Mixing Business With Pleasure - Part II

The following day it was the end of the pleasure side of things and back to the business element.  Hence we were up early again and headed off to Bataan (pronounced Bata-an).  From Banaue it's around 250 miles to the project location in Bataan so we were in for a long day and long drive (or rather Rolly was).  Most of the journey was through fairly non-de script towns and the scenery was all very familiar, consisting of predominantly rice fields and other plantations.

We arrived at Clark, the former US air base, at around 3:00pm and drove through it to take a look.  This completely shattered what I imagined to be an airbase - i.e. a runway, a few hangers and a barracks.  This was like a complete town.  No, it was more like a small city.  Apparently, it covers an area of over 14 square miles (Wikipedia - Clark Air Base).  The extent of the infrastructure is phenomenal.  And if I thought Clark was big, we then headed to Subic Bay, the former US naval base, which was even bigger still.  It must have hurt for the Americans to have to walk away from so much after they were effectively kicked out in 1991.

From Clark to Subic Bay you skirt the edges of Mt. Pinatubo, which erupted so violently back in 1991 (Pinatubo).  Along the route to Subic Bay we passed over one of the old larva flows and it's huge.  It's hard to imagine the amount of debris and destruction that came down these routes.

After a brief stop in Subic Bay we decided to push on to Bataan and took the back road down the Bataan peninsular, through endless barracks, warehouses and housing left behind by the Yanks, before moving back into more familiar Philippine territory.  As we moved down the Bataan peninsular the massive but extinct Mariveles volcano dominated the skyline.  It's not particularly high at only 1388m but it covers a huge area.

By the time we reached Balanga it was dark so the immediate plan was to find somewhere to sleep for the night.  We drove through the town into the neighbouring town of Pilar and then onto Orion but there were no obvious hotels of any distinction.  We ended up back in Balanga and found a motel type place.  Rolly went and checked out the room rates, which were reasonable enough so we went to check out the rooms.  As we were walking to the room I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, in gutter road between the accommodation blocks: a giant cockroach.  Okay, so that's not such a big deal in the Philippines but when we went to the room there were two or 3 in the room which sealed it for me: I wasn't going to be staying in this place.  Then as we left the room I noticed more cockroaches on the door frames; in the corridor; on the ceiling; in fact, just about everywhere.  This place had a serious infestation.  I wonder if it was because it was next door to the KFC?

Which is where we went to eat!  Time was short and if we didn't eat somewhere we were going to miss out.

We then drove a little out of town and found another newish type hotel.  The rates were reasonable so we checked in.  Apart from the ants and the karaoke in the street opposite it was near enough to being all right.

In the morning we went for breakfast in the town of Mariveles, which is on the southern most tip of the peninsular and consists of many factories and a small port and fishing terminal.  The town proper was busy and had a one-way system due to the narrowness of the roads.  We played safe and had breakfast in a brand new Jollibee (the Philippines answer to Mcdonalds).

After breakfast we headed up to the refinery to see what we could find out.  We couldn't get into the refinery (they wouldn't let us in) but we made several enquiries and discovered where the site was and what was going on.  It may have seemed like a long way to come just to find out this information but without actually travelling the roads and seeing the place for yourself there's no real way of finding out what's there and what isn't there.

Petron Refinery from the Air

Having found out what we could it was time to head back so the plan was for me to head across Manila Bay on the ferry, whilst Rolly headed back home to drop his car off and take a flight back to Iloilo.  We got to the ferry terminal but the gates were locked.  We were told that the ferries had stopped running for maintenance.  So we had to come up with Plan B.  We decided that I'd travel north to San Fernando with Rolly where we'd part company.  There was little point in him having to go all the way to the other side of Manila just to drop me off at the airport so In San Fernando I was to take the bus.

Mt. Arayat

At San Fernando I was expecting to end up at a bus station but Rolly just stopped on the side of a very busy dual carriageway in the town.  "Where's the bus stop?", I asked,  "I thought you'd drop me off at the bus station". 

"Don't worry, boss", Rolly said, "The bus will stop here".  I couldn't see how?   There were hundred of people and buses and cars all over the place.  Suddenly, Rolly stepped out into the road and flagged down a coach which pulled over and stopped, causing traffic chaos.  On I hopped and off I went - as easy as that!  The bus fare was a miserly Php99 (£1.42) and the bus driver set off like his life depended on us being in Manila within the hour (it's a 2 hour journey).

To be fair the bus was clean and comfortable.  I had no idea where it was going to stop in Manila in the event it stopped in an area that I didn't know and which looked pretty rough.  I was the last one off, thinking it was going to go further and stepped off into a maelstrom of touts all vying to organise a taxi for me.  It makes me distinctly nervous when I'm in these places and surrounded by some pretty rough looking characters.  The taxis that were on the side of the road obviously thought their Christmas had come early and were quoting stupid rates to go to Makati and, as much as I wanted to be out of there, I wasn't going to be totally ripped off in the process.  And they wouldn't negotiate.  Then by chance and luck a cab pulled over and I asked him how much to go to Makati and he said he'd do in on the meter.  Unheard of in Manila - especially for a foreigner - so I jumped in.  This infuriated the touts and they were demanding money from me for organising my taxi (which they didn't), which I responded to pretty bluntly from the safety of the back of the cab.  I don't mind helping out but I don't like being intimidated into handing over cash.

It was too early to go and hang around the airport so I wandered around the Makati shops for while then went and has a late lunch and a couple of beers before heading to the airport.