Corazon Aquino, popularly knows as Cory to all Filipinos, former president of the Philippines, symbol of hope during the dark days of a dictatorship, has passed away after a long battle with cancer. Farewell. You will be missed by this country, by this people.
I’ve been coming up against the office internet filter quite frequently and I’ve decided to just use my Asus EEE PC 900HA and my Nokia E51 to browse the net. Since the E51 has no Bluetooth, I had to rely on software that allows the phone to share it’s HSDPA connection by becoming a WiFi router.
Previously, I’ve been using JoikuSpot but there are times when it seems just a bit too flakey so I decided instead to register WalkingHotSpot. It has the same features, as Joikuspot but seems to be a bit more stable. Now I can surf anytime, anywhere.
We we’re looking for an alternative to DoTA and I decided to get another cult classic from Blizzard: Diablo II. I didn’t get it from the online store since Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction would have cost me $40 while the Diablo II Battle Chest is only P1795 at DataBlitz and includes Diablo and a strategy guide to boot. Still, I didn’t use the installer CDs. Instead, I used the keys to register online, and downloaded the installers for both PC and Mac.
Setting up Diablo II on the PC was easy but the same could not be said for my sister’s MacBook. For some reason, the game would stop with an error. We researched the problem and it turned out that Apple, in its characteristic infallible wisdom, had disabled 256-color support on the graphics driver. This broke Diablo II and other games that relies on it.
The good news is Blizzard has released a beta patch that allows the game to run. The bad news is it doesn’t work on Battle.Net. Still, it was good enough since it at least allows us to play on the LAN.
We did and it was still pretty fun for a quite old game :)
The hotel has that nice and homey feel, especially if you have a posh and luxurious home. There are only a few rooms so you won’t encounter too much hustle and bustle. Each of the rooms had distinct design inspired by specific cultures, e.g. American, French, Japanese, Thai. Some of the rooms have a magnificent view of Taal or open to a nice garden that has.
The rooms were a bit expensive at P6.5k for the two rooms we got, Nara and Siam. There are less expensive rooms at P5.5k but we opted for the two because they are at the lower ground floor (less disturbance to the other guests) and between the rooms is a pretty big family area opening out to the garden (more room for family and relatives).
The staff was nice, friend, and were very accommodating. Upon request, they fixed up Nara for the photo shoot, then again after the wedding (although I was expecting them to have already done it while we were away). They even waived the additional charge for additional guests when some of my family decided to stay overnight at Siam. They even added more cookies when they served their complimentary milk and cookie night snacks.
Getting There: Getting there is a quite easy. From Metro Manila, you need to go through SLEX, exit towards Sta. Rosa, just follow the road till you reach the Tagaytay ridge road, turn right and watch out for Country Suites on your left.
Rooms: The rooms were great. Each has a theme, such as Japanese for the Nara room and Thai for the Siam room. The rooms were spacious and well designed. Room rates are P5.5k, P6.5k, and P9.5k for the best room (Oxford). All rooms come with hot water, air conditioning, and wide-screen LCD TVs with cable. WiFi is available and but is not too strong in the rooms where we stayed.
Food and Beverage: The room is inclusive of breakfast for two. Food at Verbena, the in-house restaurant, is about P300 to P500 per order and drinks at less than P200 per drink. But you can always go out and the many Tagaytay restaurants along and near the ridge road.
Facilities: They have a jacuzzi, a garden, a library of books and DVDs.
Rating: 4/5