Thursday, March 13, 2008

Full time traveler

20080313_0006_dvlscorpion.jpg
Deviled scorpionfish has great camouflage


Among other people, I dived with Ryan and Alice at Rico's Rock and Black Forest on Balicasag Island. Visibility was poor and there was a strong current at Black Forest. Rico's Rock was the best site because I saw a deviled scorpionfish and two large schools of jacks swam towards and through me.

20080313_0020_jacks.jpg
School of jacks swim past me


After diving, Alice invited me to play frisbee with her and Ryan on the beach; it was more fun than I anticipated. Later that evening Ryan, Alice, and I hung out around Genesis and there we met Mark -- an intimidating looking Englishman with large tattoos on his body. He turned out to be a really friendly person with a lot of stories from around the world.

For the past 20 years, all he's been doing is traveling around the world. From time to time, he works to support himself. He loves to surf, body board, and occasionally dives. An important thing to remember he said is to constantly remind yourself how fortunate you are and to not take things for granted when you're traveling. I'm living on a white sand beach, diving, meeting lots of new people; how lucky is that!

Ryan, Alice and I decided to eat dinner at a local street vender. Surprisingly the food there was cheaper than I thought. I bought a skewers of chicken and pork were only 8-10 pesos each. I ate 1 gizzard, 1 neck, and 2 pork skewers with some rice. For dessert, next door, I bought a pastry for 2 pesos. It is possible to eat really cheap here and to avoid the inflated tourist prices.

Back on the beach I hung out at Coco Vida then to Oops where Ryan and Alice said they would meet me after they packed for the next day. They never came by.

- jason

2 comments:

Robert Okano said...

Hey dude! Wow you've been there for a month and a half already... you probably feel more settled in by now. I thought of you when I read about this shipwreck in Vanuatu that's supposed to be a diver's paradise, maybe you can go there someday.

Jason Jue said...

hm, I think I'm replying to these while you write these...yeah, I know, 1.5 months! I hate to see my bill for diving. I do feel more settled. Going to look for a more permanent place to rent (house), become an instructor, and hopefully job.