It had been a while, three years to be exact, since I had taken a dedicated dive trip so it was time to head back to the Philippines to see what the sub-aqua scene in Subic Bay was like. Originally a naval base established by the Spaniards in 1885, it became the largest US naval facility in the Far East. In 1991, the bay was transformed into a free-port economic and tourism zone and the dive sites were finally opened up to recreational divers as opposed to US military only.

I booked my flight two months earlier with Tiger Airlines, return from Bangkok to Clark and aside from the invasive and tedious security scans in the Thai airport all was a breeze and we were on the ground within three hours. I spent a night or two (it was a bit of a blur) in the raucous neon circus of Angeles City before heading to Subic and the ocean which was an easy one hour bus ride away.

The accommodation, Arizona Resort, was recommended by a friend in AC and he wasn’t wrong – it had everything; three bars including a floating one, fantastic restaurant with the most extensive menu I have ever seen, well priced rooms, and – most importantly - an Australian managed dive shop.

The weather was perfect for my first dive, the most notable in the area; the USS New York, a 110 meter long battleship built in 1891 to serve in the Philippine-American war, the Chinese revolution, and WW1. She was decommissioned in 1931 and stayed in Subic Bay for the next ten years until scuppered by US forces to prevent the four 8-inch guns from falling into Japanese hands. Today resting on her port side in 30 meters of water she offers one of the most exciting diving experiences in the Philippines.

The descent into the murky depths was pretty surreal, especially when diving alongside these huge guns and around the stern where a massive bronze propeller was still intact, the second screw was buried in ash from the Pinatubo eruption in 1991. We did two dives here, the second involved some penetration into the wreck and its huge cargo holds, the darkness envelops you quickly and you can get carried away exploring the hulk. A beep from my dive computer brought me back to reality, it was already going into decompression mode so time to slowly venture back to the surface.  Back on the surface the dive leader told me the wreck has many more accessible areas but had also claimed the lives of six divers trying to reach them.


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