Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
now manages the
Mount Makiling Forest Reserve
that blankets the mountain and is
hoping to develop its ecotourism potential.
There is a well established but strenuous 8.7km trail up to the summit (4-5hr)
starting at the Makiling Center's monitoring station on the UPLB campus. The trail is
safe and easy to follow, but be prepared for leeches, sudden downpours and flash floods
(the trail was closed for three months after two hikers drowned in 2012).
Guides
are
not required. Most climbers start early and complete the hike in one day; you can pitch
tents at the Malaboo and Tayabak campsites on the way up, but not near the summit.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
2
LOS BAÑOS AND AROUND
By bus and jeepney
Los Baños is accessible via Green
Star Express buses from Manila (p.81) or jeepneys from
Calamba. Heading back to Manila from Los Baños, the last
bus departs around 8.30pm.
EATING
There are numerous brands and stalls selling
buko
pie along the National Highway outside Los Baños, all priced at around
P170 per pie (for the standard 9 inches), or P220 frozen. Note that shops will close early if they run out of pies. As well as
those listed here, other specialist snack stores have also set up to cash in on the crowds.
Lety's Buko Pie
LBP Building, National Highway, Brgy
Anos
T
049 536 1332,
W
letysbukopie.net.
Established
by Leticia “Lety” Belarmino in 1976, this is a local favourite
(next door to
Orient
). Also sells cassava cake, pineapple pie
and banana bread.
Daily 4am-8pm.
★
(P110-200).
Daily 5am-9pm.
★
Orient - the Original Buko Pie Bakeshop
National Highway, Brgy Anos
T
049 536 3783.
The best
buko
pies are still baked at this venerable store (note the
double-parked cars and buses blocking the road), with
young, tender coconut slices in a crispy, well-made crust.
From Calamba, the shop is on the left just before you reach
the town centre.
Daily 5am-8.30pm.
Net's Cassava Cake
National Highway, Brgy Anos
T
049 827 3575.
This small stall produces some of
the most addictive cassava pudding in the Philippines
San Pablo and around
Known as the “City of Seven Lakes”,
SAN PABLO
was a prosperous Tagalog hamlet
named Sampaloc before the Spanish arrived, where
sampalok
(tamarind) trees grew in
abundance. It lies southwest of six of the lakes and a five-minute jeepney ride from the
seventh and largest of them,
Lake Sampaloc
, which you can circumnavigate on foot in
a few hours. There are trails leading through lush jungle and farmland to all of the
lakes, and the Lake Sampaloc shore boasts floating restaurants serving native freshwater
fish such as tilapia,
bangus
, carp and several species of shrimp. There are plenty of
resorts
in the area to choose from if you feel a day-trip here is too rushed.
Villa Escudero Plantations and Resort
San Pablo City 400 (off the Pan-Philippine Highway) • Museum daily 8am-5pm • Mon-Thurs P1250, Fri-Sun P1400; includes museum,
welcome drink, carabao cart ride, use of outdoor recreational facilities, lunch and show (Fri-Sun & hols only, 2-3.15pm) •
T
02 523 2944,
W
villaescudero.com • Take any bus to Lucena City (see p.83) and ask to get off at Hacienda Escudero (it's a long walk or tricycle ride from
the main road)
Half an hour by road south of San Pablo, near Tiaong, the
Villa Escudero Plantations
and Resort
is a working coconut plantation founded in the 1880s by Don Placido
Escudero and set in a beautiful location surrounded by mountains. Today it's
something of an historical theme park, with lunch served beneath a weir followed by
the
Philippine Experience Show
of traditional music and dancing, tours in carts pulled
by carabao and bamboo rafting; there are overnight cottages (see opposite).
Also on the premises, the
AERA Memorial Museum
is housed in an artful replica of a
colonial Intramuros church, with trompe-l'oeil ceilings and a treasure trove of religious
art, consisting of silver altars, gilded
carrozas
(ceremonial carriages), ivory-headed
santos, oriental ceramics, costumes, dioramas of Philippine wildlife and ethnography,
rare coins and antique Philippine furniture.
