The wife and me are now seriously looking at moving to the phils within the year for 12-18 months atleast so we can sort a few things out. We where considering going back to Olongapo City but a mate of mine has said the girly bars have started to make a return there, unfortunately. This of course means I'd never be trusted to go out on my own Anyway we're now thinking of Tagaytay, I know its expensive but I figure its a nice place to be. So does anyway one have any experience of hotels there (need one for when we look for a place to rent) and of renting there as well? Doesn't have to be fancy for a start, 3 bedrooms minimum and we'd like it to be furnished as I think for a start I'll put our gear in storage. Any experience anyone?
Personally mate I would be scared of Tagatay given the proximity to Lake Taal one of the worlds giant super volcano's But it is very nice, the climate is quite cool given the altitude. Rents are high I think compared to even Manila, and sorry only been there once on a day trip so no idea about the hotels. When Ana was pregnant we went up to a hotel near Olongapo for a few days and yeah the place was full of really seedy looking girly bars, shame really as Subic Bay was so beautiful.
I've only stayed there for a long weekend on 2 occasions, but you're right in that it's a really nice place, with a really nice climate and really quite expensive. The first time we went I was so impressed I asked my Bro-in-law to show us round some rental places just for fun. We saw plenty of great places in great locations...............at great prices! A little too much for us and too far away from "the family" All in all, I'm not much help for you on this. And of course I'm not at all jealous
Thanks folks. Your right about olongapo, the town itself and the base where pretty good but out towards Barrio Barreto and subic town itself was fairly seedy the closer to subic you got. There where some reasonable places in Barreto you could go but they where getting less and less, probably as the owners changed and saw more profit in "sexing" it up a bit. The main problem with olongopo now, apart from them influx of girly bars is it looks they've gear alot of things to the Koreans. Menus in resturants, even the road signs on the base. Plus a lot of ships now anchor up in the bay either waiting in the ship yard in subic or just in lay up which kind of spoils the view. I know what you mean about the possibility of living on the side of an active volcano and its at the back of my mind as well. That and the general cost there as well. I was also considering puerto galera, does anyone know much about this place?
I've never been to Puerto Galera Stu, but I know plenty of Filipino's and a few Brits who have, it's the other big party island (edit: actually not really an island more a port ) as it's a bit easier and a bit cheaper to get to for most Manila based Filipino's, supposed to be very good for diving, the beach is not as white as Boracay and is a bit more stony but I am told it is still highly regarded. Night life there has a bit of a reputation again, but I don't really know. Given that it's a tourist spot I'm not sure if the rental property would be cheap. You are right that the focus of local tourism in the Phils is shifting away from US and European types basically because we are not seen to have the money anymore, you can see the change in parts of Manila as well. Subic Bay long time back And yeah it was Barrio Barreto we ended up in, we stayed in this place below, neither of us actually knew where we were going and this Japanese Hotel was the only nice one we could find One thing about Taal and Tagatay is that it gets a bit damp up there quite often
If you get a chance a day trip to Taal for you and Joy would probably be fun, the climate is nicer and it is spectacular, the area is a bit more scary and you should be careful but it's worth it and it's only a couple of hours from Manila, silly given how close it is It was possible once upon a time to take a trip to the centre ring, it is a ring within a ring but I never had the opportunity, some friends did. Now it is not so easy as the Taal volcano is active again and has been rumbling for a while, lots of carbon dioxide being given off and there are significant dangers of a blanket of CO2 killing many in the local area
Just stay to the upwind side Nice pictures. A little off topic but do you use a stich program on your computer to create panaramic shots? Spoke to the wife and she's now not keen on Puerto Galera! Women what can you do! So its looking like the Cavite area as a whole now but not as far south as Batangas.
The really wide one was taken on an old Canon 20D that I sold in 2008 with a not very good EF-S 17-85mm zoom, and yes it was a three shot stitch, I honestly cannot remember what program I used as it was donkeys years ago Stu, but most of them are pretty good these days, on that shot you can see the join, might have been an old version of Paint Shop Pro. What you need to remember for stitching shots is that the focal length of the individual frames should not be wide angle, otherwise the program will not be able to adjust for the edge distortion, you need to use a more standard focal length like 50mm on a full frame or 35mm on an APS-C camera, this way the stitching program will do well and will happily join 3 or 4 shots no problem. A UK shot, Hadrians wall country the other year Stitched ! And one last closeup of Taal Can't resist posting one last UK shot, NOT a joiner but a nice crop, I am quite fond of this one. I think I posted the last two slightly too large as it looks like the board has cropped the right edge but they still look ok (edit: fixed now )
Cavite is a big place Stu, the west coast and a bit south into the likes of Nasugbo in Batangas is a bit hard to get to from Manila up to 4 hours on a Jeepney, but I must admit it is hard to picture anywhere else really appealing in Cavite, the biggest problem is the sheer amount of time needed to get back up the road to Manila even with the new coastal road extension. The misery trying to travel by road through Bacoor is legend
Really nice pic of the wall Jim, nice framing. I'm now thinking the only way to do this is to actually go out there and spend a week looking round the different areas. After all everyones ideas of whats nice is different isn't it.
Exactly Stu, It's all a question of what you are looking for, me I would be happy in the back of beyond somewhere near a beach if I had some transport, but Ana would never be able to cope with the boredom as she is a city girl at heart and likes the hustle and bustle of that kind of life. The one good thing, is you have over 7000 island to choose from
I stayed at Barrio Barreto about 10 years ago and scuba dived in Subic Bay. Visited Olongapo for a few beers with a few men - I did get the impression that it was a girlie bar place. Well two of the men never came home with us! Sorry, don't know anything about Tagaytay Went to Batangas also.
True, The wife likes Manila but I don't, to be honest I'd like somewhere the size of Olongapo, not to big and not too small. To honest I'd like Olongapo about 7 years ago before it got koreanised, it was getting cleaned up, there where good bars (alot of the girly had been forced out over to Barreto and Subic town) and resturants, reasonable shopping and its about 45min to the nearest big malls. If only I had a time machine. I want somewhere about the size of a small town with the facilities mentioned above in a perfect world of course
The one thing they all seem to have acquired is an SM hard to find anywhere without one these days, but yeah that would kind of suit me too. Next time I go over I am going to do a lot more exploring although it won't be easy with two kids in tow
I know one should not stereotype but the Korean's come from a very very male orientated culture and tend to treat women pretty poorly, Ana speaks a good bit of Korean although she cannot write Korean and her memory is crap, she loses it unless she is using it, takes time to come back, but she can tell when the inscrutable oriental has the big wide smile and is calling you every name under the sun A couple of times we have been together and chatting to a group of Korean's, usually because they wanted to ask me about my camera's or something, Ana would be listening to them and suddenly interject in Korean and they all went quiet and embarrassed I just smile at them I do enjoy Korean food though
That does look nice Sean. No smoking vents or craters is there? Where were you when you took the picture?
