On the last full day in the Philippines, we booked a trip to Subic Bay. It was on the other side of Manila from our hotel and we realized that was a mistake. We had selected it because it cited a tour of the old military base which is a big part of the history of the Philippines. Given the location, the Philippines has been a big spot for not just the US to have a military presence. Unfortunately that day ended up being mostly on the car (good views at least of the countryside)and we got very little explanation of the area as we drove through it. I would not suggest that tour, but we did get to see more of Manila and a wild zoo which provided some interesting experiences.
Our first stop was a place where we learned from indigenous locals how we could survive in the wilderness by making almost anything you could think of from bamboo. This included silverware, cookware and fire. This was pretty neat, but the guy didn’t really speak up much so it was hard to actually hear him.
We then had lunch at The Aristocrat which is known for their barbecue chicken. The Filipino couple on the trip had pretty much just booked the trip for this part. It was good, but I wouldn’t say it was that good.
The Zoobic Safari was the next spot that we got to get out of the car. It has exotic birds, intriguing cats, tigers, camels and more. We got out of the car finally and waited for just a bit before starting a walking tour through the exhibits. Eventually we made our way to a little train like vehicle and rode that down to the larger animal exhibits and a super creepy taxidermy exhibit. After that we boarded a jeepny with caged windows. We opted to pay for the chicken to ensure we saw the tigers. I didn’t realize that they would be holding the raw chicken up against the caged windows and letting them eat it from there. That happened right in front of me which was cool. The tigers were so calm as they ate it that they truly just looked like big cats. The group had chosen to cut it short and not see the whole thing in hopes of getting back to Manila earlier, but in the end it still ended up being a long day. We quickly headed out along the bay, seeing bats swarming ahead of us and the views of the bay as we left. The drive was a very long one and we ended up not being back in time to go to dinner at Manila Bay like we had hoped to. Instead we went back over to the Japanese restaurant that we had loved and had sushi and kabobs before calling it a night and making our way to the airport slowly the next day, including getting lost in the connecting sky bridge and path’s and ending up on an elevator opening to a closed floor. We made it though and wrapped up another great trip.