It's the start of the MotoGP season!
After a long wait, this sunday 10 april is the start of the Moto GP season and will be holding the race at Jerez, Spain. If you love Formula 1, you'll love this even better. Real overtaking and three times the fun, as there's the 125 and 250 world championships as well which are as exciting as the MotoGP class.

From the tests, it seems that Yamaha/Rossi is not as fast as they were at this time last season. It's difficult to see who will be leading the Honda challenge. I was expecting much from Max Biaggi, now riding a factory Honda, but the pre-season tests were not convincing. Sete Gibernau is still up the leaderboards though. I hope this year, he gets the better of Valentino Rossi and hopefully the world championship. The Ducati's are not where they should be and I'm predicting this will be a difficult year for them. Suzuki and John Hopkins are on the up and I think they'll be occasionally up in front. For the 250cc, I hope too that Pedro Dela Rosa continues his dominance and this year be the build-up for his MotoGP career.

Last weekend, we went to Taal Lake to see the volcano crater.

Here are the expenses:
70.oo pesos toll fee (manila to alternative exit to tagaytay)
1,400.oo for the boat ride back and forth from Talisay Batangas and Taal Lake.
500.oo pesos per horse going up and down from shore to the crater.
800.oo pesos lunch for six
4.oo pesos (star tollway)
20.oo pesos toll fee. (calamba to filinvest)

We drove off to Tagaytay early in the morning. By 7:30 am we were at a stop over at the Shell gas station inside SLEX. We grabbed breakfast and coffee at Starbucks. After that we checked the tyre pressure water levels, then off we go to tagaytay.

Alternate Route to TAGAYTAY
It's my first time driving to Tagaytay via SLEX so I'm not really familiar how to get there. But the last time I drove via SLEX, there was a big signage that say's "ALTERNATE ROUTE TO TAGAYTAY", so I took that route. Apparently, that alternate exit was further than the regular one as we seem to have passed by an exit that goes to Tagaytay. We paid 70 pesos at the gate. The problem is, while there's so many vehicles at SLEX, there was only 3 cars that exited via this one. I'm the one in front and I'm not familiar with the place. I let the other car pass by and followed it with the assumption that they too will go to Tagaytay. There were signages that point the direction so we used them as clues if were still going the right way. The route then goes through a mall like area. The car we were following then parked at the area! Crap, now we don't know where to go. We say a highway, but there were no signage if that's the right track. We took our chances, and fortunately, it's the right way. There are lots of mountain bikers on that road so be careful. at the end of the long twisty road we took a right turn. Soon we were at McDonalds Olivarez at Tagaytay.

To the VOLCANO
I ate breakfast at McDo as I've just had coffee from the last stop. We hooked up with a boat ride guide. He said we have to drive down to Talisay to the lake side. The road down to Talisay is just near the Picnic Grove. It was a long, steep, descending and twisty road going down. I even doubt my car can make its way back up via that road. At the end of the twisties, there was an arrow sign to the left that says "STAR 15KMS". I assumed that it's refering to STAR TOLLWAY. We went right going to a resort that has the boats that goes to TAAL Volcano. There was a pool at the resort but it ain't part of the package we paid for. We ordered lunch there, and then took the boat ride to the volcano. It was a 15 minute boat ride across TAAL lake.

At the other side, we are now at the foot of the volcano island. We can either walk towards the crater or rent a horse. We didn't realize that it will be a long walk to the crater. And we weren't informed about the need to rent a horse. We bargained for the horse ride and we ended up paying 1,700 pesos for 4 horses and 7 persons. Usually, it's 400 pesos per horse per person and 500 pesos for a two up. We saved 200 pesos from the list price. TIP: If you intend to go there, arrive at around 6 or 7 am and hike. Cheaper and better. We were just forced to take a horse 'cause we have children along and the heat is soaring at 10:00 am. We also "rented" Buri hats at 20 pesos a piece. First time I saw that kind of business.

At the top of the volcano, there's not much to do. There a small roofed and railed area where you can appreciate the view and the vastness of the crater of the volcano. Softdrinks and Coconut costs a whopping 30 pesos each. There was a path way that was unrailed. I'm feeling adventurous so I took the path. It's scary looking at the crater side. The other side is also a steep rolling fall if ever you tripped. I took some pictures of myself. My friend followed and we took turns taking pictures of each other and the scenery. I attempted to go even further down the path but I slipped and almost rolled down the volcano, so I backed off. It was almost noon, and the smoking rocks makes it even hotter. We soon went back down the lake side and took the boat ride back to the resort. We then ate lunch. A platter of chicken, A platter of roasted tilapia and a bowl of rice. It cost us 850 pesos. 350 for each viand and 150 for the rice.

After some rest, we rode back. At the crossroad of the STAR signage, we took the route to STAR TOLL. It's the long way around but at least we wouldn't have to struggle the steep ascent going back up to Tagaytay. We found out that the 15kms is not accurate, no it's way-off! It read 25 kms on my car's odometer before we reached the toll-gate. We paid 4 pesos toll fee. Got in SLEX, and paid 20 pesos toll fee up to the Filinvest exit.

/rom