March 10 day 5

We set out in the morning for Subic bay. We did not take the expressway on the way there so we passed through many towns. There were areas of massive volcanic ash - a remnant of Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1990 or 91. Supposedly, it was the biggest volcanic eruption in modern history. It destroyed many towns and villages and many were not rebuilt. Along the road there were many vendors but specially of wood carvings from native wood. The large ones of a warrior was 10 feet tall carved from a single piece of wood.
Subic bay is difficult to describe. It was the largest US military base in SE Asia. There are remnants of that base everywhere --- roads that lead nowhere, falling apart military buildings, chimneys of bunkers barely visible in the hills. Houses of officers have been converted to housing for local families and some of the large buildings are being used for storage and other purposes. The area is beautiful -- hills and mountains covered by tropical forest pretty much untouched by human hand. There are lots of monkeys there and we saw groups of them along the road. The area is still pretty much undeveloped even though there are a few new hotels and resorts by the water. We stopped in one of them (Camayan Beach Resort) for a few hours to have lunch in the restaurant right on the beach and then swim for a couple of hours. Needless to say, the water was very warm and crystal clear so we enjoyed it very much. There is a small coral reef there so we saw a lot of little black and white fishes swimming along with us and Wojtek saw many others as he was snorkeling. We were also told that in that area there are many training sites for wilderness survival, fire fighting, pilots, etc. There is even a local tribe that specializes in survival training.
On the way back we drove around the Subic bay then took the expressway (toll road) back. We hit Manila in the middle of the evening rush hour.