My first drive to Tagaytay came as a spur of the moment thing – no plans beforehand, just friends inviting each other to go out after work. There was certainly no budgeting until we got home (one of my companions almost paid for everything – which we later divided amongst ourselves so we could pay her back). How do I describe the experience - scary? Exciting? Perhaps both; it was something that was also fulfilling, especially for a driver such as myself, since I can finally say confidently that I have been out of town – to Tagaytay, and I drove there to boot (my dad always thought my car, old as it was, would break down along the way). I can now add myself to the scores of experienced drivers who are not merely confined to their specific areas/districts. I have been to Tagaytay, Sucat, and NAIA (the last two places are different stories entirely) without any support from my parents – I got there by myself (and, in the case of Tagaytay, with some friends).
Our plan was to go “Store-hopping” – which was, specifically, to visit distant Starbucks branches just for the heck of it, hang out and say hi to the other partners/baristas. We left at around 3am on February 14th (which was the end of our duty) and passed by Starbucks in Shell South Superhighway, we met the openers there and took some pictures. Then we proceeded to Tagaytay. It was a scary trip – owing to the fact that it was dark almost the whole time and the road was treacherous, twisting at sudden moments with no illuminated signs. It was certainly valuable driving experience for me to go through Santa Rosa on my way to Tagaytay. When we reached Starbucks Tagaytay (which, by the way, is considered the best store in the Philippines – getting the highest ratings from performance appraisals conducted by the main office) at around 530am, we discovered that it wouldn’t be open till 8am, so we talked to the guard and got ourselves a very early breakfast in a canteen somewhere down the road. The food was quite affordable considering how much we ordered. When we got back, it was still too early (although we did spy a partner getting into the store to start opening it) so we took a nap in the car – with the doors and windows open. We did see the beautiful sunrise before napping and even took pictures of it – it was as if Christ himself would be coming down from heaven in the wake of the sunrise, with rays of sunlight shining down behind white clouds and being reflected in the taal lake. Indeed it was a sight to behold. When we woke up it was already 10am – we were very anxious to hang out in the store and go home since my car had color-coding on that day. We met the partners at that branch and they were very nice indeed – especially their Store Manager, Ida. The partner we saw opening the Store was Shirlyn, an attractive Shift Supervisor in that branch. Knowing that both she and I had no Valentine, the partners (both my companions and those of Tagaytay) kept joking about us. In the end, I got Shirlyn’s number and then we went home. Being the usual me – I made a mistake and got back to Metro Manila via a different route – by going through Imus Cavite (a long cut but without any toll fees along the way). I got home just in time before the window for the color coding was over – what a trip!