Baguio weather in Silang, said to be “Cavite’s biggest town.” Who wouldn’t accept the invitation? Baguio takes four to five hours, Silang two.
With the RFID pass still to be tested and the promise of Baguio weather yet to be verified, the call of the weekend outside Metro Manila’s congested cities could no longer be ignored. The Lord be blessed, it was a vacation in Silang with no hitches, just one technical glitch. Ms. Waze must’ve lost her way, because she put us on the old Aguinaldo Highway instead of SLEX. Looking on the bright side, the snail’s-paced traffic at 4:30 p.m. Friday – just like EDSA, I could have screamed – gave us a view of another highly populated, highly urbanized center. In other words, Metro Manila, you’re not the one and only.
From Sucat to Silang, my passengers observed, “it’s Villar country,” their VistaMalls, VistaLand, and AllHome stores occupying prominent locations in towns and cities. In one of those we parked for a quick pit stop and were pleasantly welcomed, with temperature checks and alcohol hand sprays. Calling to mind the Villars – Manny, Cynthia, Mark, Emilyn, Camille – was to think of Jan Mata, their media guy, and to think of Jan was to remember his late father, the durable editorialist and baritone Nestor Mata, whose 95th birthday it would have been last Sunday.
From an amateur tour guide’s point of view, Sucat to Silang is the way to go, off the beaten path, away from the more famous Tagaytay and Alfonso. In the last 10 to 15 years, lots of pretty houses have sprung up in Silang but still well within Tagaytay’s zone of mild climate. With their pastel-shaded villas – some of them mansion-sized – the terrain has remained gently curvaceous, greened by plantations and a proliferating patchwork of “plants for sale” signs. Greetings, plantitas and plantitos, Silang welcomes you as well as the bikers groups that dot the landscape of rolling hills.
Silang stretches for miles and miles, most of them streets without names – how to find the highly recommended, said to be enchanting Asiong’s Caviteño Restaurant? Find it on Facebook, or try Belarmino St. in Barangay Bucal, or kidnap your foodie friend, who’s sure to know. (More later)
