Taal Volcano and Annah’s Motorcycle Diaries

by | Jun 6, 2010 | Summer 2010: Southeast Asia & India, The Philippines | 0 comments

After…

A ten-hour long bus ride from 6:30 pm in Banaue to 3:30 am in Manila,

A four-hour session in an internet cafe to avoid having to pay for two nights in a hotel,

A quick shower and then dim-sum,

A torturously brief trip to the Mall of Asia, the third largest mall in the world (they have an ice skating rink, an imax, a bowling alley, so many alluring stores and restaurants…),

We left for the active Taal volcano via Tagatay.

I’m going to skip over the bus and movie for 60 pesos (46 pesos-1 USD) to the tricycle – a motorbike/motorcycle with a side cart attached – three wheels, hence tricycle – to catch the boat to the volcano. On the way to said boat,  I got to ride on the back of the motorbike! Of course I took a few videos…

 

First Glimpse:

 

Getting on the Bike:

 

Getting Going:

 

Getting out of the Bike’s Side-Cart:

 

Filipinos are known for being curious and asking a lot of questions. However, I don’t think that they could have asked me any more times if I had a boyfriend. The driver said, “ey well – my friend back there – eh?” They said that they were only joking, but the ride back I think proves otherwise! (all kosher, no worries-keep reading)

From the bike, we boarded a long motorboat, indescribable really. The view was amazing however, and the waves kept splashing us all on board.

 

We arrived on shore and realized that the sun was going to set in a matter of hours. Calvin tried to convince the tour guides that we could make it up and back in time but they wouldn’t let us… so we ended up having to ride horses up to the top of the volcano (how tragic right?) Calvin asked for a wildly fast horse – too bad they wouldn’t let him ride it by himself anyway! Hah.

Starting Off:

A View from My Horse:


 

And then we reached the top of the volcano! I’ll let my vblogs speak for themselves…

Initial Reaction:


And We Almost Didn’t Make It:

Video 3: Evidence of a Live Volcano!

 

Took the ride down the mountain and the boat across the river and then hopped back onto our bikes. One of the drivers somehow knew that I was Korean (again) and asked me if this was so by saying “Anyong Haseyo!” I responded.. and then he started rambling on in Korean. I had to stop him midway through his third paragraph to tell him that Anyong  Haseyo was one of three words/phrases that I knew in total in Korean. Win.

Anywho, the three of us took separate bikes/separate riders. I had the same guy who brought us down in the first place.

It’s so much more fun with three bikes, three friends as passengers, and three drivers who are all friends.

 

Part way through the ride, he asked if I wanted to drive. YES. He tried to explain to me how to start the bike – you have to push this brake and hold this brake and then push on this and slowly hold this lever and then slowwwlllyyyy accelerate with this hand. Didn’t get that. I felt stupid for the first couple of bouts until he said the word “CLUTCH.” I mean, if he had explained it in normal terms to me, like engage the clutch and take your foot off of the brake, I think that I might have had an easier time. Yeah?

But in regards to what I said earlier about joking/not joking, he was definitely flirting with me the whole time that I was driving his bike and tried on multiple occasions to hold onto me. Pft.

In any case, I only had one mishap with a patch of sand and he kept yelping at me to “slooww down.” Otherwise, it was a sucessful mission. Calvin’s got some baller pictures of me.

I have more videos on my Youtube Channel. Check out our videos page or click here.

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