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