Philippine Tourism News

Taal Lake is the Philippines’ third largest lake which is located in the province of Batangas. The active Taal Volcano lies on an island in the center of the lake called Volcano Island. The volcano’s status is active and is monitored closely by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS). Inspite of this, the lake is now a tourist spot with a very fascinating view. With the surge of tourists in the area, beautiful resorts and establishments have been built to cater to the needs of the visitors. Taal Lake is now one of the vacation getaway destination here in the Philippines with its beautiful resorts and establishments.

Taal Lake offers a very peaceful and tranquil environment which is perfect as a place to just lounge around and relax especially on weekends to people who wants to escape the life in the busy city of Manila. With the promise of tranquility, Taal Lake has been home to many who wish to experience the quaint. However, the lake is slowly evolving into a promising venue for several water sports events. Visitors and locals alike will enjoy a cruise around the waters of the lake and for the adventuresome, the constant wind and steady waves offers challenge for water sports enthusiasts like jet skiing and wind surfing. The water enthusiasts will enjoy the convenient and peaceful but challenging course. The waters of the lake will certainly be a challenging course for adventurers while also being a gentle cradle as its visitors cruise towards the sunset.

Taal Lake offers a challenging promise to water sports enthusiasts that it has become the venue of various regattas including the latest which is the second Malaysia Merdeka Regatta held at the Taal Lake Yacht Club (TLYC) last August 10, 2008. There are at least 15 Hobie sailing teams competed in the race which was sponsored by the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board in the observance of Malaysia’s 51st Independence Day. Using Hobie Cats, lightweight, 16-foot-long, twin-hulled wind-powered sailboats, water sports aficionados trooped to Talisay, Batangas, for the one-day event.

The regatta highlighted the passion of Filipinos and Malaysians for sailing and helped to strengthen the sporting ties between the two Asian countries. Since Malaysia positioned itself as Asia’s sailing Mecca, many of its international races will challenge the waters of Taal Lake. Some famous regatta events are already lined up like the Monsoon Cup Terengganu and the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta to be held in November and the Royal Langkawi International Regatta in January 2009 and are some of the upcoming events.

Malaysia will build world-class training facilities in Taal Lake for the preparation of the most prestigious sailing tournament sporting event that Malaysia will be joining, the America’s Cup in 2011. Filipino sailors Judes Echauz of the Philippine Sailing Association, Peter Capotosto and Joe Hagedorn of the TLYC, and businessman Ray Ordoveza have won in previous editions of the Raja Muda Regatta.

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