This is aside from those found in big malls like Ali Mall and Rustans.
Other small shops line up along the sides of other big shops like SM Cubao and Automatic Center. A weekend trip may prove rewarding at the mushrooming smaller shops covering much of Farmers wet and dry market at the south end of the shopping complex. One may chance upon real bargain deals on fresh meat, fish, and vegetables straight from Baguio, the veggies center of Luzon.
A weekend trip to this shopping complex may also prove invigorating with spas and health and slimming centers in and around the shopping complex. Theaters and PC gaming centers are also well located in the area, plus hundreds of big and small eateries that keep weekend trippers’ appetite going. Luxury restaurants and fine dining are all around the Araneta Coliseum (or “big dome”) —the biggest indoor coliseum in the world in 1960, which is right at the heart of the shopping complex.
Farmers Plaza, the welcoming façade of the shopping complex along EDSA, is in itself a micro shopping complex complete with eateries, a drugstore, movie houses, and numerous shops and stalls. The rear end of the shopping complex contains a wide provincial bus station (for farther weekend trips), a shoe community where popular Markina-made shoes are sold at a bargain, and several more shopping centers and restaurants.
Two hi-tech light rail systems service the shopping complex—MRT Monumento to Pasay and MRT Cogeo to Divisoria.
Araneta Center is a veteran shopping complex in the country that continues to satisfy patrons on weekend trip shopping. It is an actual shopping city with communities and districts of malls and shops.
Ambling at UP Diliman
Where to go for a weekend trip in Quezon City for a peace of mind, leisurely walk, and unwinding the stresses of the previous week? UP Diliman campus can be a very rich experience for a simple amble on wooded and shrub bordered grounds.
UP Diliman is a few minutes away from Quezon Memorial Circle or Philcoa if one takes a leisurely jeepney ride from these points to this perfect place for a weekend trip. A grand welcome awaits the visitor after the University Avenue. At the main entrance of the campus where the bronze Oblation monument stretches its arms in a warm gesture of reception.
From here, the various roads into the campus, like the T.M. Kalaw and Osmena Streets, are lined up with huge trees affording natural sheds for a quiet and refreshing hike around the campus, and which makes it a good one for a weekend trip.
The Oblation statue was transferred there from UP Manila to signal the start of a new UP chapter. Out there in the vast 493-hectare sprawling land in Diliman, this gorgeous site for a weekend trip was conceptualized for a wooded haven very conducive to study and athletics.
The campus ground was used as a new site for UP in 1949. But not a few also saw it as a sanctuary for spiritual retreat and physical unwinding on a weekend after busy engagements the week before. Thus, in the middle of soccer bouts, softball games, Frisbee throws, and other athletic activities, joggers and amblers can be seen in the sidewalks and byways of the campus, or lone figures ruminating life or examining an art subject, or perusing mind-boggling books for a hobby.
This weekend trip target is further made exhilarating by the Sunken Garden immediately past the Oblation and the library behind it. An amphitheater and lagoon makes it very appealing for leisurely walks and group studies, or even light calisthenics to blend in with the sportier atmosphere about a stone’s throw away.
The campus also has an arcade and shopping center to quench nagging thirsts or pacify hunger pangs that often come with a good workout. What makes this place more a destination for a weekend trip is that somewhere near the arcade is an Olympic size swimming pool, with lockers and shower rooms. Then not far is a gym, and there’s even a provision for light amusement activities such as bowling and billiards.
For excursionists or plain strollers seeking a place to unwind and recharge, UP Diliman campus can be a promising sight to see or a hideaway haven.
A Forest Patch Right in Metro Manila
A forest right in the heart of the city? Yes! And it is very accessible from anywhere in Metro Manila; an hour’s travel from downtown Manila and mere minutes from the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City.
The watershed Eco Park in Fairview, Quezon City is a perfect place to spend a quiet leisurely walk or recreation with loved ones. All it takes is a short trip. It is excellent for health buffs, too. It has great outdoor amenities for the family: picnic grounds, swimming pools, camp sites, boating area, playgrounds, a butterfly nursery, an amphitheater, and biking—all under the shade of protected forest.
Taking Commonwealth Avenue as one exits the Quezon Memorial Circle in Philcoa, the road takes you directly to the Regalado area in merely 25 minutes. Regalado is just 15 minutes past the Sandigan Bayan building on the right of the road.
In Regalado, directional posts are visible, through the Filinvest Subdivision up to the site. A marker is the steel bridge separating Filinvest from the park, past of which are the first sights of the forest. Then the parking area…
The entry gate welcomes alighting passengers in the parking lot—for a small fee—and a lone road leads to the middle of the forest, the Eco Park. A shuttle vehicle brings visitors to various areas of the park, but walking can be an option—and a delightful experience.
Giant trees, wild shrubberies, and steep hills line the entry road. There are streams around teeming with fattened, local fish. But fishing in the streams is prohibited. There’s a huge pond where fishing is allowed—for a minimum fee.
At lunch time the aroma of grilled food may emanate from the picnic grounds. Families huddle together for mouthfuls of their packed lunch. Food kiosks are spread in the area for extra servings. Now and then page updates from the sound system disturb the periodic chirps of birds and hidden insects.
The major site lots of people come to look at is the majestic water-shed dam that supplies big portions of the metropolis. A long flight of steps leads to the summit where a magnificent view of the dam slowly unfolds as one climbs higher.
The climb up and down is a sure calorie burner and works out the lungs with healthy oxygen from the forest. Both the young and elderly may be seen traversing the steps in the morning to work out a sweat.
The gently rolling side of the dam is carpeted with bright colorful flowers flocked by multitudes of hopping butterflies. From up the summit looking down, the bed of dazzling flowers is reminiscent of the summer capital, Baguio.
The Eco Park in Quezon City is an affordable getaway, alone or with loved ones, to escape city life awhile and enter the enchanted lure of deep forest life—still there, right in the city.
A Weekend at the Ayala Museum
We want a good preview of what the country and its people are like before we go on a longer trip. Where do we go first? A good initial step is a weekend trip to Ayala Museum. It is one of the country’s finest museums, displaying quality historical relics, models, portraits, and remarkable souvenir items.
Ayala Museum is right at the corner of Makati and Dela Rosa Avenues in Makati. From EDSA going to Ayala Avenue, the short trip takes two corners and a left turn on Makati Avenue to get to this tourist museum. It was a brainchild of Fernando Zobel de Ayala in the 1950s and actualized in 1967 by Filipinas Foundation, Inc., now known as Ayala Foundation, Inc. This museum was first housed along Ayala Avenue at the Insular Life Building, but later transferred to its present location. The present home of Ayala Museum, a nice target for a weekend trip, was designed by the late national artist Leandro V. Locsin and was finished sometime 1974.
A weekend trip to Ayala Museum with the whole family will prove quite rewarding. It offers educational displays that will stimulate both adults and children. Some 60 handcrafted dioramas (Paete made) are the center piece of Ayala Museum, along with other captivating exhibits.
A short trip to this museum reveals scale models of ancient sea vessels that once docked the shores of the islands. These displays are backed by ethnographic, artistic, and archaeological displays that showcase prehistoric, historic, and present events. Art collections are precious paintings of Juan Luna (1857-1899), Amorsolo (1882-1972), and Fernando Zobel himself (1924-1984).
One of the spectacular sights to be seen in a weekend trip to this museum is the boat gallery that highlights the maritime ingenuity of Filipinos and their seafaring technology that enabled them to cross long distances for trade and commerce. This short trip can also satiate a craving for native artistry by real masters of the 19th century. The displays one finds in a weekend trip to this museum is a depiction of European liberal ideas that influenced our artists in those times.
A weekend trip to this place also exposes one to revealing artifacts un-earthed from ethnic sites around the country—ethnic gears and utensils, weapons, ritual implements, fabrics, native accessories of bamboo, wood, native fibers, and others. One particular collection gleaned in this short trip is the “Kulintang,” a line up of gongs in various sizes. These are placed on an elaborate stool shaped like a “Naga.” A naga is a magical snake famous in Maranoa tales.
Ayala Museum, with its unique displays and collections, is a perfect place for a weekend trip.
