May 21 - Through various inquiries, I sort out the most likely place to find buses onward from Manila. The key to transport is the PITX bus station in the Pasay district, a place that isn’t clear from internet searching. We take a Grab for 400 pesos to get there.
I wasn’t sure what to expect in this place. I am imagining a huge, dusty open area with shouting touts and honking buses. So I am pleasantly surprised when it turns out to be a large, multistory complex with gates, waiting rooms, and a complete lack of chaos. We find the bus to Tagaytay in a few minutes, and the bus departs in less than five minutes after that.
The road south is lined with urbanization for almost the entire way. I note a mix of thousands of tiny stores of every sort, along with the occasional chain superstore. These include MrDIY, southeast Asia’s equivalent of Home Depot.
I expected the ride to take three hours, but we are off the bus in two. Tagaytay shows itself to be a crowded, active town, squashed up against the north rim of a crater. Somewhere off to the south is Taal Lake, a massive caldera formed between 500,000 and 1 million years ago. But today the air is thick with moisture and particulates, and we can’t see anything.
Our room here is in a massive apartment complex called Cityland. It has been a long time since we’ve been in a place like this. The host meets us in the crowded lobby of the building and walks us through the room layout. There is a late afternoon rainstorm.
There really isn’t much to do in Tagaytay. My purpose here was to see Taal Lake, so try to get info on how to do that. It turns out to be more complicated than I thought. Due to recent eruptions within the caldera (every year since 2019), no one is allowed to cross the lake on boat, or even go swimming in it.
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