Friday 10 February 2017

Around Tagaytay

Today was for exploring local sites and sorting things out. First I went to find a laundry, which turned me away because they had no price for less than 3kg of washing. From there I took another 'safety' tricycle to the People's Park in the Sky viewpoint. I rather liked the fact that this one had fixed prices on a laminated sheet so there was no need to haggle.
The park turned out not to be much of a park just a hilltop with a short steep road leading up to the structure at the top. The road was closed to traffic except a couple of jeepneys carrying school children but oddly despite being basically pedestrianised also had the first pavements I've seen in the Philippines.
At the top was what I can only call a structure. A large concrete thing that might have been a building without walls or a multi storey carpark. It had clearly been abandoned for some time and then recolonised by several small stalls selling t-shirts and baseball caps. The views though were spectacular, with the sea, two large lakes and a few mountains visible as well as the edge of Manila.
I got back to town on a jeepney,  which is like a cross between a bus and a jeep. It wasn't fast, at one point we were overtaken by a small terrier, but it was cheap and I enjoyed seeing the outskirts of Tagaytay as the locals do without anyone trying to sell me anything.
It stopped in the centre, where I found the second ever pavement, and a laundry that would take my small bag. Other than that the town seemed to be mainly fast food joints, both McDonald's and KFC and several Philippino imitations. Eventually I found a small stall selling fried rice, which was more to my taste especially as they cooked it in front of me rather than producing it from an unseen kitchen.
Overall though there is not a huge amount to see here so I returned to the hostel to relax and continue enjoying the milder hill climate that actually means I can sit outside without being drenched in sweat. 

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