We spent the weekend exploring both Laguna and Batangas Provinces. On Saturday, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to attend the Sagwan Tanauan Dragonboat Team's practice. We watched the team paddle back and forth across Lake Taal several times and then to our surprise we were invited to paddle with the team. It takes major coordination and muscle to be on a dragonboat team. These kids are serious athletes, so paddling with them was quite a workout, but an awesome experience that we will never forget!
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| I am in the center of the boat in the grey shirt! |
The video below explains how to get out of a traffic jam in the Philippines. I have become a quieter front seat passenger thanks to my time in the Philippines! :)
After our morning with the dragonboat team, we headed to the University of the Philippines Los Banos to visit the Makiling Botanical Gardens. This is also the university that our host teacher, Amy, attended. I thought this would be a nice relaxing walk through some beautiful gardens...boy, was I wrong? I noticed that there were several signs about falling branches, so I was definitely keeping that in mind as we went exploring. We were walking down a path, when I heard Jan scream, "Watch out!" then CRASH...the top of a tree had fallen and hit me in the head! I was terrified that I was bleeding and we were hours away from any hospital. Fortunately, I was only scratched and bruised. Unfortunately for Wendi, when the tree cracked on my head, it dumped ants all over her! We definitely had a memorable experience at Makiling Botanical Gardens. :)
We decided we had enough of nature and went to Liliw for a little shopping for the afternoon. Liliw is well-known for its historic Catholic Church and its handmade shoe industry. Of course, I was too busy shopping to take pictures, but we definitely had a good time finding great bargains on shoes. The hardest part about shopping during the whole trip for me was the exchange issue. When a vendor would say "500" that would seem so expensive and it would take me a minute or two to realize that was only $10 usd. I don't think I ever got used to it even though I was there for 20 days.
Sunday started with one of my favorite activities...going to the local public market! There were a million and one malls in the Philippines, so I was super excited to get a chance to visit the public market in Tanauan City. The wide variety of vendors and products were fascinating and the deals were great. You can learn a lot about the culture of a place by checking out the public market!
After our visit to the public market, we head to the town of Taal, which is home to the oldest Roman Catholic church in all of Asia. The church was as beautiful as I had expected it to me and it truly is the heart of the town. Once again, we were crashing another wedding as we explored the church, but there were hundreds of other people doing the same thing! There was a balcony that you had to pay $100 php (foreigner rate) to go on to get a better view of the sanctuary. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the $100 fee also allowed you to explore the bell tower of this historic church. While the passageways were claustrophobic, the views from the bell tower were well worth the exercise.
Another thing that Taal is known for is the balisong knife, or a butterfly knife. There are many local merchants that handcraft these knives and some in our group did make purchases to bring home to loved ones, but I can't say who because we learned at the Detroit Airport that it is illegal to bring these knives into Michigan. One traveller had 5 knives confiscated at the airport, while other travellers were able to bring their knives home to their loved ones. Upon further research, I learned that these knives are also illegal in the Philippines, yet readily sold at roadside stands in Taal.
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