Newsletter
Current 2006
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Newsletter Archive 2005
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Newsletter
Archive 2004
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Newsletter
Archive 2003
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Newsletter Archive 2002
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Newsletter
Archive 2001
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Newsletter
Archive 2000
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| November / December 2004 | September / October 2004 | July / August 2004 | |
| May / June 2004 | March / April 2004 | January / February 2004 | |
November / December 2004
November 1 and a national holiday in the Philippines. People migrate to
cemeteries where they clean up and paint their ancestors gravesites. It’s a two
day, all night party. It is also a terrible time to travel since roads and
cemetery areas are jammed packed.
We had our two Mango Halloween parties
on October 31. The early one was for children and it was huge this year with
around 70 to 80 kids in costume. Prizes for costumes, games and candy made them
all tired enough so the big kids could party. Pictures included with this
month’s update show some serious participation on the part of the community in
dressing up for Halloween.
Usually we have two parties and team up
with the Midnight Rambler so that both ends of the street are rocking. This year
however the Rambler is in the process of being sold so it was not a good time to
plan both parties. Alan a previous owner of Blue Rock Resort is purchasing the
long time barrio landmark.
We had our first ever Corregidor Island
tour in October. We patterned it after the USO excursions done when the military
was here. We had a full bus of 30 persons who left Mango’s at 8 AM on a
Saturday. It was two hour travel time to Bataan. Four banca boats made the
twenty minute crossing to the island. Once there we had another bus with an
English speaking guide. We made all the obligatory stops at the Malinta Tunnel,
Pacific War Memorial, Military Museum and the gun positions and magazines. A
really fun day and something different. Special thanks to Health Visions for
supplying the bus and Yorkies Tavern in Bataan for arranging the boats and
lunch. Plenty of pictures are posted on the main page.
There are two golf tournaments in
November benefiting the Shriner’s Children’s Fund. Next Saturday November 6 is
the first one at Subic Bay Golf and Country Club. Then on Friday November 19th
the third annual For Love of Children Tourney will be held at Mimosa Golf
Course on the former Clark Air Base in Angeles City.
For those of you planning on visiting
the VFW Beach Bash will again be held on Valentine weekend in February. It is a
really good time to see people rarely out and about.
Santa Monica Subdivision was home to
many Navy and Marine personnel stationed in Subic Bay over the years. Usually
your address would be something like Block 4 Lot 19. Recently, however they
named the streets in the subdivision after flowers. The main drag is called
Sampaguita St.
Frequent Mango's website visitors may
have noticed the site was down for a couple weeks in October. After five
years of hosting the site with 123 Host Me we decided to move to new host Lunar
Pages. We got 3x the space and 20x the bandwidth for half the price with
the new host. That forced a reset of our hit counter which was near
250,000 visits! We'll see if Lunar Pages can reset that for us. With
the move to the new host there could be some busted links or other problems with
the site buried in some of the pages. For a site with 98 web pages, 9730
files in 225 folders it can be difficult to find them all. If you find
anything amiss please send a note to
tim @ mangossubic.com.
(minus the spaces around the @)
Well, that is the final update for the
year. 2005 looks to be as good as 2004. Maybe 2005 is the year you get a
chance to come visit us here at Mango's! Let us know if we can help with
any of your travel plans. Talk to you in January.
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September / October 2004
We’ve been watching the Olympic coverage here. The politically incorrect
advertising is refreshing. Sponsors include Hope and Champion cigarettes, Johnny
Walker and good old San Miguel beer.
The usual July and August monsoon downpours are upon us. Not the super storms
like Florida experienced. Still, the worst of the typhoons usually hit Subic
Bay in October and November. With luck we’ll skate through this season
unscathed.
At the end of July two British ships
visited and enjoyed unrestricted liberty on and off the old military base. It
was the first visit by the English Navy to Subic since the Hong Kong turnover
several years ago. The men and women of the HMS Exeter and RFA Grey Hover had a
great liberty stay with parties and excursions in and around the area.
The week the British left the American
Navy arrived to take part in the joint CARAT exercise between the Philippine and
US Navies. USS Russell, USS McCampbell, USS Fort Henry, USS Salvor and the USCG
Mellon had 8 days in and out of port. Unfortunately, they were restricted to the
old base areas and not allowed outside the perimeter gates.
A new Historical Center has opened on
SBMA where the former military base was located. The time-line of the displays
range from the ancient Aeta colonies to its more recent use as a naval port by
the Spanish, Japanese and American navies. Besides displays of artifacts about
the area, it will also be a research center for those delving into the history
of Subic. The Subic Bay Historical Center is located in the rear of the SBAC
(Subic Bay Arts Center) where the Station Theater was located during the
American stay.
The Subic Bay Arts Center continues it
programs of stage plays with The King and I opening in September. The
productions are very professional. They play in Manila for several months prior
to moving the program to outlying areas. It is their third musical this season.
Another area that is getting a lot of
action is the Subic Bay Tennis Center. Several years ago construction began on a
new gymnasium, hand and racquet ball courts and numerous tennis courts. They
were built on the open ball fields near the main gate. There are now 6 tennis
courts completed and more going in. Apparently they are hoping to secure Subic
as the venue for the Asian Games at some point in the future.
Four of the courts are covered. It is a
modern facility with protection from both sun and rain. Tennis instruction is
available for all ages at reasonable rates. Use of the courts costs $2 an hour.
An hour private instruction for two children is $6.
Several new clubs are under
construction in the Subic City area, now known as Calapandayan. Most expect to
open when the tourist season gets under way in November.
Mango’s is planning an excursion to
Corregidor Island in October. The tentative date is October 23rd depending on
the weather. We’ll have transportation by bus from Barrio Barretto to
Marivelles. Boats will make the short hop to the island, where busses will take
us to the historical sites. Lunch and the usual refreshments will be included.
The Macapagal Arroyo government began a
six year term in June. For the first time population control is getting
discussed if not addressed.. Between 1983 and 2003 the population grew from 50
million to 85 million. 4 babies are born every minute. The Philippines is now
the 12th most populous in the world. With 40% living below the poverty line on
$1 a day, poverty levels keep rising. With a 14% unemployment rate 5 million
Filipinos have no means of making a decent living. We don’t usually address
these types of issues in this update, but the overall health and well-being of
the nation is at stake.
On that serious note we’ll close. Be safe and catch you next month.
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Rainy season is here. The Philippine elections are over. Schools began
classes the 15th of June. Avocados are ripe and plentiful. We had 13 inches of
rain in one day in early May. Now things have settled into the typical monsoon
season. The air is wonderfully clean and everything is impossibly green.
Rain (the employee) Forenzana who many of our regular visitors know, has
taken over the management of our beach bar and restaurant. In addition she is
also attending law school on weekends. She started with us in 1999 and has been
an invaluable employee ever since. At 22 she has a great future.
Mango's helped sponsor the Shriner's Pinatubo Lodge Golf Tournament held at
the San Miguel Golf Course. In spite of heavy rains over 30 players
participated. Proceeds went to the burned and crippled children fund.
We visited one of the new attractions on SBMA. (old Naval base) Zoobic Safari
is located deep in the old Naval Magazine tropical jungle. It is really five
separate attractions.
The Serpentarium is the only one in the country and has a varied collection
of iguanas, lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodiles. It is contained in one of
the former ammunition bunkers and so is shaded and cool and the perfect
environment for reptiles.
The Savannah has over 50 ostriches from Africa and Australia. There are also
potbellies and wild boars from the USA, Vietnam and the Philippines. The 200 guinea fowls are from Papua New Guinea.
The Petting Zoo is a walk through tropical jungle. There are deer, cassowary,
mini-horses, apes, sheep, carabao, a bear, monkeys....and lots more. The
highlight for most children is to play with a baby tiger. He's in a small cage
and as cuddly as most kittens.
The Close Encounter is a walk past a dozen full grown
500+ pound tigers. They are just two feet away and their head and paw size get your attention. They also smell like a dozen big cats under one roof.
The Tiger Safari is a kick and the finale of the 2 hour tour. 20 people are
loaded into a safari jeepney. It has one inch, open wire mesh, covering window
and door areas. They drive a kilometer where a gate is opened. Inside live tigers are roaming around, mostly in the area of a large pond. One of the male guides in the jeepney then dangles a live chicken tied at the
feet from the window. Eventually one of the tigers meanders over to the vehicle
where the chicken is doing flip flops throwing feathers every which way. When
the tiger finally strikes his bulk hits the jeepney hard, rocking it, causing
the men, women and children on board to scream. Unperturbed the tiger drags his
meal away.
Zoobic Safari has plans to expand with Elephant World, Honey Bee Farm,
Alligator Land and Rice Wine Brewery. Additional information is available at
www.zoobic.com and we'll add this content to our
Things to Do in Subic Bay page.
If you are one of our regular visitors and have been
involved in the pool or dart leagues then you may enjoy two new websites.
www.subicdarts.tk and
www.subicpool.tk were designed so you can follow your teams
no matter where you might be on the planet.
The Philippine Elections were held over a month ago. On
June 30 a new President takes over for the next 6 years. In this case it looks
as though Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will continue in office. Locally Dick Gordon
was elected one of just 24 senators. James (Bong) Gordon was elected Olongapo
mayor. Mitas Magsaysay was elected as the Zambales representative to the lower
house. Plenty of related new on our Local News pages.
We know fuel prices have skyrocketed in
all parts of the world. Some of you, who used to pay one or two pesos for the
jeepney from Barrio Barretto to Olongapo will be surprised to learn that the one
way fare is now 8.50 pesos!!
Stay safe - Catch you in September!
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May / June 2004
We celebrated Mango's 10 year
anniversary on the weekend of April 23-24. A night time bikini competition
followed by a live band and buffet dinner happened on Friday the 23rd. Health
Visions Corporation had sent 9 carpenters who spent two days constructing a
stage on our beach. We enclosed the area with sawali. The Dynamic band played
and people danced until two in the morning. Over 300 friends and neighbors
helped us celebrate 10 good years in Barrio Barretto. There are a few good shots
of the bikini girls on the main page, more to follow.
The USS Coronado arrived that same
weekend. It was the first real ship we've had since June of 2002. Their off base
liberty was allowed in Olongapo City and Barrio Barretto between 6 AM and 6 PM.
The Coronado recently replaced the Blue Ridge as the 7th fleet's flagship while
the Blue Ridge is in dry dock.
Over Easter weekend the Hong Kong to
Subic yacht race was held. The sailboats began arriving on Easter Sunday. The
following week they held an Easter regatta. It was a nice sight seeing all these
white sails racing around the bay for three days. We also did our annual
Children's Easter Egg Hunt on Easter morning. 60 to 70 kids were involved
finding 400 eggs.
Philippine elections are scheduled for
May 10th. Noisy sound barrages from jeepneys equipped with loud speakers are
running everywhere. Most blast some absurd singing jingle with the candidates
name in the song. If you can imagine Tom Jones' Sex Bomb in a campaign jingle
then you have the idea. In addition posters are on every vacant wall or post in
the country. It's true visual diarrhea. National presidential and senatorial
slates are at stake.
Locally, mayor, barangay and
congressional posts are up for grabs. For those of you familiar with our local
political dynasty, Dick Gordon, a previous Olongapo mayor, is running for the
Philippine senate. His wife, Kate Gordon and current Olongapo mayor, is running
for the Zambales congressional seat. Dick Gordon's brother and current Zambales
congressman is running for Olongapo mayor. Got it?
School is out until mid-June. Beaches
on and off SBMA are crowded, especially on weekends. There are some new
attractions on base (SBMA) which we have yet to visit but will in the coming
weeks. One is called Jurassic Park (how original) and another is called Zoobic.
Both are located in the old Naval Magazine area. Zoobic reportedly puts people
in a caged truck and drives through areas with wild animals such as tigers. In
any case we'll have a review of those next month.
We have added DVD players to our
apartments at Mango's and will be building a software library of films. Street
vendors who once sold sea shells now hawk a wide variety of DVD's. They cost
P100 and are of course illegal imports from China. The New Release titles often
have poor sound or video quality. But the catalog titles are usually first rate.
If one is found defective the vendor replaces it.
If you have visited Mango's during the
past two months and fail to find your picture on the new postings don't despair.
We'll get them up next time. There were just too many pretty girls at our
anniversary bikini contest and we wanted to get them on the site. Catch you in
July.
We've made a couple of necessary changes to the site and email notifications.
First we had to take down the Mango's Connections Page where we use to list
email addresses of those that requested so. Publishing those valid email
addresses caused lots of email spam problems for many of those listed. In
all actuality it is very unwise to maintain email listings on web sites. Besides
the spam activity it also causes lots of virus problems through email address
spoofing.
Secondly and related to the note above we've discontinued sending out the
bi-monthly email notifying folks when the site was updated. We will
continue to update the site every couple months, we simply won't be sending an
email out stating so. We had nearly 500 folks on that distribution.
That's nearly 500 cases where people then had our email address on their
computer. Hence we've been getting about 50 viruses a day sent to us, many
from folks on the notification distribution.
And lastly we will no longer list the Mango's owners and webmasters email
addresses directly on the site. There will be select pages where the addresses
will be posted but there will be spaces between the "@" character hopefully to
reduce the chance of web crawlers finding the addresses.
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In mid January a ground breaking was
held on SBMA (former Navy Base) for the Oryoku Maru memorial. This was the
Japanese ship en route to Japan on December 14, 1944 when bombed by US
Navy planes. Unbeknown to the pilots, the ship's cargo holds were crammed
with 1,619 American (Including 37) British prisoners of war. The ship took
a number of direct hits and eventually sank 300 meters off of what
is now Alava pier on the Subic Bay Freeport. 300 men died. The remaining
men were shipped to Japan and put in slave labor camps. Of the original 1,919
prisoners less that 500 survived.
Almost 60 years after the sinking a
permanent memorial is being established to commemorate the victims of the
Oryoku Maru and other Japanese World War 2 "Hell Ships." If you were ever in
Subic and passed the American Legion on Magsaysay Drive one of the guns from
the ship was and still is on display on the sidewalk. Attending this years
ceremony were descendants of the victims as well as other World War 2
survivors.
We held a Mango's Superbowl party on an
early Monday morning. Great breakfast specials, bloody Mary's and
cold San Miguel beer, combined with what turned out to be a fantastic game.
We had 30 people cheering and yelling - the small but fun crowds many of you
have come to enjoy at Mango's.
In early January the Midnight
Rambler held their annual Britannia party. It was it's usual jam-packed
event, complete with the goose shitting contest. This is where numbers
are sold on a fenced in board area and a goose scared by the screaming
crowd into defecating on the winning number. Always remember, this is the
Philippines, we do crazy stuff like that here!
While on the subject of geese, there
have been no reported cases of bird-flu in the Philippines. In fact,
Japan has begun importing millions of chickens from the PI into that country.
Hopefully our good fortune will continue.
The new highway from Manila to Pampanga
is finally in it's finishing stages. I have not traversed it's
length but the road between San Fernando and Angeles City is superb. Besides the
resurfacing, lanes have been added. In addition, the tollbooths are being
moved from the exit ramps to the main highway, as they are in most countries
and as they have been when you exit into Manila itself. I have been told
that on some stretches there are 4 lanes on each side and in more traveled
areas 8 lanes on a side. This almost sounds too good to be true, but
will certainly make it a better drive. This is part of a concentrated
effort by the government to open and develop Central Luzon including the
province of Zambales.
To get to Subic however the ferry is
still the best, fastest and most scenic way to travel. The terminal in
Manila has gone through some serious renovations. In Orion, on the Bataan
side, where the ferry lands, a new wing has been added to the jetty
landfill. In time they plan to launch a ferry capable of accommodating vehicles
to and from the capital. Current ferry times are below and have also been
reposted on our Travel Info page:
| Manila to Orion | |||||
| 6:30 AM | 8:30 AM | 10:30 AM | 1:00 PM | 3:00 PM | 5:15 PM |
| Orion to Manila |
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| 6:30 AM | 8:30 AM | 10:30 AM | 1:00 PM | 3:00 PM | 5:15 PM |
Weekends there are additional times added. Before going call and check the current times. Manila 02-551-5290 or Bataan 0919 282-6952. We use the ferry all the time.
Mango's will celebrate it's 10th
anniversary in April. All events have not been finalized but will include a live
band on the beach and a pool and dart tournaments. The celebration will take
place the weekend of 23rd and 24th. If you are in-country
we'd love to have you attend. Notes and pictures from our 5th Anniversary
celebration are located in our Image Archive
section.
Tons of work done on the site recently:
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Beach Bash is now two web pages. We
started a new page with this years festivities. You'll fine all related
photos |
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New Image Archive 6 started. |
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A new joke and several new cartoons on Humor 4. |
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Brand new Local News page to start the new year. |
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This took some work but will be
easy to maintain going forward; Local News
Index where we have cataloged the |
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New question posted on our FAQ page regarding our Greatest Hits page and MP3s. |
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If you're lucky enough to live in Austin, Texas like our webmaster, you get the
opportunity to see an amazing guitar player we thought we'd turn you on to.
Those of you that have known us back from our Whiskey River and Rock Lobster
days know how much good music has meant to our clubs. We use to have a
Mango's Greatest Hits page where we had MP3 music files of many of our favorites
and classics. Current music sharing legalities forced us to shut down that
page. But we have thrown together a quick page with a few sample songs on
Texas Guitar Slinger Monte
Montgomery. Check him out if you like the guitar playing of people
such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac), Mark Knopfler
(Dire Straits). There's links to his own site, more samples and his store. Check
out his tour dates too and see if he's playing in a town near you.
Thanks for stopping by both you web visitors and those who've showed up in person. You're always welcome at Mango's!
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Happy New Year from Mango's!
Happy New Year to all. As usual Christmas and New Years around here all turned
into one big blur. In November we hosted the Retired Affairs Office annual
appreciation day. Chester Gross put on a spectacular party for the retirees and
their families. Midnight Rambler and Mango's combined on a children's Christmas
party in early December. We hold this yearly for our own children and those of
our friends. As in the past it was staged at the Pundockit beach. Owner Kym has
vastly improved the barbecue area and it is now a permanent structure. The land
is beautifully groomed and landscaped. It resembles a national park. The
children's play area has swings and climbing bars. A trampoline was set up.
There were numerous wading pools. There was a 'candy throw.' Santa was played
very well this year by Bob Keplan.
Midnight Rambler held a huge Rat-A-Dome
on the Saturday after Christmas. It was also at the Pundockit beach. Over 60 men
of various nationalities bet on the event. The affair pits rats against Jack
Russell Terrier dogs. The rats receive names. Usually these are names of
favorite ex-wives. People bet on the exact time the dog will destroy the rat. A
huge circle is formed and the dog and the rat and a man with a stop watch are in
the middle. The rat is set free and the crowd goes wild. This particular
Rat-A-Dome had a variation. Two men were gladiators. One had a baseball bat and
the other a cricket bat. The rats were named George Bush and Tony Blair. Tony
managed to escape. The cricket bat found George. The day is oiled by plenty of
San Miguel beer and a fine meal is served. Please, no letters from any rat
lovers out there. This is the Philippines. They fight chickens and eat dogs
here.
Christmas Eve the power went off in
Barrio Barretto and stayed that way for 51 hours. While it ruined many families
Christmas plans, at least it occurred in December when the weather is almost
cold. Had it been April or May people would have really suffered. A related
article is on the local news page.
For the 8th straight year Midnight
Rambler hosted their annual pool tournament between the Commonwealth and the
USA. This was held New Years Eve (day) and won by the USA 10-5. New Year's Eve
Mango's held their mini family fireworks display on the beach just after sunset.
Following that the kids went home and the night of kicking out the old got under
way. The Rock Lobster Room rocked until 4 AM. Midnight was it's usual 'shock and
awe' noise barrage with fireworks exploding randomly all over the streets.
We're including a great article this
month we discovered at www.atimes.com It is titled Frank Sinatra In Manila, and authored by
Ted Lerner. It was the third installment of a three part series. Ted is
an Allentown, Pennsylvania native who has a real feel for this area and has
written numerous stories about the Philippines. If you have experienced this
country, he will bring you right back down to the street level. You can
find it on our Philippine Stories page.
Upcoming barrio events include the
annual Britannia Party held at The Rambler on January 10. The VFW sponsored
Beach Bash will be held Valentine's weekend. It will again be held on the
beaches behind Mango's, Islanders and Little Wheel. It's a four day affair with
pool, darts and horseshoe tournaments. There are talent contests and beauty
contests, tug-of-wars, kids games. Vendor booths will be selling a variety of
food from many nations.
We had our share of deaths is 2003:
In June, Orlando Gaza, better known as OG passed on at age 62.
In November Nora Hanson, wife of deceased Jim Hanson, and owner of Irish Rose died of a heart attack. She did go out in style. Her remains were transported to the cemetery by a horse-drawn caisson.
In December Bill Dinges, Charlie Potts and Tim Barringer all went to the supreme commander.
In late December we lost well known Dave Dunn. If anyone knows the location of Rocky Calhoun I'd like to make contact with him. He and Dave were very good friends.
We also lost one of our best loved
waitresses in Mango's in December. Marietta Flodel died of a stroke at
34 and left a big hole in many lives.
People have written asking is Gene Gann had died. On the contrary, he's just fine and running the Cubi Hospital for Health Visions.
Our pictures this month document the
various parties held in December including the Pundockit Children's party, the
Mango's employee party and Wilma's birthday Christmas day. I'd like to thank the
people who make this website tick. Kevin Hamdorf here in Barrio takes a ton of
pictures for us. His are the good ones. If they are bad it's us that took them.
And Tim Jacobs in Texas is the brain behind this site and does the serious
labor. Thanks you guys!
Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season.
Thanks for helping make our website one of the most popular in
the Philippines. Catch you in March. Have a happy, healthy and safe
2004.