Hi Shugar,
I do most of my diving in Anilao too but I live in Hong Kong and am originally from the US. To compare to most of the diving in the US, and by the sounds of it many other locations, imagine that all the anilao resorts shut down but their sister dive shops in manila stayed in business. If we still wanted to dive we'd all end up doing the same thing they are doing in the states - renting tanks from Aquaventure, Scuba World, White Tip, etc. and heading down to Batangas or up to Subic for the weekend in our pickup trucks (ok, maybe some might rent jeepneys!)
This is just what it was like for people who were diving Anilao about 20 - 30 years ago (so my friends tell me). They would get all their stuff together in manila (tanks, food, etc.) and head off to Batangas for the weekend completely self sufficient. Imagine the whole day on a banca, especially during the 'winter' and having to warm up by lying next to the diesel engines - these guys really wanted to dive! I'm sure the appeal was that the fishermen and the bancas were already there so they had easy transportation and also tips on where all the good spearfishing was (no-no today though).
It seems that the shops in the US where there isn't much 'thrilling' diving take it for granted that it is a fairly small fringe activity and when someone has the time and money to spend a chunk of time diving they aren't likely to do it in a quarry! So, they cater to local divers who are heading out for day trips and are used to a more rugged situation that is much more likely to be dominated by independent groups of friends or dive clubs rather than trips to resorts. And then they organize annual trips to resorts where there is interesting diving. If you read anything about diving in North America you can't avoid hearing about . I've never been there but it seems like a lot of the divers in the cold parts of the states make it a yearly trip.
In my opinion the anilao resorts have a feel that is somewhere in between a 'real' hotel and roughing it. The resorts are pretty spartan but still nice, I certainly wouldn't call them fancy (except for Eagle point - yuck) but at the same time they have great food and friendly, homey service. Also, the surrounding town isn't exactly a big tourist destination - people going to mabini are generally there for one reason only - diving. Compare that to boracay, palawan, etc. It is a bit to me like going to summer camp - rugged enough but you don't have to cook for yourself or sleep outside for the weekend.
Maybe I'll see you in anilao one day
