Life is good when you know the right people. I received a last minute phone call on Friday evening from Uncle Mars, who's not actually my uncle by the way. He's the high school friend of my brother-in-law's (Jr's) dad, who happens to be Filipino. When I had told my family that I was going to be in Subic Bay for the summer, word got around to some folks out here in the Philippines. Apparently Uncle Mars had remembered me from my sister Kathy's and Jr's wedding back in 2008. He got in touch with Jr's dad saying that he had a vacation home in Anvaya Cove which was 30 mins from Subic and that he would try to meet up with me at some point. Well, that time had come a lot sooner than I thought!
Since I'm new here, I really didn't have any plans for the weekend so of course I decided to come out to Anvaya Cove for the weekend! I was picked up at my hotel by the driver, and Uncle Mars was there to greet me. I vaguely recognized his face from the wedding. My first thought was hm..he looks nothing like Jr's dad. So I asked him if he was actually his brother, since he looked nothing like him. At this point, I didn't know anything about him except that I was to call him Uncle Mars. Turns out Uncle Mars and Jr's dad go way back and were close friends from high school, but aren't actually related.
Uncle Mars and his wife Aunt Babs actually live in Manila, which is around a 3 hour drive or more in traffic from Subic. But they often come out to Anvaya Cove for a quiet weekend getaway from the city. As we drove from Subic past the Morang Gate, which separates SBMA from the next town over, I felt like I was entering the Arena in hunger games. I've stayed within the gates of SBMA for the majority of my time here so far and didn't realize how drastically different the living conditions were outside the gates. These people's homes, if you can consider them homes, were built from scraps of whatever they could find. That was definitely hard to see. And then of course, we reach Anvaya Cove. This is probably how Katniss felt upon returning to the wealthy Capitol after being in the Arena. At least in my case, no one was out to kill me!
So because I was out late the night before, I was super tired this morning and skipped breakfast. So we had some small local Filipino snacks before heading to the Anvaya Cove Golf and Sports Club for a buffet lunch. Their home is in a private gated community and you can only enter if accompanied by a home owner or a member of the club.
My living quarters for the weekend. Totally digging the floor to ceiling windows, not to mention the amazing view.
Before heading to lunch, we stopped by the home of one of Uncle Mars' friends, Lisa. Lisa was also a high school friend of Jr's dad. I felt like I was getting a preview of the the day in the life of high society members in the Philippines. And so far, I liked what I was seeing!
Finally, lunch was upon us. The club also has a private pool and beach, which unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy on Saturday since it was raining on and off. But I did manage get a quick tour around the grounds.
Don't be fooled by the empty plate. This wasn't my first...
Although not pictured, my favorite dish at the buffet was a salmon penne pasta. I went back for seconds but realized that the tray had been taken out. When I asked the waiters if more was coming out (in English), they of course responded to me in Tagalog. Cuz obviously I look like a local and they probably assumed I was the daughter of Uncle Mars and Aunt Babs. So I had to tell them that I didn't speak a lick of Tagalog and of course, they asked where I was from. I said California, smiled and walked away. In any case, I returned to my seat and later Aunt Babs told me that those same guys were asking her in Tagalog if I was married. Lovely.
After lunch, we returned for a siesta. A much needed siesta. Except I couldn't fall asleep for some reason. Maybe I ate too much at the buffet? It happens...also I couldn't figure out how to control the AC in my room. It was either freezing and directly blowing cold air at me or ridiculously humid when I turned it off. Yes, I know, first world problems. After a restless attempt at a nap, we all got up and headed to Subic (back where my hotel is) to go to Harbor Point Mall for dinner. We decided on Yellow Cab pizza, which is their favorite pizza place in Subic. The walls of Yellow Cab were covered with photos dated back to the 90s.
Yup, this pizza definitely reminded me of the US, portion-wise. The crust wasn't NY style though. After dinner, we called it a night. What a tough day I had...eat, eat, nap, and eat some more and sleep.
The next morning I woke up a traditional Filipino breakfast. In addition to the driver, the couple had a live-in maid and cook. So breakfast was all ready at 7:30 sharp for us, coffee and all. We had fresh papaya, fried eggplant, garlic fried rice, amapalaya (bittermelon base), fried plantains, hard boiled eggs, and bananas. Yum!
After breakfast, I put on my bathing suit and Aunt Babs and I headed back to the club. I forgot to mention Uncle Mars is the President of a oil refinery company and was a very busy man. So he stayed behind to do some work. In any case, I was happy to see that the sun was finally coming out and I could finally enjoy some beach and pool timel. But alas, after spending only 5 minutes in the water, we were rushed out because it started raining. Everyone was forced out of the ocean because there was fear of people being hit by lightning, but not before I managed to get a photo op on Aunt Bab's iPad. The ocean water felt like bath water, but the water was anything but calm!
Since I was already wet, I decided to head to the infinity pool. As I looked around, I noticed everyone there was speaking Tagalog or at least had Filipino accents. There's actually a large Korean population in the Subic region of the Philippines because several Korean ships have been stationed here for years. So a ton of the Korean kids here have Filipino accents. It's the strangest thing to see (and hear) because you will NEVER see that in the States. In any case, after a morning at the club, we came back to a nice cooked lunch...because you can never have too much food.
This time we had rice, fried shrimp, more papaya, chicken and potatoes in some kind of tomato sauce, a beef and cabbage stew, and fried fish.
Here's me with Uncle Mars and Aunt Bab's in their lovely home.
Upon returning to Subic, although I was pretty tired, I manned up and continued on with a full schedule. I hit up Starbucks, Gourmet Garage for a panini and early dinner, then headed back to Harbor Point Mall to catch 22 Jump Street. Hello Channing Tatum! Apparently you can bring in any type of food you want into the theaters here. So the guy in front me seriously had an entire pizza! Next time, I'm coming prepared!
So last week at trivia at Paddy's, I met a group of expats passing through Subic. They were going to be in SBMA for one more night, so I decided to meet up with them for drinks after the movie ended. They all work on a yacht and get to travel the world as they do so. Not a bad gig in my opinion. It's kind of cool meeting a diverse group in Subic consisting of Americans, Brits, Aussies, and S. Africans. And what better activity to bring people from around the world together other than drinking. Cheers to meeting new people!
What an amazing weekend in Anvaya Cove. I couldn't have asked for a better welcoming experience into the Philippines. And of course, topped my weekend with some Channing Tatum and making new friends. Life is good.
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