The Subic Eyeball Story

It was 3:50 p.m., and it was a not so fine Friday afternoon. It was raining outside and there I was inside Wendy's at SM City in Quezon City, the meeting place for the first out-of-town eyeball to eyeball (EB) of the  Jehovah 's Witnesses Filipino Forum. Everybody agreed to meet at 4 p.m. Unfortunately, the others' watches were probably out of sync =B) because some arrived as late as almost 7 p.m. (it was already dark outside, you know).

The group: myself, DANgold, Red, Francis, Dave, Neil, Kuya Toti (who drove us tirelessly to and from Subic), Sugar18, Monique, Vivz, Letlet, Erlie, Nelly, Strawberry, Ghia and Mommy Mary (Dave and Strawberry's mom)  left Quezon City for Subic, Olongapo City a little past 7 p.m. We call ourselves the Fantastic 16 (well, nobody can’t blame me if I give ourselves such appellation; after all, it took everything for us to finally meet and decide to do it in a place very much foreign to us (until then, that is). Strawberry (who drove their car), Dave, Mommy Mary, Erlie, Ghia and Nelly stayed in the silver Nissan, and the rest rode the Anfra (care of Monique). We were on a convoy.

It was a tough ride but the music from Vivz's portable CD player somehow eased the long travel ahead. We arrived in Subic at exactly 11 p.m. (what is supposed to be a two-and-half hour ride from Manila to Subic, and vice versa, turned out to be almost double that, or a little over four hours, on our part) and it wasn't long before the Subic brothers fetched us at the Kingdom Hall. They led us to Baloy Beach Resort, which was a 10-minute ride from the local congregation.

When we arrived, food was alread prepared. We only had to let go of our inhibitions and dive at the sumptuous food prepared by our kind Subic hosts (I personally felt being a predator, I’m sure the rest felt the same way). Though it sure was a late dinner, the food (chicken barbecue and special pansit palabok as the main viand) was still surprisingly hot (somebody was heard commenting that our hosts might have heated the food several times while waiting for us).

Our hosts did not tire of pampering us, their visitors, during our day stay there. We were literally treated with excessive indulgence (well, too bad for those who never made it) =B) The adage ‘the best things in life are free’ proved to be true to us in Subic. Our Subic hosts  led by Red1973 and Quing were good managers indeed. 
We spent the next few hours night swimming and it was not long before we realized that we were to begin Saturday with another bang.

The Subic brothers and sisters (I had this feeling they were all related to each other) brought us to the Subic freeport zone for a morning tour. Before I forget, our breakfast that day -- which was, by the way, free, as always -- consisted of fried rice, fried eggs, longganisa, big sausages, and some instant coffee (wala pa raw Starbucks sa Subic) =B) There was also orange juice for the non-coffee drinkers. Of course, we started the day with the daily text, with Dan leading the commentary (ang haba!!! hehehe) and Francis leading the prayer (okay ‘yan si Francis mag-pray at magkomento, mapapatibay ka) Some of us were still reeling from the previous night’s sleeplessness but we managed to eat breakfast together through Dan’s prodding. 

As I said, we toured the Subic freeport zone late in the morning. Almost everybody wore the "official" Subic EB T-shirt (care of Dan) save for those who were too skinny or too big like Sis. E and Sis. M (I won't tell, I'm good) for the shirt. =B) We went to this place, some sort of a waterfront, on the edge of which you could see colorful schools of fishes. As always, everybody took advantage of the moment by taking pictures (daig namin ang mga turista sa Pransiya). In fact, every stop did not escape everybody’s camera (there were about six, I think). And Mommy Mary was too kind to offer to take the shots.

We probably got off our vehicles four times for the "tourist stops" and who else served as our tourist guide but the ever indispensable Ruthie (red1973). Those inside the red Anfra spent the travel time singing (READ: shouting), with Francis as our lead singer (powerful voice indeed, a la Pavarotting) and Vivz as our DJ. It was then that somebody (sino nga ba) propounded the idea of an EB theme song: Ikaw Lang ang Mamahalin, originally sung by Joey Albert and revived by Martin Nievera. The song was definitely not apt for a group outing; it was more like a lovers' theme song (para kanino kaya 'yon) 

Anyway, we also went to the Subic bat sanctuary, also inside the freeport zone. It's a protected forest with plenty of monkeys vying for tourist attention. The bats looked like a cluster of brown rotten avocados and the sanctuary sure was eerie. But this did not prevent most of us from enjoying the panoramic view.

In the afternoon, our hosts brought us to a club house were we posed for our group pictures. Later in the evening, we were invited to a karaoke bar where those among us who were not vocally challenged got to show their talent (I think even those with voices not as appealing managed to shout through the microphone). =B)

We left Subic late in the night (or was it morning already?) despite calls from our hosts to linger a little more. Anyway, there never was a boring time on our journey home (well, you wouldn't exactly call this boring, would you -- that most of us had fallen asleep halfway through the trip). We arrived in Quezon City at around 3 a.m., parting ways to head home immediately thereafter.

We are truly thankful to our Subic hosts for the very untypical warmth and hospitality they showed us during our day stay there in Olongapo City. Surely, the brief but memorable vacation of our group -- the 16 Jehovah’s Witnesses who journeyed to the wonderful place that is Subic Bay -- has proven to be not just a literal eyeball to eyeball (EB). The EB has gone beyond its literal significance of being a meeting through the eyes but a meeting of our minds and hearts.