A Lonely Road

     Let's mosey on over (MOSEY? who talks like that anymore? here?) to another border.  We've already posted about the Silang-Sta. Rosa border.  The same road on my title photo above, bears the sign "Welcome to Binan, Laguna" on the opposite side of the road. That's where we are headed on this post.  Well, not quite to the main area of Binan, but to Barangay Binan, where a phase of San Jose Village is located (if I'm not mistaken there are 6 phases. The last one is a very quite location full of trees).

 

 

 



 



    This way leads to another gate of Ayala Westgrove and the Laguna Technopark Inc. annex.  At the corner is the Metrobank, and a phase of San Jose Village.  Under construction are Avida Shophouses.  With plans for a 7-11 in one of those, I'm assuming this area is going to be a busy place, and this road not very lonely for long.

 

 

    At the moment it gives my father the heebie-jeebies (okay, first mosey now this...)  After all, it is bordered by nothing but cogon for a stretch. It's the kind of road which in the Southern Philippines screams "ambush! ambush!" to a soldier.  Yes he was a soldier (an officer), that is why such an empty road frightens him.   (And with this pardon my detour as I pay my respects to those who were massacred in Maguindanao this month three years ago. Clearly, the roads were paved, the hills verdant, more beautiful than this...but the incident horrific). It sure looks and feels like the boondocks, but I assure him, it's still a part of Ayala Land and the technopark.

   I'm sure at night it can be scary.

   But following my mantra, I mean to enjoy this loneliness, these bare fields, while I can.  A brief stop at the grocery in the shopping area with its Sunday crowd and artificial lights afterwards jarred my head again. I need the fields, plains and green mountains to relax me.  Oh, the sound of birds, and the sight of them here! 

    The weather was mild too.  Very sunny, yet cool. And this is Binan, Laguna, not even Tagaytay.

  
    Visible from this spot (facing the other way, down to the city), is the De La Salle Science and Technology complex. I still am wondering why it used to be called De La Salle Canlubang, when the borders I see around belong to Sta. Rosa, Silang, and Binan...I enjoy looking at maps and would like to know why.  Can somebody enlighten me please?

New roads, car stickers and rice paddies

     Residents of Ayala Land villages this side of Binan and Sta. Rosa, get the Greenfield Parkway stickers for a shortcut to home.  We exit the SLEX via Mamplasan, and go through the parkway.  It is a big deal to be skipping the traffic when exiting via the Sta. Rosa toll exit. Going past and reaching the Paseo de Sta. Rosa area via the Eton exit is alright, scenic, but more expensive and longer. 

   Recently I learned there is yet another stretch of 'scenic' road from Mamplasan to the Laguna blvd, and that cuts through the entrance of Verdana Mamplasan, and the Tamayo estate, among others.  I hadn't heard about this place before, so I really don't know if there are lots for sale, or if it is some sort of club.

   I actually hope the rotunda from the Greenfield Parkway to Verdana never changes.  There are rice fields, their accompanying egrets, and banana plants by that small roundabout.  It's nice and green, and I consider it very important for our children to view it. When I was growing up, we passed roads to Pasig with rice fields as well. I remember my mother practicing driving with us as passengers...and my fear of her driving us to the edge of the road into a muddy paddy.

   Driving through the new roads to Nuvali, I still saw some cows, and various birds.  I believe the bird population from the Laguna blvd. to Nuvali has dwindled though...

   So I guess I can't decide...rural or urban. I want to live in both.