I Ain't So Lonely

I had a mate Luis visiting during May.  He didn't arrive as planned because he's a bit of a prat.  We confirmed all the details over the phone prior to his arrival and I arranged to pick him up and a hotel in Manila based on the information he gave me, and promptly turned up at the airport to meet him.  Whilst waiting at the airport I sent him a text telling him to stand in Bay 10 at arrivals so that I could locate him in the maelstrom of humanity that is Manila Airport's Terminal 1.  I very quickly had a call from him suggesting I'd made a mistake with the arrival date and that I'd been confused over the day of departure/arrival as it bridged two days.  I didn't argue but I was pretty certain I hadn't made a mistake and had acted on the information he'd given me.

Not to worry, the situation was what it was and so I headed back to the hotel (the Mandarin if you please) and went for a quiet beer on my todd.  I even popped into the Hard Rock Cafe in Makati for a burger on the way back and I have to say, it has to be one of the best burgers I've ever had.  Supremely meaty and cooked to perfection.

That evening I had a call from Luis:  his opening (confessional) words were "I've f*#ked up".  I think his second statement was, "I really am a chump and need to take a day off".  He couldn't even follow his own itinerary, the one he'd read out to me, and was sitting comfortably at home on the sofa when he should have been in the elevated hell we call flying.  Fortunately, after contacting the airline he was let off rather lightly and they re-arranged his flight for a nominal charge, and he would be arriving midnight the following day.

This gave me a day to kill so I went down to Tagatay, south of Manila, to see the Taal volcano, which was what I was originally planning to do with Luis.  Tagatay is the town/city built on the rim of the old volcano caldera, which is probably not not the most sensible idea as it is one of the Philippines' most active volcanoes.  These days it's relegated to a small active cone on an island in the lake of the old caldera but that weekend, and since, there has been increased volcanic and seismic activity in the area so we may well be in line for an eruption soon.

There's a volcano in that photo somewhere

The morning I arrived, there was appalling visibility, which I believe was caused by smoke from extensive burning of the rice stalks and stubble that occurs at this time of year.  I went up to the highest point that happens to be the site where the former president Ferdinand Marcos had built a large house, which is now largely derelict but has a great terrace overlooking Lake Taal.  

Marcos' terrace (or was)

Well it would of been great had I actually been able to see something through the smog.  With no point in hanging around I bought one of the wonderfully sweet pineapples that grow abound in the area, and followed up with a coffee in Starbucks in Tagatay.  This Starbucks is located right on the rim of the old caldera and without doubt must offer the best view (when it's not smoggy) of any Starbucks branch anywhere in the world.  But it was incredibly murky so there was rather no point.  After coffee I went for a drive around the lake, although for the most part the lake is not visible from the road, and then headed back to Manila.

A Fine Selection of Pineapples

That evening, just before midnight, I headed back to the airport again to pick up Luis.  And once again it was bedlam.  It seems that the airport is the height of entertainment for the locals.  Whole families - kids, mums, dads, grannies, granddads, aunts, uncles - all seem to congregate there waiting for someone, or perhaps they just go there for something to do, for some entertainment (they seem to be waiting a long time too - most were there when I arrived and most were still there when I left).  The approach road was chockablock, the car park had been closed as it was overflowing and there was just people everywhere.

Luis eventually emerged from the throng and we went over to the car and crawled back out of the airport and into Manila.  Luis, being in holiday/party mood wanted to go out so we headed towards Greenbelt in Makati and to a restaurant/bar called Sticky Fingers.  Or is Slippery Fingers?  Or Stubby fingers?  No, it's Spicy Fingers and it hosts one of the most entertaining and lively bands in the Philippines called In-Heat and we spent what was left of the evening, which wasn't much, listening to the music.

The band!  "In-Heat"

Back at Subic I'd signed Luis up for a diving refresher course with Nathan as I'd planned some diving over the Easter weekend, and as Luis had done his diving training 20 years ago and only dived a couple of times since, it seemed like a good idea.  And I was glad to be out on the water again getting more valuable experience under my belt.  I'd also been fortunate enough to make a flying visit to Singapore and my good mate Kev had been kind enough to lend me his underwater Nikonos V camera, so there was an opportunity to capture the dives on film.

Nathan (left) has to guess Luis' IQ (and gets it right)

Hey, Luis, are sure all those bubbles are from your breathing apparatus?

We did three dives, or rather I did three and Luis only two as he was doing his refresher course to begin with.  This time the dives were on the Japanese Patrol Boat (sunk during WWII), Nabasan Reef and the Landing Craft Utility (LCU).  All good stuff, although the visibility wasn't as good as first time I went out but it was good enough.  Better than the visibility at Tagatay.