It's two hours away from Manila (if you don't ride the wrong bus) and it's relatively cheap for a weekend getaway.
Budget
Before I start sharing my adventure, let me give you a breakdown of the expenses:Bus (Manila-Lipa-Lemery) - Php 186
Jeep (Lemery to crossing) - Php 10
Jeep (Crossing to Boundary) - Php 35
Water - Php 20
Trike (Boundary - Mt Batulao) - Php 50 (Php150 / 3)
Mountain Stick - Php 10
Head Gear - Php 70
Buko Juice - Php 20
Mountain Dew - Php 50
Guide - Php 100 (Php 300 / 3)
Trike - Php 40 (Php 120 / 3)
Bus to Tagaytay - Php 25
Hotel - Php 200 (Php 600 for 6 hours / 3)
Dinner - Php 190
Bus to Manila - Php 100
Total - Php 1,106
This amount can be cut down to half, though. Please read on to know why.
Be careful. Don't be deceived.
Our adventure began at 5am. We rode a JAM bus going to Lemery. I'm not sure if its already the reputation of Jam bus conductors to mislead their clients (some bloggers also shared they've been dropped off on the other side of the mountain) but I really felt cheated. I was the first one to arrive at the terminal. I asked the conductor if the bus parked was the one we will ride going to Mt. Batulao and they said yes. When I didn't board the bus yet, he asked me:Conductor: May hinihintay ka pa?
Ako: Opo. Malapit na daw po.
Conductor: Malapit? Saan? Sa Fairview?
Such sarcasm. Fairview is one hour away from the bus terminal. To be fair though, he said we can reach Mt. Batulao if we ride a jeep from where they will drop us. We just didn't realize that what he meant was 2 jeepney rides and an additional 3 hours to our travel. I mean, why not suggest that we ride the correct bus instead? Or tell us there is another terminal where we can ride the Nasugbu-Batangas bus? I think what they did was dishonesty of some sort.
When the conductor was giving us tickets, I was shocked because the amount was Php 186. It's way, way expensive compared what to is written in the blogs. When we were already 3 hours on the road, it was then when we realized that we took the wrong bus. We were dropped of on the other side of Mt. Batulao so we have to take the 2 jeepney rides indicated above. Imagine, if only the conductor was honest enough to tell us that we should have took the Nasugbu-Batangas Bus, our one way fare should only be around Php 150. But hey, that's around Php 600 for them for three girls who rode the wrong bus.
Also, the supposed 2-3 hour travel turned to 5 hours. (4 hours via bus, 10 minutes for the first jeepney and 40 minutes for the second jeepeney)
I really don't wanna be pissed off when traveling so I just let it pass. But, I'm hoping that this warning can reach future goers so they won't feel as cheated as we are.
The trek
We started trekking at around 10am. At the drop off point there was a small restaurant and it was where I bought the mountain stick and head gear. We hired a 12 year old girl named Joan to be our guide. I think you can survive the hike without a guide but I still recommend that you hire one as this can help the locals.
On our way, we passed by different stores that offers buko juice, mountain dew, halo-halo and other stuff.
The path was basic but some parts were really steep. There were times when I had difficulty in breathing because of the scorching heat of the sun accompanied by the humid air. Pardon our mountaineering skills, we' are very amateur. Haha.
It took us around 30 minutes to reach Peak 1.
After asking our mini guide several times if we are already Peak 1, we finally reached it!
The next peaks were relatively near. We reached until (almost) Peak 4.
We decided to stop the trek and eat our lunch before reaching Peak 4 (I told you we are very amateur. Haha) Our lunch was a sumptuous chicken adobo care of the Lerons. We spent the next hour for rest and decided to trek our way back to the jump off point. We reached the jump off point around 2 pm.
Since it was still early, we decided to have a short stop over in Tagaytay. We rented a room for 6 hours and ate our dinner there before going back to Manila.
If you'll ride the right bus and take off all the miscellaneous expenses, here's the normal budget:
Bus (Manila to Batangas) - Php 150
Trike (Batangas - Drop off) - Php 50
Guide - Php 100
Food (miscellaneous) - Php 100
Trike (Drop off - Batangas) - Php 40
Bus (Batangas - Manila) - Php 150
Total Php 590
It was a good decision to spend my day on this adventure rather than stay at home and spend the whole day in my bed! So if you want to sweat your stress out, Mt. Batulao should be on top of your list!
No comments:
Post a Comment