infinitepossibilities

April 7 2006
Andy’s Room at nearby Picnic Groove
Tagaytay City

spent the early morning at carmona. jen’s aunt prepared breakfast for us. jen and her ‘nay prepared for their trip to batangas, while i prepared an overnight pack for my solo trip to tagaytay. around 9, jen’s brother in-law picked us up. jen and her ‘nay were to attend her niece’s kindergarten graduation. thus, jen’s in-law robert drove them to batangas and dropped me off somewhere in tagaytay.

prior to reaching tagaytay, jen informed robert na ihagbung ko sa tagayatay… good ole robert thought it was a cebuano joke and dismissed jen, thinking that i was going with the pack to batangas. newsflash: we just passed the area where i was supposed to be dropped off. too late to make a turn around, told jen that i’d be all right if they’d proceed driving to batangas and just leave me where we are. splendido viewing site?!?…

splendido. it’s where robert drove us to see a magnificent view of lake taal. the area was a favorite stop for those with private vehicles. the place solely served as a viewing deck as there were no facilities nearby. that day, a lot of people, both local and foreign, pulled over to check the view. few minutes after, all 3 of them headed to batangas while i was left to fend for myself [btw, at my insistence].

ha. truthfully, i got a little scared as soon as they left me. unlike my solo trip to CDO and Davao where i had accomodations arranged in advance, i didn’t have any idea where i could stay for the night. armed with my lonely planet philippines edition travel book and robert’s instruction to hop on a jeepney or bus going back to olivares rotunda, i was set to explore tagaytay. minutes after they were gone, a jeepney passed by Splendido. hopped on it, didn’t even bother to ask where it’s headed. <heart thumping>

first off. tagalog. had to remind myself that people here don’t speak bisaya nor english AND they don’t knock the jeepney’s roof. "ma-ma, para po!" as soon as i spotted the rotunda, where earlier robert bought something at the drive-thru of jollibee. hah, for some reason i couldn’t remember where we saw Rooms 4 Rent signs, nor of any hotel except for Taal Vista Hotel.<more likely ‘fright’ kicking in>. nway, Taal Vista was dollars, so it wasn’t an option. i swear we passed by several, thus the safest decision for me was to follow robert’s instruction. the area near the rotunda houses several familiar places [Shakey's, Chowking, Greenwich, and Jollibee]. thinking that i’d be in for a time-consuming accommodation search, decided to grab an early lunch. after lunch, proceeded to nearby 7-Eleven and bought myself a bottle of water. still no idea where to go, i approached a lady selling peanuts. <this was where my poor tagalog was put to a test>. i was hoping she could recommend a place for overnight stay. heck, the lady was clueless. good thing there was this tricycle driver who seemed to have the answers I needed. at first, i was hesistant to trust the guy. he looked like he’d ripped off somebody like me. what did it for me was the guy showing me a catalog-looking object. it showed the typical spots of tagaytay. so i thought, this guy’s probably a legit pseudo-tour guide. thus, i hopped on his trike and he brought me to Andy’s Room.

1:00 PM - got to Andy’s Room. the trike driver talked me into checking out the famous spots for a fee. found nothing wrong with the arrangement, thus agreed for him to pick me up at around 4 o’clock.

Andy’s Room - as soon as i got myself settled. i got the worst headache imaginable. bummer. i’m in tagaytay and my headache decided to tag along. so much for my theory that it’s office work that’s been giving me the headache. ended up texting my sister and one of my officemates about my plight. both of them urged me to not let my headache ruin my trip. sure, that’s what’s in my head too, but the throbbing headache made it more difficult to enjoy the trip. thus, i popped a pill and slept for an hour or two, hoping for the headache to vanish. ha. when i woke up, the headache was still there. got into the bathroom, showered, waited for the trike driver. after 15 minutes of waiting, no trike driver in sight, and with a now tolerable headache, proceeded to exploring tagaytay on my own.