Excerpt:
“Flora wants to go riding.” Cindy jabbed something on the DVD player and spun around. The cartoon of Frosty the Snowman started to play on the big television.
“No, I don’t know how. I just wondered if there were horses around.” Flora swallowed. Once when she was little, her mother had taken her to Subic Bay. There had been a ranch for tourists there. Her mother knew some of the men who worked there and they let her sit on a horse. The exquisite thrill of being so high on the back of the big animal that could take off running at any moment. If the man holding the reins dropped them, and the horse lost interest in the grass it was munching.
I have been to The Philippines three times, always staying at the Black Rock Resort in Subic Bay. Subic is a smaller bay just north of Manila Bay and it’s a major tourist destination, especially for Koreans and English teachers working in Korea. One of the main draws is the world’s oldest profession, but most of that is in Angeles where the American Air Force had a base from World War II until Mount Pinatubo erupted. The area I stayed in was a little more family friendly (though not much) so there were other things to do including horseback riding, snorkling, ziplining, and other fun stuff.
Christa Maurice 