Well, my birthday (3/21/1999) was a good one. The folks in my dorm Bible study gave me a nice pre-birthday lunch of mango, pancit (sort of like a tasty lo mein) for long life, and some rice-birthday-cake. Pretty darn good. They sang happy birthday and waited patiently for me to leave.

Then my roommate Noli, his girlfriend Flor (short for Florida), and six of his Computer Technology students took me to a great volcanic "resort" for the weekend. It was a nice place with a pool. The two rooms were each about $30 a night, and we shared the cost. It was about 50 miles south of Manila, but it took a long time to get there. Probably at least seven hours from Cabanatuan City, which is about 70 miles north of Manila. One of the guys had a van so we all piled in for a long road trip.

Although it's only 70 miles to Manila, the drive takes three to eight hours because the road is packed with slow moving vehicles -- water buffalo, these rice-field tractors, trucks, jeepneys Jeepney and those tricycle (motorcycles with sidecars) irritations. I ride them every day, but they are a real nuisance to cars. There are thousands of them on the road at all times. And they don't give an inch. It doesn't matter if you blow your horn all day -- like everyone does -- those things will not move out of the way. And as soon as you work your way around one, another one is in the way.

Until you get near Manila the road only has one lane in each direction, but both lanes are freely used by all traffic. I seriously fear for my life every time I'm on that road. I'm totally on edge. I cannot relax a bit the entire three hours. It seems like every pass is a near miss, and it goes on for hours. It doesn't matter if the line is ten miles long, bumper to bumper -- everyone pulls out into the lane of oncoming traffic to pass. Even with absolutely no spot to pull into. It's nerve-wracking. Oncoming traffic knows what to expect though, and they're on their brakes hard all the time. And they're/we're in the shoulder a lot of the time.

This weekend we were at an impasse on a bridge. Four cars were on the bridge. Two cars facing each way (head-on collision position in each lane). We just sat that way blowing our horns at each other for a couple of minutes. No one gets angry. They just blow their horns and flash their lights and keep smiling. They have a heck of a lot more patience than I do. The biggest truck won out -- although he was in the wrong lane.

It doesn't help my nervousness that a former student at my school here -- Wesleyan University -- was killed on that road last week. We passed the accident scene an hour or so after the accident. It was horrible. I've read about four other people killed in the tricycles since I've been here too. I'm surprised more people aren't killed. They're dangerous. Everything is really a near miss. Bare inches to spare. Half the time they don't have any taillights, and in the middle of the night they're out on the freeway with the rest of the traffic. (I would say something like that was incredibly stupid, but I'm not allowed to impose my value system on anyone else.)

Once you get to Manila the traffic doesn't get any better. It just gets so heavy that no one can pass, and at least I'm not so nervous then when traffic in all directions is at a standstill. I have a chance to catch my breath. It takes several hours to get through Manila. And they have restrictions about who can drive when. Even numbered license plates on some days, odd numbered plates on other days. I'd hate to see what the traffic looked like if they didn't have that policy.

Anyway, despite the roads, I was able to relax and go for a late night swim at the resort. Late night swimming is popular here because it is so darn hot during the day. It's been 90+ with almost 100% humidity every day since I arrived, and this is just the spring. I'm told this is nothing, it gets hot in the summer.

OK, so we were at the resort, and I slept well Saturday night. (Maybe because we had a bathroom that worked! Excellent!) We got up Sunday morning and saw a beautiful huge lake and crater. We ate some fish and rice and rented a boat to take us across the lake to hike up the mountain. The outrigger boat can be described as sort of a narrow wooden canoe with a motor. It was actually sort of like a Hobie-Cat with these wooden slats across it. It got us across the lake in about twenty minutes.

Once we arrived we were greeted by a bunch of folks with horses. They wanted us to rent their horses, but I didn't figure that out until later. I thought it was another group going up the mountain. They followed us. Our group hiked up the first part of the trail, and it was pretty darn steep. I was the last one in our group, and the horses behind me kept nudging me in the rear. I guess I was going too slowly. We made it through the first section, and one in our group decided that was enough and rented a horse. A seven-month pregnant lady would then lead this horse the rest of the way up and down the crater. She didn't seem to have trouble navigating the terrain. I think the horse was around $2 -- which is enough for a pretty darn good meal here. The rest of the riders turned around and went home.

The entire hike lasted about an hour, but it was well worth it. The view into the crater was incredible. Smoke was coming out of the side, and you could see the water bubbling/boiling around the edges of the Lake inside the crater. We were at the top sitting on a rickety-framed hut overlooking a several-hundred foot drop into the mouth of the volcano. Pretty cool. There were several craters and volcanoes there. Really incredible.

We stayed at the top for a couple of hours. Met a couple of arrogant Americans from New England. They were bragging about how they really screwed some Chinese silk makers out of a lot of cash. I was really embarrassed to be talking to them then, and I hoped my Filipino friends weren't understanding all of the conversation. A nice European couple showed up too. They had volunteered at an orphanage for three weeks and they were going home soon. He was from Italy. She was from Holland. The guys in my group loved her. She was tall, blonde and wearing shorts and a sleeveless top - very daring for this culture. They didn't say a thing, but they quietly listened to every word she said. In the privacy of their group later, they said a lot about her. I understood a few words of it - "the closest thing to heaven" was how one guy described her.

A lady was selling coconuts at the top of the crater. Noli bought me one. The lady opened the top, and I drank the milk. Then she fashioned a spoon out of the shell with her machete and opened it. I scooped out the meat and it tasted great! Darn good coconut. (I've never been there, but I suppose this must be like Hawaii.)

The boys made an offering to the gods and tried tossing the shell into the crater. Mother Nature got mad and blew more smoke out of her earth. When I got back I picked up my Lonely Planet guide to read about what I had just seen. "The town offers visitors superb views of the volcanic island with its crater lake, but only if the weather is clear. The volcano is one of the smallest AND MOST DANGEROUS IN THE WORLD. Any (fool) who wants to climb it can arrange to be taken over to the volcanic island from Talisay, 17 km east of Tagaytay." Maybe I should have read that before I made the climb. Oh well.

After rolling down the hill and taking a good swim in the pool, we drove another seven hours back and finally and semi-safely (not really) made it home. A good birthday to remember. Thanks guys....