Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Notes from a TDY, Part 4: Homeward Bound


After the Samar working port, we headed to Subic Bay for one evening of fun before heading to Manilla and home.  Melissa and I had organized a DSS happy hour that was awesome.  It was at Pier 1, a large outdoor bar and the food was delicious.  The night was a lot of fun although I had too much to drink and would have been late to the ship if not for my friend Ty who assumed the camp counselor role.  Fortunately, I made it up the next morning and headed out the door, almost forgetting all of my electronics in my sleepy, still intoxicated haze.

Manilla was pretty cool.  We stayed at the Shangri-La in Makati City.  We went to a Dampa to follow in the footsteps of Anthony Bourdain.  We ate a ton of seafood that we picked out in the stalls and then had the restaurant cook it up.  It was so cool!  Picking our seafood and prep methods was a unique experience and I’m so glad we did it.  Then we went shopping across the street at a large emporium of all Phillipino craftwork.  After spending about an hour there, we headed back to the hotel where I had a massage and facial at the hotel spa.  We went out for dinner at a mall with very high outer perimeter security.  The food was delicious and I had another piece of fish, lapu-lapu- a local white fish.  Then we headed back, slept and started homeward the next morning.  The layover in Narita made me miss Japan.  I’m not sure if I’ll ever get stationed there again but I wouldn’t be opposed to it!

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