subic sights from the sights of ms. lamon

i am more in love with the beach than the mountains (or hills, whatever's applicable). in subic, one can experience both worlds, may it be doing the jungle survival tour or scuba diving or what-have-you. when i was in subic, tho, i did neither. but i enjoyed the sights there a lot, more specifically the roads (again!) plus some. i dunno but there's something about mountain-y/hilly roads such as these that i find appealing. must be the fields of green surrounding the gray asphalt. no, seriously, i love nature. =)

all of the photos are taken from the car at different points in time.

taken along tipo road after entering sbma. this view somehow reminds me of that toyota commercial way back in 1996. the song there was i love you always forever by donna lewis.

the hills are aliiiiive with the sound of music...

guess who owns this villa? ;-) you can find this plush avian housing by the sbma entrance along tipo road.

argonaut highway. we were on our way to ocean adventure here, which is a good 20-minute drive from the main hub of sbma.

green...


and more green. as you can see, it is denser in this part of the highway. seems like there's no end in sight but we did get to ocean adventure.



another sight that you'll see while driving along the highways inside sbma are the wild monkeys such as these. too bad for me most of them started moving away before i even got to turn on the camera. well, better late than none at all. =)

people are advised not to feed the wild monkeys as the monkeys might become dependent on humans. but of course, some people still don't heed that and give the monkeys scraps of food.

one lost monkey

fisherman's grill, san fernando

this is where we stopped over at san fernando for brunch.

fisherman's grill is located on lazatin road just after the flyover from san fernando exit in pampanga.

aside from the obvious fact that it's a seafood restaurant, fisherman's grill also offers a variety of dishes made from beef, pork, chicken and duck. (kaldereta, adobo, pinaupong manok, etc.) yummy, yummy, yummy food!

food selection. in true filipino style, we call it turo-turo, which means you point at the food you want and they serve it to you. then again, the resto also has menus if you're too lazy to come up to the counter. ;-) anyway they have other selections which are only found in the menu, just like this one ;-)


camaru!!! (native crickets) this is a delicacy found only in pampanga. too, too bad, i wasn't able to order camaru as i already got my order (crispy crablets) when i learned that the resto serves it.

crispy shrimp!!!

longganisa!!!

crispy crablets!!!

me and my family were probably the first customers there. even with dim lighting, the ambience of the resto is very homey. it looks old as well, which of course is a good thing.

the emerald hall. no, the wizard of oz ain't inside. just us family and the food attendants. hehehe:-) by the way, there are two other halls on either side of emerald hall.

chandelier. the only lighting here comes from the big window on the side.

there are two staircases in the restaurant; one from the outside as pictured here, and another inside. i just love staircases. and btw, those yellow, green and red tiles are similar to the ones in my lola's house, only much older.

goin' up...

and down. :D

the road to subic

one fitting way to end the year is to go out of town. as you probably know by now, i didn't have the opportunity to go out of manila that much in 2008. so i was definitely thrilled when the fam went to subic to celebrate the new year.

we set out for subic in the morning of 31st december. one can now reach subic in two ways: via olongapo-gapan road, which is the old route; or the sctex (subic-clark-tarlac expressway) which opened a year ago. both have their own exits straight from nlex (north luzon expressway): san fernando (olongapo-gapan) and sctex exit (sctex). we took the olongapo-gapan road as we had brunch somewhere in san fernando.

after experiencing a bit of traffic in one of the towns in pampanga, it was decided that we would divert to the sctex when we get to dinalupihan, bataan. when we got to dinalupihan, lo and behold! there was no exit yet from olongapo-gapan road going to sctex. so we simply just passed under the new expressway and went on to our destination on the same route.

yours truly went gaga over the sights. amazed by the vast expanse of green after about a year of staying in the concrete jungle that is my beloved manila. here are some photos taken on olongapo-gapan road. (sctex pics to come soon)

the eruption of mt. pinatubo in 1991 left the provinces of zambales and especially pampanga practically a barren wasteland. almost 20 years after, both provinces have thankfully gotten back on track.

i see fields of green...

gray asphalt too...

...and i think to myself, what a wonderful world. ;-)

cheers!

something fun to start off the new year. ;-)