Windsurfing in Subic

Herbie's Mansion is a little two-star guesthouse along Waterfront Road, in Subic Bay. The two-storey structure has twelve air-conditioned rooms (each with cable TV and hot & cold water), a small verandah where you can eat your free breakfast or order meals, and a tiny bar downstairs that serves drinks. We were first put in room #7, a small double room with a window looking out onto the lot beside us (where construction was ongoing on a new establishment). The water heater, however, was broken, so we asked to be moved to a different room and ended up across the hall in room #11. The rooms on this side of the hotel didn't have windows because they lined a firewall.

The charge for their standard room (a small, basic twin or double room) is P1750 on weekdays, P1950 on weekends and holidays. This includes complimentary breakfast.

Plusses: The guesthouse is right across the street from the beach. The staff is very friendly and helpful. The rooms were basic but clean.

Minuses: Adding just P200 could get you a room in one of the slightly newer or more well-appointed hotels down the street that offer free Wi-Fi or that have a pool. The pillows at Herbie's were sad, and we were glad that we had brought our own pillows.

If I were to stay in Subic again, I'd probably look for a guesthouse in the same price range that has more amenities (like free WiFi), but if I couldn't find any, I wouldn't mind staying here again.

The website of Herbie's Mansion is at http://www.herbiesmansion.tk/

This was my first time to attend a windsurfing regatta in Subic. In Caliraya (where my husband usually windsurfs on weekends), most of the windsurfers are campers, so during Caliraya regattas, we're in our campers and tents. In Subic, we lived it up a little more, because most of us were billetted in the resorts along Waterfront Road (except for a few die-hard Calirayans who insisted on sleeping in their campers, in the carpark, haha!).

Distance-wise, Caliraya and Subic used to be about the same road distance from Quezon City (in Metro Manila, where we live), but with the new Subic-Clark expressway, Subic is closer ... or at least, it takes less time to get here. The new expressway is gorgeous; apart from the road being new and first-class, the scenery is absolutely breathtaking ... kilometers of green, undeveloped wilderness stretches on for miles up to the mountain ranges in the distance, and my husband and I sighed at the sight of it several times on our way here.

Of course, it's more expensive to windsurf in Subic than in Caliraya: needing to stay in a resort rather than in a tent or a camper sets one back more than a grand per night, and unlike in Caliraya where we cook our own food, here, we had to eat out. Then there are the expensive toll fees at the North Luzon Expressway and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

But nowadays there's a lot to do in Subic, so I guess that's what the additional amount pays for. When the wind died yesterday, I convinced my husband to bring me shopping at the duty-free groceries. There's also a new Tiger Safari that everyone's talking about, plus Zoobic (the Subic zoo). And of course, there's the beach.

My husband used to work and live here, around ten years ago, back when there was almost nothing touristy to do here, so he knows well how drastically it has changed. But in my view, even though a lot of pretty spots in Subic have been overtaken by development, on the whole, the changes have been pleasant. It's made Subic a more exciting place to visit, to work in, and to live in.