Ultimate Cruise | Manila, Phillipines

Day 105

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Manila, Phillipines

Manila doesn’t have natural beauty like the other islands we visited before.

It’s a bustling mega-city with 1.9 million population, and it’s the world's most densely populated city.

Getting around in Manila is kind of a nightmare. There is horrible traffic 24/7.

We were lucky to tour the city in luxury bus with all the bells and wistles and Air Conditioning. It’s extremely hot and humid here

We drove about 90 min, to Tagaytay.

Taal volcano is the world’s smallest active volcano. It’s located on a ridge 2,250 feet above sea level.

The Philippines are located in the so called “Ring of fire”. There are around 300 volcanos in Phillipines.

Taal Lake volcano is a lake within a volcano within a lake within volcano:

“Taal Volcano in the Philippines has a lake within its crater called Crater Lake, and the lake contains a small island called Vulcan Point. Vulcan Point is located within the crater lake of Volcano Island, which is in Taal Lake, which is on the island of Luzon. The lake is the largest lake on an island in a lake on an island in the world”.

After a delicious lunch we went to The Saint Joseph Parish, otherwise known as the Las Piñas Church renowned for housing the Bamboo Organ made mostly from bamboo pipes.

It was Palm Sunday and the church was packed with parishioners. We arrived just for the mass.

The next stop was the local Jeepney assembly plant.

Jeepneys are customized with accessories, colors and decorations. The front end is from the old military Willy Jeeps and then they are fabricated into a small bus-like vehicle. They are the predominant mode of public transportation.

The last stop for us was Mall of Asia.

The mall is currently the largest shopping mall in the Philippines and the sixth in the world. And of course we did get lost It’s huge!