‘Fly away’ in Tagaytay!

Posted on July 18, 2010

There’s this hit tourist attraction in Tagaytay City that has drawn both young and old people to hie off to the Picnic Grove not only on weekends, when the place is said to be brimming with visitors, but also on weekdays and rainy days. It’s called the Tagaytay Ridge Zipline & Cable Car.

Here, the 250-meter-long zipline affords one to soar above a tiny forest at an approximate speed of 60km/hr using a customized body harness. Either you opt to zip through the course via a manageable sit-down position or a more daring face-down position with the whole body stretched out.

The zipline ride takes less than 30 seconds, depending on how fast you go (factor in the body weight). The unique experience is terrifying for some guests, especially for those who, throughout the zipline journey, look down to get a quick glimpse of the forest some 300 feet below. But it is super fun for others, who love the feeling of being suspended from a steel cable, zipping from one platform to another.

Overweight zipline riders need not worry if the harness can support them without encountering any glitches. It is said that a single zipline harness can carry up to two tons (or roughly equivalent to seven sumo wrestlers) in one go.

For the more cautious, there’s the cable car — actually, it looks more like a ‘cable cage’ — option. But the cable car ride is so slow that it can — and it will — bore the adventurous types. This is more for the geriatric lot or for the faint-hearted. For sure, taking the cable car feels a lot safer than being strapped by a mere safety harness.

The rates are quite reasonable but they do vary, depending on which day you pay the Tagaytay Ridge Zipline & Cable Car a visit. On weekdays, one can have a one-way ride for only PHP100 (you then have to walk back using the wooden foot bridge), or a two-way ride for PHP200. On weekends and on holidays, due to the huge volume of visitors on these days, rides cost PHP200/person for a one-way journey, and PHP300/person for round trips. If you and your family or friends want to take home a souvenir photo taken by one of the staff photographers, just add PHP100. The 5″x7″ photos come in wooden frames. Very nice.

The scenic view of the Taal Volcano as a backdrop adds magic to the whole zipline experience. That’s why the staff photographers make sure that each shot is picture-perfect: the Taal Volcano should be in the background as you smile for posterity. It would be more ideal, though, if some of the souvenir shots are not directed, and photos of the visitors doing the actual ride (read: action shots capturing the real zipline moment) are the ones taken and given out. But one staffer says it all depends on the angle of a riders’ faces when they reach the end of the zipline, where the snapshots are taken. They re-enact the ride in order to get that perfect angle, if they feel there’s a need to. Oh well. Perhaps they don’t operate like those automated cameras you see in Enchanted Kingdom or Disneyland, which aim to capture your terror-stricken face as is during that momentous roller coaster ride.

Safety, the management says, is not an issue and visitors are in good hands every step of the way. As its website states, “all equipment utilized in the zip course has been engineered and exceeds industry standards to ensure a fun, enjoyable experience. The ziplines and platforms have been inspected and registered with the Government Safety Authority.” Guides are also well-trained in all aspects of the zipline and cable car operation. In other words, there’s nothing to worry about. Let’s just hope it stays that way forever. We don’t want any casualty here.

Aside from the zipline and cable car attraction, Picnic Grove visitors can also do other activities in the area such as horse riding, walking in the woods (and watching people above you zip by), having a massage (there are on-site massage experts in the area), shopping for “pasalubongs” (take-home gifts) at the souvenir shops, eating at the Pinoy restaurant, or having a family picnic in one of the picnic sheds.

So if you live in Metro Manila and feel like driving up to Tagaytay one fine day, do drop by at the Picnic Grove and give this zipline adventure a try. If you think you can take the zipline ride using the ‘Superman position,’ do so. It’s cool to conquer your fear of heights this way. Just make sure that your safety harness works, and your guide has properly strapped you.

*****

TIDBITS: To visit the official Tagaytay Zipline and Cable Car Multiply site, click here. Titled “Life is an Amazing Adventure,” the site features related photos, video clips, and blog posts.

» Filed Under Lifestyle, Travel | 3 Comments

The perils of driving in Metro Manila

Posted on July 2, 2010

Driving in Manila is almost suicidal. A lot of motorists, especially the PUV drivers, drive with a death wish. Just ask any law-abiding foreigner residing in the Philippines to confirm this.

In the congested streets of Manila, super aggressive bus, jeepney and taxi drivers seem to have perfected the art of changing lanes, much to the dismay of those who religiously follow traffic rules. They swerve their vehicles rather boldly onto lanes they want to ‘conquer and divide.’ Never mind if they cut other vehicles as long as they reach their destination ahead of the rest. More often than not, it’s the female drivers, often regarded as frail and lacking in driving techniques, who are on the receiving end of this form of road bullying.

Horrendous traffic jams are common in major thoroughfares, especially during rush hour (a backseat passenger can actually finish knitting a scarf to get from Point A to Point B). You find yourself stuck on the road alongside with some of the bullies who have managed to ease you out of your lane in such effortless precision. And during those agonizing hours you wait for the traffic to loosen up, your eyes suddenly chance upon a rather hypocritical rear-end message on the public utility vehicle in front of you: “How’s my driving”? with a LTFRB hotline number to go with it. While you feel a bit tempted to report, say, a bad bus driver’s road misdemeanor to the proper authorities, your gut feel tells you this feedback system is all for show. What’s the use, really? Complaints just pile up and go unattended, according to reliable sources.

Have you ever seen drivers, at the height of impatience, overtaking and taking the lane of the oncoming traffic? This is an all too common sight. A lot of drivers do this — occupying the seemingly free lane of the opposite direction to get ahead of the line. In the end, they clog up the other lane and traffic worsens on both sides. Mass cursing then ensues.

And then there are the throngs of motorcyclists who seemed to have multiplied in the metropolis through the years, thanks to easy-to-pay schemes offered by motorcycle dealers. During stops, they snake through space gaps in between vehicles without any care in the world; car scratches are bound to happen at some point. And once the light turns green, they speed up with menace and change lanes like it’s second nature to them. It’s rather scary. With the way they negotiate the streets, it somewhat feels that there’s an assassin from this ‘cool’ motorcycle group out to get you.

Needless to say, one must watch out for those money-hungry traffic policemen (a.k.a. “crocodiles”) out to get you — you catch the drift — in some ‘tricky’ parts of the city landscape. In some areas, there are no proper road signs installed at crucial points, which can cause motorists a lot of confusion and, eventually, a police ‘arrest’ (the question is, would you just give the traffic officer some bribe money to get it done and over with, or would you rather hand over your driver’s license and go to all that trouble in redeeming it in their office later on?) One might wonder if these road traps were deliberately set up by the traffic enforcers, or it was just a plain oversight and nothing more.

And then there’s the sound of impatience. What’s with the overhonking of some motorists? Can’t they see you can’t just turn right or left en route to, say, a particular subdivision just because the traffic policeman or the traffic light has not yet given his/her/its go signal? In some countries, this is considered rude and haughty. But then again, this is Manila where too much honking seems to be the trend and, therefore, generally acceptable.

Crazy drivers. Unbearable traffic jams. Corrupt traffic enforcers. Long hours on the road. There’s so much agitation in the streets of Manila. True, you could just hail a cab in some occasions. But with the way Pinoy taxi drivers charge without using their meters (highway robbery!), you know you’re better off driving your own car, budget- and security-wise. Taking the jeepney or bus could be a transportation option, but with the air pollution and widespread crime in commuter vehicles, would you risk it?

It’s not safe to be on the road — well, any road in the world for that matter. But the streets of Manila are extra accident-prone, just because motorists lack the discipline to follow the rules. Why, some unqualified drivers can even get a driver’s license simply by paying up fixers! With this kind of system, is it any wonder that we have wayward — and sometimes drunken — drivers out there, who make it to televised police reports?

One can only do his/her part to be a defensive driver, who harms no one and vice versa. But we can never tell how things pan out in the rough streets of Manila, what with the complex traffic dynamics involved. Road bullies abound — and they always spell trouble. It will not hurt to say a prayer or two for travel protection before you step out of the house.

Drive safely, everyone.

*****

TIDBITS: Here is the list of FAQs on driver’s licensing in the Philippines, courtesy of the Land Transportation Office.