We woke up early morning for our day trip to Tagaytay, an area just south of Manila. Personally, I was excited we'd get to get out of the city since as nice as it is, isn't really much different than most other international cities. There's a growing global culture and while I think it's a great thing, it does make places a lot more familiar than perhaps you wish it was. Anywho, it was nice to catch the day before the sun got a chance to crank up the heat, though that humidity was still always present.

After about 40 some minutes of driving the city life disappeared and soon we were in the countryside.

And here's what we were going to, Taal Lake which is formed inside a dormant volcano. The crazy thing about this place is the inception-like layering of the islands and water. We're on an island in the Pacific and here's a lake with an island inside. Ok, nothing too crazy there, but on that island is ANOTHER lake with ANOTHER island. So that's an island in a lake in an island in a lake in an island in the ocean. *whew!* If you look at this place from Google Maps, the water and land look like rings from a cut tree.

But we're gonna do more than observe it all from atop the outer ridge, we're gonna try to see the inside of it ourselves. After a very long (and fun!) mountain road down to the first lake, we ate lunch at one of these little huts.

These trikes are EVERYWHERE. We rode in one in Boracay on the way out to our port, but it was a lot larger than these small lowriders. Sketchy? You bet, but they also look super fun. A part of me wanted to pay on of the drivers to go back on the mountain road as fast as he can.

When we first got here, we were under the impression that the crater you see here would be where we'll be going. Definitely looks like there'd be a small lake in there, right?

And here's how we'll get to island #2. Pretty much the same boats as the ones that we took "Island Hopping" except this time we wouldn't be running into any white crests. I mean, look at that sky! What could go wrong?

We soon arrived on Island #2, but I noticed we landed on pretty much the opposite end of the island as the crater. Are we really gonna hike all the way there?

Part 2 to be posted later. Till then, gonna take a nap.