Tigers, Pythons & Co. @ Malabon Zoo

Malabon Zoo is a private sanctuary for animals located just off MacArthur Highway near Monumento, Caloocan. It has earned a reputation for having more animals than the much-larger Manila Zoo.

Having had my post-grad studies in Valenzuela, I've always been aware that there is a Malabon Zoo but it was only when my nieces and nephew was in town that I actually got to visit this zoo.

It's located close to Malabon Elementary School and the sign boards along the streets to the zoo were very helpful in pointing us in the right direction so we arrived at 10:00 am and paid the ₱100 entrance fee.

 Cute sayings and quotes about life, love, even lyrics of songs like Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World" dotted the various animal cages. It was nice that we were just in time for the feeding of the animals like the orangutans. It was fascinating to see these huge primates running around, being awkwardly cute.

The zoo also allows you to hold pythons for photo ops and my nephew Jian, nieces Mariel & Kee, and my brother-in-law Manoy Lito eagerly paid the ₱200 to get their pictures taken with the snakes.

My sister Maris, my friend Joy and I were a bit more apprehensive but much persuading and taunting by the kids left Joy and I no choice but to try it. I've always been grossed out by snakes, but honor was at stake, so I held one Burmese python for posterity's sake and it was not so bad. It helped that the snake was docile and not slimy at all.

The zoo also has a tiger cub named "Dionisia", and she was incredibly cute and playful. She's like a big cat jumping around and swatting our hands playfully. She got too energetic at one point and jumped off the table that the handler pulled on her tongue to quiet her up.

That was weird to see and we felt very bad for the tiger cub. She was just a baby and just playing around. The incident somewhat tainted our enjoyment of petting a real honest-to-goodness tiger cub. Sorry your tongue got hurt, dear Dionisia!

There was a grizzly bear in this zoo too. Though it looked quiet demented, just bouncing around, moving its huge head up and down. Maybe it's the stifling summer heat that was making him do that or the cramped cage, or both? Poor thing.

There were many adult tigers and I've always been fascinated by how smoothly they move. The crocodiles were amply represented as well. This zoo do have more animals than the Manila Zoo but I wish there were more space for them to move around.

 
                                      

I hope the well-intentioned Malabon Zoo people can transfer some of their animals some place with more room. I appreciate that it's privately-owned and it must cost the owner a pretty penny to keep them fed and clean but the place is a bit small. Maybe they can donate or lend some of the animals to Manila Zoo, God knows that zoo has the space.

Malabon Zoo & Aquarium
1 Governor Pascual Avenue
Potrero, Malabon
Tel: 3613083

Tagaytay Accommodations: Mar Ermino's

Unplanned overnight trips can be challenging and our excursion to Tagaytay was definitely a challenge. Just imagine looking for a place at 8pm in a strange touristy city... hmm, good thing the much vaunted Filipino hospitality and friendliness to lost strangers worked for us.

It was dark when we left Picnic Grove and after our dinner at Andok's, we retraced our steps and walked down Kaykulot Road (right across Tagaytay Picnic Grove) and found Kuya Mar Ermino's hostel/rooms for rent. An a/c room to accommodate all five of us for ₱1200 was a good deal so we plunked down the money, was handed the key for room 4 and got ready for bed.

The house is in a quiet neighborhood, the mattresses were firm, the bathroom clean (no hot water though). The store in front of the house is also very convenient, we bought coffee and bread there for our breakfast and Kuya Mar was kind enough to give us hot water.

Ermino's is a no-frills, value for money place. A good night's sleep was had by all and we were grateful to have this place to stay in Tagaytay City when we needed it. If you ever find yourself stuck at the Picnic Grove at night--you're not the picky type and don't mind cold showers--then Ermino's is for you.

Update: Mar Ermino's has improved! They have free wi-fi now, cable TV and hot shower. ₱1800 for 24 hours, good for 2-4 pax. You can actually haggle for a discount down to ₱1500 with breakfast. :)

Mar Ermino's Rooms
Kaykulot Road, Sungay East
4120 Tagaytay City
(across Picnic Grove Exit Gate)
Tel.: +639172483189

Peoples Park in the Sky, Tagaytay

no apostrophe here

Our Taal Lake jaunt done, we rode our rented trike up to Mount Gonzales where the People's Park in the Sky is located. It was called "Palace in the Sky" in the time of the high-flying, lavish-living Marcoses and was made specifically for Ronald Reagan's eventually scuttled State Visit.

The view atop this half-finished mountain retreat is marvelous. The highest point in Tagaytay City, what makes it even more special is you get to see four different bodies of water in one place. Hello there Taal Lake, Balayan Bay, Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay, it's nice to meet you. Ha!

You can also see the posh Tagaytay Highlands--a golf and country club development--from up here. Famished, we immediately looked for a picnic table where we ate the Jollibee meals we bought in the city proper.

After lunch, we walked around the park. The girls had fun in the giant pineapple structure. I remember having my picture taken as a kid in that thing!

The view is gorgeous of course, but I wish this place is better maintained. The buildings are falling apart, the railings rusty. I'm happy that there are new toilets constructed though. My visit a year before was marred by a nasty encounter with a dirty toilet, so I'm glad that problem has been addressed.

clean toilets, at last!

more fun in the Philippines...

This place could be much nicer and lots of people come for the awesome view anyway, but improvement is clearly needed if we're serious about our ambitious tourism goals. The Philippines is truly beautiful, the infrastructure should keep up accordingly.

People's Park in the Sky
Mt. Gonzales
Tagaytay City

Entrance fee: ₱15
Parking fee: bus ₱40
                   car/jeep/motorcycle: ₱20

Boating to Taal Lake and Volcano Island

Unplanned overnight trip or not, we woke up refreshed. Sporting our hastily bought, matching "Tagaytay" t-shirts, we were raring to explore more of Tagaytay. The owner of the hostel we stayed in recommended his cousin to drive us around in his tricycle.

We had no plans to go boating but Neil the trike driver explained to us that it wouldn't cost us too much (₱450) to drive down to Talisay, Batangas where cheap boats for rent could be found to get us close to Taal's Volcano Island.

The thought of getting near a rumbling volcano ( Alert level 2) thrilled us but due to the increasing seismic activity, PHIVOLCS (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology) had forbidden anyone to horseback-ride up the crater to look at the "lake within an island within a lake" phenomenon. That's just too bad for us, but at least everyone's still interested to see Taal's famous "big leg" up close.

The tricycle ride to Talisay was not for the faint of heart. There were stretches of road that were under construction and I almost choked at the thick fog of dirt that enveloped us when we drove by. Manay Ella and Dit also had to walk for a bit when the trike got stuck on a particularly steep road.

But we arrived at Tantiongco's Resort in Brgy. Leynes, Talisay still in high spirits, with the great view of Taal Lake and Volcano Island encouraging us. The resort offers rooms for overnight stay and boat rental. We just wanted to sail on the lake and get close to the volcano and crater so we rented a boat which we haggled down to ₱1200.

The boat ride was enjoyable and took about 20 minutes to get us close enough to the  "big leg" cone aka "binintiang malaki", the famous crater in everyone's mind when you say "Taal Volcano". Honestly, I think it's much prettier and more mysterious from afar.

Lava rocks were also pointed out to us by the boat driver. It was fun just driving around the lake, so close to this famous "smallest active volcano", home to the "tawilis" the only freshwater sardine of the Clupeidae family in the world". How's that for trivia?

When we had enough sightseeing and pictures, it was time to go back to shore and take the dusty ride back to Tagaytay with a quick stop to our driver swore was Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's vacation house. Could it be true? Hmm... debatable, but we snapped pictures anyway.