The Travel Peoples

  Living abroad makes me miss my favorite quick weekend escape. That is Tagaytay City. It often took me 1.5 hours from Makati City if traffic was not bad. Double the time or more, if otherwise. Nevertheless, finally getting there was always worth it. This small mound is not Taal volcano. It’s called the ‘Binintiang Maliit,’ one of the many small cones of the volcano. The actual volcano sits on a caldera surrounded by Lake Taal. There came a time when I drove there not just on weekends, but every other day. I had to visit our mini-farm, Cabutihan Orchard, in Alfonso. We had a great variety of trees and plants in it. I’d often go home with bananas, mushrooms, coconuts, potatoes, banana blossoms, leafy vegetables of different kinds, chili peppers, mangoes, chicos, papayas, and more in the back of my SUV. Thanks to the hardworking “kuyas” (male caretakers) who diligently planted and cleaned the whole 2,000-square meter lot. (By the way, because we do not have caretakers anymore and we ...

I paid a visit to the twin lakes again. The trip was not on our itinerary but the governor suggested that I take our media friends on a tour of the lakes. I was more than willing to do so. No time is wasted in seeing the twin lakes of Sibulan. We left the hotel at around 6a.m. for an early morning trip to Sibulan, an hour’s drive from Dumaguete. We traveled mostly on a dirt road, though portions of it are already paved by the local government. Upon reaching the end of the road, we found ourselves on top of Mount Talinis, and a few feet from the road is Lake Balinsasayao. It was 7a.m., and the morning mist still canopied over the mountains. We descended onto the basin of the lake, where we saw a kid fishing on shallow water. As we approached him, we discovered that there were already three tilapias in his basket. I simply had to take his picture. The simplicity I saw in the scene was one of the most beautiful I have ever encountered. Royal blue bancas line one side of the lake, ready to...