Philippine Taal Vocano Eruption

Archive for the ‘Philippine Taal Vocano Eruption’ Category

4 Mar

Hello ! ! I’m back from my Philippine vacation ! No corona virus , he he. Ooops, sorry, bad joke.

Posted by renxkyoko in Manila, Philippines, Philippine Taal Vocano Eruption, Philippine vacation 2020, Random thoughts. Tagged: Philippine vacation 2020, Taal volcano images. 18 comments

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I’m back here in good ol’ US of A ! !

And I didn’t bring any Corona Virus from the Philippines ! ! Hah ! !

Though I did get a bit apprehensive coming home. The Philippines had temporarily banned travelers from South Korea from going to the Philippines. My plane was Korea Air, and my trip had a 3 hour layover in Seoul and a change of plane going to the US. ( By the way, Korea Air was almost empty ! ! ! I’m not kidding . ) That was indeed worrisome. FYI, South Korea is # 1 in tourist arrivals in the Philippines, about 2 million a year, not including the large number of South Koreans studying in the Philippines and the huge Korean community living in the country. So, the ban was a huge blow to tourism industry in the Philippines. ( China is #2. USA is #3. ) Of course, the Philippines allowed travelers going to Korea to leave the country…. the question was, would the US allow us to disembark without getting us, all US citizens, quarantined for 14 days on US soil ?

Anyway……

All’s well that ends well. I’m back ! ! ! So happy ! !

Above is photo of Taal Volcano that erupted on Jan. 13, 2020. ( view from Starbucks ) It’s still emitting smoke from the crater.

Volcano on upper right of the photo. That’s me in the photo.

View of the volcano from the restaurant named Balay Dako. . Steam/smoke can be seen emitting from volcano. It’s still on Level 3 alert, but, tourism is the people ‘s # 1 source of livelihood, so yeah, screw it. Business is open.

Delicious food at the restaurant.

This is all for now. This is just to let you know I’M BACK ! !

More about my Philippine vacation later.

Bye ! !

28 Jan

Another volcanic eruption in the Philippines? Seriously ?

Posted by renxkyoko in Philippine Taal Vocano Eruption, Random thoughts. Tagged: Philippine's Taal Volcano eruption. 27 comments

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On January 12, Taal Volcano in the Philippines, located about 60 km. ( 37 miles ) south of Manila , erupted again. Its last eruptions were in 1965 ( and lasted til 1969) , and in 1977. This time, right after the eruption, volcanic ashes ( again !) blanketed places way beyond the 14 km. radius danger zone, forcing even those from Manila to wear masks.

In 1991, the biggest volcanic eruption of the 20th century was that of Mt. Pinatubo, about 60 miles north of Manila. The eruption was so huge it penetrated the stratosphere and lowered the earth’s temperature by .50 C . Ashes blanketed the whole of Metro-Manila, with zero visibility, and made 12 noon looking like 12 midnight. Ashes that fell over Manila were at least 1 inch thick. Needless to say, areas near Mt. Pinatubo were erased off the face of the earth.

Not to mention the strongest typhoon in the history of mankind, Typhoon Haiyan, in 2014 . It was so strong it went beyond Category 5, and caused a 14 meter high tsunami-like storm surge.

Then, add the frequent earthquakes to this pile of disasters……. To Filipinos, 6.4 in the Richter scale is nothing. I’d said this before, and I say this again, people of the Philippines eat disasters and natural catastrophes for breakfast.

Pardon my language but , this was me when I heard the news of eruption. I was like, what about my vacation? ? Okay, that’s thoughtless of me…. I mean , here I am, worrying about my vacation, while over there, people are suffering.

Still…….

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Seriously, Philippines , what the heck !

Well, Mom, my sister , a co-worker, and I , are going to the Philippines 17 days from now. Our original itinerary does include Taal Volcano…. unfortunately, my co-worker is now more eager and determined to see the “scene of destruction” . ( Uhm, I wanna see it too. ) . It’s been lowered to Category 3, to date….. I hope it’ll be okay and safe by the time we get there. Aaargh ! ( I bought a box of N95 mask.) Fyi, these are no ordinary ashes. They are made of microscopic shards of “glass”… from super -heated volcanic materials . They are very dangerous to our lungs when inhaled.

One of the photos below is that of yours truly, taken at the very scenic Taal Volcano in 2014. By the way, it’s the smallest volcano in the world and take note…… do you see the mountain on the left side of the picture ??? The mountain surrounds another lake which is actually the caldera of the volcano.