Boarding Gate 101

My company takes us out of town every year for our summer outing and team building activities. It is usually just outside Manila, within a hundred kilometers or so, considering the logistics of bussing hundreds of people. I usually do not miss in attending these events, as I  would not usually say no to a trip, a free one at that, right? For this year the location was Club Balai Isabel, a resort located in the town of Talisay, just along the edge of Taal Lake, where the world-famous, and very active, Taal Volcano is located. You can see the volcano when you walk along the freshwater lake, sitting there at the middle like a sleeping dragon, ready to be roused from its slumber and to wreak havoc on the neighboring towns. This is my second time to go to the lakeside, the first one dating way back my pre-blogging years. Taal Volcano at the background After participating in the mandated activities we are  pretty much  free to do anything we wanted. Aside from...

I love planes, and I love flying in one. Whether in a jumbo Boeing 747-400 or the diminutive ultralight aircraft, I always take the joy of soaring over the clouds and looking down on the vista below. I like to peer out the window and look at gossamer wisps of clouds in the horizon, or the lone island in the vast sea below, a white speck surrounded in mottled green that eventually is engulfed by the blue waters around it.  The icy desolation of Kamchatka Peninsula So it goes without saying that the first request that I ask from the check-in crew is, "can I get the window seat?" Like in real estate, having an enjoyable flight is always a question of location, location, location. Of course, not all window seats are the same.   T he best would be seat 1A, on the first row and always to the left of the aircraft, and the opposite, of which the letter designation depends on the type of the plane. For an Airbus A320 for example, the opposite windo...

While flying to Zamboanga City from Manila last October I chanced upon this sight from my window seat: Taal Volcano,  showing its caldera and Vulcan Point, an island within the main crater lake. The volcano itself sits on Volcano Island, which in turn is located in Taal Lake, in Luzon island. Taal, located just 50 kilometers from Manila, is one of the Philippines' most active volcanoes, having erupted 33 times since 1572. The last eruption was in 1977. You can view the crater lake and Vulcan Point up close, here . 

Taal Volcano, located about 50 kilometers south of Manila, is one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines, last erupting in 1977. The volcano is in the Volcano Island, which is in Taal Lake.  This view is seen from Tagaytay, a popular resort town overlooking the lake.