Category Archives: ACTIVITIES

Palace in the Sky (Tagaytay City, Cavite)

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

Come Holy Thursday, Grace, then 2.5-year old Jandy and I, plus our E. Ganzon, Inc. friends Alex D. Guda and Mel Miranda decided to go  on a day tour to the controversial, half-finished Palace in the Sky.   Located 8 kms. east of the Tagaytay City rotunda, on the 710-m. high Mt. Gonzales  (or Mt. Sungay), the former “Palace” was a multi-million exercise in extravagance started in 1981 by the late former Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos for the 1983 state visit of then U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan.  The state visit unfortunately (or is it fortunately?) never pushed through after the August 21, 1983 assassination of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr..  Marcos was deposed by the People Power Revolution of February 1986 and it was left unfinished and abandoned. 

Palace in the Sky

Upon our arrival, Alex, Grace, Jandy and I hiked along the asphalt road going all the way to the top but Mel took the more easygoing horseback ride. Even in its unfinished state, it was quite “palatial,” a true symbol of greed and indifference.  Also called the “Malacanang of Tagaytay” and “Bahay ni Imelda,” the pyramid-shaped villa had a huge kidney-shaped swimming pool and a tall radio antenna.

Hiking our way up the asphalt road

There was no one about, it being a holiday, but inside the palace were signs of new construction going on.  I even noticed, and was baffled, by a blueprint plan for a “torture chamber.”  A mystery indeed!  From the view deck we experienced the sweet, fresh and invigorating air of the city and admired the marvelous 360 degree view of 4 bodies of water (Taal Lake, Laguna de Bay, Balayan Bay and Manila Bay) and landward views of Metro Manila, Batangas, Rizal, Cavite, Quezon and even Mindoro, a spectacle initially meant for a chosen few.

AUTHOR’S NOTES

Nine month after our visit, the “Palace” hugged some of headlines when rebel soldiers took over the villa’s radio antenna during the failed December coup de etat.  In 1990, the mystery of the “torture chamber” was unveiled when the movie Delta Force 2:  The Columbian Connection, starring Chuck Norris, as a U.S. commando leader, and Billy Drago, as a Colombian drug lord, was shown in local cinemas.  The “Palace” turned out to be the drug lord’s seemingly impenetrable mansion and the “torture chamber,” his private viewing gallery where U.S. DEA agents were smothered to death by poison gas.  Some mystery!

On January 14, 1996, the “Palace” was ordered rehabilitated and refurbished into a 4,516-hectare resort by then Pres. Fidel V. Ramos.  Since then, it has been democratically renamed as the People’s Park in the Sky and is now enjoyed by poor and ordinary citizens.  Today, it has a lower ground restaurant, bar, 200-person open-air amphitheater (where free cultural and musical shows are held, Saturday and Sundays), view deck, native picnic huts and tables, wishing well (toss a coin and make a wish), fishing lagoon (the former swimming pool), art gallery, a grotto with 25-foot statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of Fair Love, 150-person second floor seminar room (Centennial Room), second floor museum, lower ground tourism office, souvenir shops and a giant replica of the pineapple.

Today, the park has again fallen into neglect.  The fishing lagoon is now filled up into a garden, graffiti is everywhere and the premises are dirty.  Only the views remain spectacular.

People’s Park in the Sky: Brgy. Dapdap West and Dapdap East, Tagaytay City, Cavite.  Admission: PhP15.

Houseboating at Lake Caliraya (Cavinti, Laguna)

Posted on by — 5 Comments ↓

For the 4 days of Holy Week, Dad booked us on an unusual vacation – traveling on a houseboat in Lake Caliraya Reservoir in Laguna.  There were 6 of us joining – Dad, Mom, sisters Salve and Tellie, and me plus our maid Irene Nebreja.  We also had a pilot and crew to bring us wherever we want to go on the lake. Our white-colored houseboat, with light blue trimmings, had spartan sleeping quarters, a dinette, kitchenette and a sun deck.

Our houseboat

 Our boat, part of a fleet of houseboats, was, according to our pilot, used by the cast and crew of the 1979, Francis Ford Cuppola Vietnam-era war epic film Apocalypse Now when they were filming some scenes in Laguna (notably the river scenes at the Bumbungan River and Pagsanjan Falls).  Mr. Cuppola and stars Marlon Brando or Martin Sheen may have slept in it. Who knows?

Cruising the lake

The massive, man-made Lake Caliraya is a mountain lake situated at foothills of the Sierra Madre Range at an elevation of 300 m. (800 ft.), between Lumban and Cavinti (a large portion is located here) .  It was built in 1943 and supplies, together with Lake Lumot, runoff water to the Kalayaan Hydroelectric Plant complex located north of the town.  Its original outlet was the Pagsanjan River, just above the falls, but now the smaller, artificial Lake Lumot feeds the main lake through a pipeline.  Both lakes cover 1,834 hectares of land and 76.9 hectares of water resources.

On dry land

My brother Frankie with pregnant wife Cherry,  Cherry’s Silahis International Hotel officemate Anna Purino and Cherry’s sister-in-law May Martin (the wife of Cherry’s elder brother Tony) also dropped by while we were docked and went swimming.  Swimming here is not like that done in a beach or even a river as the lake’s shoreline of viscous red slippery clay steeply drops just a few feet from the shore. Again, according to our pilot, a kid drowned when he slipped on the mud and fell into the water.  For safety’s sake, we all donned life vests in the water.  Others just sunbathed at the boat’s roof.

Windsurfing, waterskiingand shallow draft boating are popular here.  Fishing especially for large-mouth (black) bass, carp, bangus(milkfish), tilapia and dalag (mudfish) is a favorite activity in the lake.   Dad’s friend, Gen. Victor Natividad, was also there for the waterskiing, bringing along waterskiing equipment as well as a speedboat.  Frankie, May and I  took turns trying to waterski.  I was unsuccessful though as I kept falling when the speedboat started pulling me.

Resorts and picnic grounds line the shore of the lake and, on Easter Sunday, we docked at Nayong Kalikasan Resort where we heard mass at its clubhouse prior to our return to Manila.