Walking along the beach walk in Subic after many years of absence. I was looking for my favorite watering holes or restaurants. The place has changed a lot. Now it’s all two to three story concrete hotels with air conditioned seating halls behind glass fronts. And some outside seating with extremely loud music competing with that of the next door establishment. The beach itself is littered with trash from the Sunday picnic folks. Some of the hotels have swimming pools between the hotel building and the beach, the receptionist recommended not to swim in the sea, too polluted. That’s why you need the pools? On a beach?
One hotel even has a garage with glass wall on the beach where, I assume, the owner parks his Porsche. What a narcism. He probably jacks off every night thinking about how he screwed the masses again by showing them that he can afford reserving beach space for his car. But then, at least the car does not throw rubbish everywhere, so maybe it’s a good thing after all.
Loud karaoke or elevator type music in most of the open air restaurants along the beach walk. Thanks to having a smart phone I know it is more than 90 dB just 20 m away from the source of the sound. Luckily I do not have a date. Communication would be limited to hand signs or body contact.
I guess all those developments are good for the local economy. As far as I am concerned it’s another formerly nice place with character gone for good.
Seeing all the recent development yesterday in Banaue was also sad. Some rice terraces in dire state. Lots of modern buildings in the once traditional villages, hardly any traditional banaue house left. Batad now reachable by car, which will bring in mass tourists and ruin the place.
The heirloom project aiming at maintaining traditional rice production in the terraces is right, but is just a drop of water on a hot stone. The government should just decide to pay the farmers for maintaining traditional practices and villages, as we do with our own mountain farmers.
The Underground River in Palawan converted to a Disneyland style ride, Subic’s charm gone, I am increasingly reluctant to visit places I enjoyed 15 years ago, or to recommend them to visiting friends.
Ended up in Ric’s Kountry Kitchen, with American food, locally brewed German Beer and a life musician covering Eric Clapton, Frank Sinatra, Chris Rea, Procol Harum and other old songwriters. Together with another bunch of hopelessly sentimental old farts like me. But: Plastic chairs?
I am homesick. The only problem is: where is home?