Barber shop

[Arizona Kid]

6 hours ago, Heeb said:

They weren't around this morning until we took the trash out, then two big males starting sifting through it, my brother in-law yelled and stomped at them but they didn't go far, I suspect maybe the weekenders are feeding them as well, the security office is across the street so I'm not sure i can get away with shooting them with an air rifle, I might try it from the back anyway, at least earn some respect from them. The Kiwi that holds the lease for this place said he thinks the monkeys got his jack russel but he isn't sure.

BTW where would I find an air rifle and would my wife have to purchase it?

I miss my old bb gun from when I was a kid. Fairly accurate. If you shoot and hit a cat, it would be just enough to make it run away.

[Arizona Kid]

19 hours ago, Heeb said:

Thanks,

Had a nice haircut at GQ, the Subic International Hotel Laundry was expensive 55p per kilo, decide to buy a Samsung washer/dryer combo, the laundry room in the house was converted to a maids quarter but looks like there's a place to hook it up in the storage room where the water heater is behind the house, I bought a couple of wood pallets from PureGold to set it on, they have stacks of them in the back, I paid 140 peso each.

Seems like I'm in monkey central here, there's a palm tree in front with some fruit in it that they really like, hopefully it's not in season all year long.

The old base sure does look different and very shabby in a lot of areas now, we went to the Royal Duty free which used to be the old Navy Exchange and commissary, they were having a 25 year anniversary sale, what a mad house and very little courtesy, some woman stepped backwards into my cart without looking and blamed me for jamming the back of her heel, I wasn't even moving, seems like the better off people here are very snooty, I just sucked it up since I don't want to have any confrontation with a local, she would have heard a mouthful from me back home.

I visited the ex base when I moved here in 2002. Wanted to see what it would look like after the US left. What I found was very disappointing. A perfectly operating infrastructure reduced to complete impotence. All of the buildings were left to rot. Spanish Gate, were I used to get my reconstituted milk was even gone. Filipinos just love screwing thing up. 

[Hobbit112]

16 hours ago, Heeb said:

It’s probably the female monkeys, back in 1984 I lived out in Olongapo and I had two pet monkeys, they used to sell the smaller ones on Magsaysay street, the female would boss around the male and chase him until I put a mirror in there, after that she would look at herself most of the time and didn’t bother the poor guy anymore.They escaped one day and I never saw them again.

Did they take the mirror with them????

[Jack D]

18 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

Filipinos just love screwing thing up.

Possibly one of the reasons why the US promised to eventually grant formal independence to the Philippines with the Jones Act* of 1916, which took four years of congressional debates between the remainers and the leavers.

* The Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916

https://www.jstor.org/stable/42720299?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

[OnMyWay]

On 11/8/2019 at 4:36 PM, Arizona Kid said:

I visited the ex base when I moved here in 2002. Wanted to see what it would look like after the US left. What I found was very disappointing. A perfectly operating infrastructure reduced to complete impotence. All of the buildings were left to rot. Spanish Gate, were I used to get my reconstituted milk was even gone. Filipinos just love screwing thing up. 

In 2002, or now, Subic Bay does not live up to our American expectations.  However, in many ways, it is now a nice place to live compared to other areas of the Philippines.  You might want to take another visit since the last time you were here was 17 years ago.

I think your expectations were a bit high in 2002, 11 years after Mt. Pinatubo devastated the entire area.  The U.S. did clean up a lot, but by the time they left in 1993, there was still a lot of mess.  Many minor buildings in outlying areas were never fixed and there is not much reason to.  What would they be used for?  Apparently, the Freeport strategy for fixing / cleaning an area or buildings totally relies on private business' leasing the area/building and setting up business.  Those business' get tax and duty breaks.  The lessee has to do renovations and cleanup.  The base is 63 square miles, I think, so that is a huge area.

The departure of the military devastated the local economy and it took a few years to get the Freeport Zone going.  Where do you think a poor country would get the funds needed to continue the cleanup and keep a huge Navy base in pristine condition?  The funds didn't exist.

Spanish Gate is not gone.  I'm not sure where you got that idea.  I don't know what it looked like before the military left but it looks like this now:

[Arizona Kid]

21 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

In 2002, or now, Subic Bay does not live up to our American expectations.  However, in many ways, it is now a nice place to live compared to other areas of the Philippines.  You might want to take another visit since the last time you were here was 17 years ago.

I think your expectations were a bit high in 2002, 11 years after Mt. Pinatubo devastated the entire area.  The U.S. did clean up a lot, but by the time they left in 1993, there was still a lot of mess.  Many minor buildings in outlying areas were never fixed and there is not much reason to.  What would they be used for?  Apparently, the Freeport strategy for fixing / cleaning an area or buildings totally relies on private business' leasing the area/building and setting up business.  Those business' get tax and duty breaks.  The lessee has to do renovations and cleanup.  The base is 63 square miles, I think, so that is a huge area.

The departure of the military devastated the local economy and it took a few years to get the Freeport Zone going.  Where do you think a poor country would get the funds needed to continue the cleanup and keep a huge Navy base in pristine condition?  The funds didn't exist.

Spanish Gate is not gone.  I'm not sure where you got that idea.  I don't know what it looked like before the military left but it looks like this now:

Before the US left there was a small cafeteria behind the gate. A good stop off point to get a good burger and beer before you crossed shit river!

[Heeb]

I was stationed there during the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, I was deployed to Desert Storm and missed the first couple of eruptions but arrived back home before the big one. After the eruption it looked like the jungle was completely flattened and a lot of the weaker structures collapsed, the lahar was very heavy like wet beach sand mixed with gravel, the Air force personnel and all dependents including my wife were evacuated to the states, after shoveling that stuff for a few days I volunteered for deployment. One rainy season and the jungle had already bounced back. The base will probably never look as nice at it did back then but for me I think it's the best option, it's very quiet, and has good security. My wife's house in Laguna was burglarized one week after we arrived, thankfully we were upstairs in a locked room and they didn't get anything from us, the relatives downstairs lost 3 cellphones and some money, not a lot. Also there's way more food options then back in 1992, the beach scene isn't good because you now have to pay and it's overcrowded but I get bored at the beach anyway. You definitely need a car here and I think I'm going to toss in my man card and get a scooter, parking is a hassle sometimes and there is traffic at times, not on the scale of manila though.