Manila, Philippines

After Suzhou, we moved on to the Philippines. Most of the time was spent in Subic, the old US navy base about 2 hours north of Manila.

The view from the home we were staying at. The building in the background at the right is where you can get breakfast, but only if you swim from the beach.


Hard at work during a prep session Saturday morning.


Caretaker's daughter.


With the exhausting prep session completed, we took Saturday afternoon to do some scuba diving in Subic Bay. I am open-water certified with PADI but ignored the depth limitations and did a 27 meter and 33 meter dive. The first was a WWII-era Japanese troop carrier. The second was the USS New York. (The Wikipedia link is pretty interesting, if you like that stuff. The ship was scuttled in December 1941 to avoid being captured by the Japanese) The second dive was swarming with jelly fish. The guide told us they were only on the top 3 meters. At 15 meters when they finally disappeared, I told myself to stab that guide in the kidney. I was stung a number of times on my face--nothing life threatening, no urgent "please pee on my face underwater" requests were forthcoming. But discomforting nonetheless. Both ships have turned into artificial reefs. It is a bit surreal seeing fish swimming around 16" x 35' cannons.

Back at the dive shop we took some incriminating photos.