Here I am in rainy Angeles City, Pampanga, Republic of the Philippines. I was born in the other city of angels, Los Angeles. This town is more like my doppelganger. I really have come to despise nearly everything about this place. It’s kind of odd in a way because this was my very first destination in the PI, over ten years ago now. Angeles hasn’t changed so much, perhaps I have.

It’s ugly, dirty, full of beggars and a bunch of losers who call themselves “whore mongers”. About all the town has on offer is the girly bars that cater to that crowd. I honestly couldn’t convince myself to visit the bar district even for old times sake. It not only has no appeal to me, it tends to make me feel depressed. How are these bars different than those in Barretto you may be asking? Well, it’s hard to explain. More mercenary somehow. Bigger isn’t always better perhaps. Anyway, it’s not for me.

Coming into town. Angeles is about an hour and half drive from Subic.

The Orchid Inn. First place I stayed when I came here all those years ago. Still my sentimental favorite for some reason.

It’s older and not as fancy as some of the hotels here, but it has a great pool if you are into that kind of thing.

An Angeles street scene…

And the infamous Walking Street girly bar district.

Jeepney terminal. Jeepney’s are the Filipino mass transit system.

So I came to this crap town for the purpose of participating in a sister Hash’s 40th Anniversary gathering. It was an incredible turnout with over 100 Hashers in attendance. The Hash itself was pretty crappy though. It hadn’t rained all day…until we started the actual Hash. Got soaked and muddy, then the trail turned to shit and we eventually just turned around and retreated. It was a shitty trail.

At the “on-home” Premiere Hotel waiting to depart…

We were transported to and from the trail in four Jeepneys (quite of few of the local Hashers took their private vehicles). I’ll grant that riding in the Jeepney was much more comfortable than the truck we use in Subic. Good thing too, because it was a 40 minute drive to our destination.

Exiting the Jeepneys and preparing to gather for last minute instructions from the Hare.

And then we were “On-On”. The Hare said there were 3 trails, long (8 kms), medium (5 kms) and short (3 kms). Given it was POURING down rain, I opted for the medium trail. As I mentioned it was a disaster and basically rendered impassable by the muddy and steep descent to the river.

Other folks made it all the way though. In fact, we had to wait a good hour or more for the long trail runners to return to the Jeepneys before we departed back to the on-home at the Premiere. Luckily, the Jeepneys were equipped with coolers of beer, so that helped pass the time. I wondered what would happen to anyone left behind. We were WAY out in the wilderness. I know we carefully accounted for everyone who had ridden out in our Jeepney, don’t know if the others bothered to do that or not. Anyway, I survived another Hash, so that’s a good thing.

I was still soaking wet when we got back to the Hotel. I hung around awhile waiting for the food and festivities to commence, but finally gave up and caught a trike back to my place at the Orchid Inn. Somewhere along the way I lost two vape pens. Probably fell out of my pocket getting in or out of the trike.

Took a nice shower and put on dry clothes and went looking for dinner. Sat down at an outside table at Tequila Reef and waited to be served. And waited. And waited. Gave up and went walking around looking for alternatives. Lots of options of course, but I was in a vaping frame of mind and they are very strict on that here. Even the no smoking signs specifically include vaping. Another reason I hate this town! I eventually settled on a little outdoor cafe on Walking street and had some chicken wings. Enjoyed flirting a little with the cute waitress and watching the passerby.

As I mentioned above, I couldn’t stomach the bars so I opted for a massage instead. I got a decent enough one (no happy ending) and was charged 550 pesos, which is way too much for an hour. But I didn’t care. I paid with a 1000 peso note and since they didn’t have change, I gave another hundred and got a 500 peso and 50 peso note in return. I intended to give the masseuse a 50 peso tip but when I got back to my hotel I noted I didn’t have the 500 peso note anymore. Oops. Damn real expensive massage!

Finished the night with a banana split at my hotel bar.

Still raining this morning in this God forsaken burg, but I’ve got another Hash to do this afternoon. Got a message that the intended trail has been scrapped because of the weather and we will be Hashing a more rain-appropriate route of 5 kms instead. Sounds like a plan. Afterwards I’ll be spending another night here at the Orchid. Maybe I’ll be in a better frame of mind and even find a way to enjoy myself…