1st Day of Work, Kenny, Trouble

My new office on my first day of work. Life's a beach.

Today I was excited about the arrival of my friend Kenny who is visiting me from the US. Like me, he quit his job in Los Angeles and decided to take an extended amount of time traveling around and exploring. He was scheduled to arrive in Tagbilaran at around 6 or 7 PM and I planned on meeting him at Coco Vida. In the morning, I cleaned up my place a little because Kenny was planning to stay at my place. I got an inflatable mattress from my landlord for him to sleep on.

After I ate lunch at home, I went to Alona Beach to go to work at Genesis. At first, I wasn’t really sure if I needed to there at any particular time. I noticed Sander pretty much makes up his own schedule as to when he wants to go in. From my understanding, I can go in whenever I want to unless I have something scheduled with a student or diver. Of course, if I don’t go into work I can’t get work from customers. I definitely like the casualness and non-bureaucratic nature of the job.

Since I wasn’t sure exactly when Kenny was arriving, I decided to go to Coco Vida early at around 4 PM. There I just went on the Internet and wrote in my journal. By 7 PM, I heard a loud noise and saw a big smile; it was Kenny! He arrived and still had all his bags with him. It was the weirdest feeling seeing a friend from back home out in the Philippines with me. I immediately bought him a rum and Coke.

Kenny and his first Tanduay and Coke.

I introduced him to all my friends at Coco Vida including Mae and Ren. He was so excited to actually meet them because he’s only read about them on my journal. With a few rounds of rum and Cokes, we caught up on a little on what’s been happening in Los Angeles for the past 5 months since I’ve left.

After Coco Vida, Kenny, Mae, Ren and her two friends, and I went to Trendis to shoot some pool. I ordered a large beer to share with everyone. On the pool chalk board at Trendis I noticed Martine, Sara, and Erich’s name still written on the board; seeing their names was nostalgic. Behind the bar, I noticed a schedule of movies that Trendis shows everyday.

Remnants of my good friends Martine, Sara, and Erich playing Killer before they met me in Palawan.

What caught my eye was that they scheduled to show the movie “The Big White” which was a film I did visual effects for at my last job. It’s a movie with a lot of good well known actors, a good story, but never sold to a major studio so it went straight to DVD. I was surprised to see it on the list because I haven’t heard of anyone who’s heard of the movie. I would have never imagined to find the movie being shown in the Philippines.

Mae taking a shot at Trendis.

While playing pool, one of Ren’s friends had issues and left abruptly. Ren followed and so it was just Kenny, Mae, and I playing pool. We played for a long time and well into the night. It was raining so we tried to schedule a time where we could leave without getting too wet. I cautiously drove all three of us back home on my motorbike. It was a little scary to do in the rain with two others and Kenny’s large backpacks. Back at the house, we decided to go for a swim in the pool. My landlord wasn’t too happy about us in the pool at 1:30 AM and complained we were too noisy. Oops.


- jason

Tagbilaran and My New Job

Into Tagbilaran.

I needed to go to Tagbilaran today to get a haircut and buy some supplies from the grocery store. Laura mentioned she wanted to go to the city to take pictures of people so I agreed to meet up with her at 11 AM at Alona Beach. There, we hired a tricycle to take me to BQ mall and to take her to Ramiro Hospital. I walked around BQ mall looking at CDs at the music store and iPods at the computer store.

Stamp maker in Tagbilaran.

At about 12:30 PM I met up with Laura for lunch. We ate at a Mongolian BBQ Bowl fast food restaurant where I ate a spicy pork bowl. It was good but not quite enough for me. I can’t really complain though because it was only 58 pesos for my lunch. After lunch, I went to the grocery store to get food and miscellaneous supplies. Laura went out to take more pictures. Laura met up with me at McDonalds where we went outside to hire a tricycle back to Alona Beach.

The painfully slow tricycle ride with Laura.

The tricycle we hired was painfully slow. I honestly think that I could have gotten out of the tricycle and ran faster than it. Definitely, if I had a bicycle, I could have pedaled faster than the tricycle. Despite having all my groceries in my bag, I went to Alona Beach and hung out at Genesis for a while.

At Genesis, Luer officially tells me that I can work at Genesis as a dive instructor. I was very excited. He was very casual about the whole thing and made me think that I should have expected it. There was no official paperwork or orientation; I was just part of the crew now. Sander was kind enough to orient me a little with how they work and Mike was nice to offer me the opportunity to hang out with him in any of his courses.

Bella the guard dog.

I couldn’t stay long at Genesis because I had perishables in my backpack so I went home and cleaned up. For dinner, I cooked a lot of spaghetti with the beef I just bought. I had a lazy night of watching TV and journaling a little. Only a few hours after I cooked dinner, I noticed my dry rice was infested with hundreds of ants! I didn’t know ants like uncooked rice; I guess they’re truly Asian ants. I stored my rice in the refrigerator.

Ant rice.

- jason

Errands and Wine Headaches

Coconuts and debris litter the beach.

For breakfast I made toast and scrambled eggs. For all of the morning I just tried catching up on my blog journal. For lunch I at instant noodles which is cheap and good. I decided to go to Coco Vida to use their Internet to email, journal, and catch up on news. I also needed to figure out what’s my best option for either rescheduling or canceling my flight back to the US. My original return flight back to the US is scheduled on July 29, 2008, which I know I won’t be making.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any way to reschedule my flight online at Cathay Pacific’s website. I had a bad experience dealing with local travel agents and airlines and wasn’t looking forward to dealing with it. Calling places is difficult and expensive in the Philippines and it looks like it’s my only option for me to reschedule my ticket. If calling in the Philippines was relatively inexpensive, communication would improve, and doing things would be more efficient. Damn phone companies.

At Coco Vida, Ren loves to pose for the camera.

After doing my errands at Coco Vida, I walked over to Genesis to see if anyone wanted to eat dinner. I met Laura along the way who was going out to eat dinner. She really wanted to try out Kamalig, an Italian restaurant which is one of the best restaurants around. There I had two glasses of red wine, pork steak in pepper sauce, salad, and mashed potatoes. It was a great dinner.

I had a couple drinks with Laura at Coco Vida until I got a headache. I don’t normally get headaches while drinking but think it was the two glasses of wine. I was surprised because I used to be able to drink a bottle of wine on my own—about 5 glasses—just fine when I was back in the US. After Coco Vida, we went to Oops bar but I didn’t have any drinks because of my headache. Home to sleep.


- jason

Friends, Photography, and Guns

Eggs over buttered toast. Yum.

I woke up around 7:30 AM. It was nice not having a schedule where I needed to be anywhere at anytime. My morning was slow and lazy. I decided to make toast with an egg “sunny-side-up” on top. I’m not sure where I got the idea for this from but I think it was from the movie V for Vendetta. It’s an English thing I think. I realized I don’t have a toaster. How do you toast bread without a toaster? Ah, I’ll use a frying pan.

Breakfast was very experimental. I melted butter on the pan and put a slice of bread on it and turned up the heat. The butter soaked into the bread while the outer part of the bread became crispy. The dish turned out surprisingly good. I love discovering simple and satisfying dishes to cook. For most of the morning I just stayed home to journal and relax. Slowly slowly.

By 1:30 PM I walked down the street to look for a motorbike driver to take me to Alona Beach. I wanted to see my friends there and pick up my motorbike I was renting from Rubi. I didn’t find any motorbike drivers on the road so I stopped by a small snack stand (sari-sari store) to ask where I can find a motorbike driver. The guy behind the counter offered to drive me for 100 pesos which I bargained down to 80 pesos. He closed and locked up his shop and drove me to Alona Beach. I later found out I should have only paid 50 pesos. Damn.

Good to be back on Alona Beach, my home beach.

My "sis", Ren.

It was great seeing familiar faces and places at Alona Beach. I first stopped at Coco Vida to visit anyone there. Ren and the security guard were there. I found Rubi and got the keys to her motorbike. Next I went to Genesis Divers where the usual kitchen staff was and Sander. Giso, the owner of Genesis, went out on an Open Water dive which I’ve never seen before. By 2:30 PM the boat crew and a few others came back from a dive. Several people congratulated me on becoming an instructor which was very nice; the people at Genesis are like family to me.

For lunch I treated myself to a big German geschnitzel lunch. It was good and hardy. For the rest of the afternoon, I just hung around Genesis talking to Sander and others. Sander assumed that I will be working at Genesis as an instructor even though I haven’t officially asked Luer or Giso since I became an instructor. Sitting around, I met Laura, an American guest staying at Genesis who is a professional photographer and just got her Open Water certification today. Being the photo geek I am, I almost immediately talked to her about photography.

Laura is into travel photography and photographing people of different cultures. I’ve always enjoyed travel photography but never was good at photographing people largely due to fear of being yelled at or insulted. I asked her about several things and basically found out that ones approach to shooting people is highly dependent on the subject and the context they’re in. If the person you’re shooting gives you a dirty look just move on.

Oops staff.

In the evening, Luer, Sander, Laura, and I had two rounds of beer at Genesis. For dinner, Sander, Laura, and two Danish girls staying at Genesis went with me to Oops bar. It was good to see the Oops girls again. Not much has changed there except there is a new girl named Marilen. During dinner, there was a slightly heated discussion with teh two Danish girls on the topic of legal guns in the US.

The Danish girls are psychology students so they tried to analyze why a person would want a gun in America. Fear of being harmed? Their thought was that America is a dangerous place where most people had a gun and carried it around with them because they feared being harmed. Interestingly, I’ve met other foreigners who had the same ideas of Americans. Being American myself, I know this isn’t true.

The girls didn’t see why America just ban guns and felt that it was stupid that nobody was doing anything to work towards this. Of course, it’s not that easy to do especially since the right to bear arms is in our constitution and the issue to bear arms has been debated for a long time. I’m not going to get into the debate right now because it would take too long. Its just really interesting how other people view America and its people. Non-Americans view America as being dangerous while I know a lot of Americans who view foreign countries as being dangerous. I have a feeling the media has a big influence on this thinking. I digress.

Sander of the Netherlands.

After Oops bar I went to Coco Vida to have a few drinks with Sander, the two Danish girls, and instructor Mike.


- jason

Saying Bye and Going Home

Erich has a coffee before we leave Coron.

I had to wake up early today to catch a 8 AM shuttle ride with Erich and Sara to the airport in Basuanga. The van we packed into was of course overcrowded Filipino style. If you ask a Filipino how many people they can fit into a car they’ll say “always one more.” A goofy outspoken guy in our car who was almost annoying turned out to be the manager of the airport in Basuanga. Well, I guess we won’t be late to our flight.

At the airport we passed through security which was simply a guard casually checking the contents of people’s bags. The security check was a joke because the guard didn’t check everything of mine but then again it was a small airport with low traffic. I checked in my dive bag and hiking backpack which was 15 kilos overweight. These overweight charges are costing me a lot; when I get back I’m going to have to re-evaluate all my stuff and throw some things out.

Sara and I have a coffee with Erich but on the other side of the table.

Waiting to board our plane.

We had plenty of time before our flight was boarding so Sara, Erich and I walked next door to a small family owned snack stand. There we got some coffee and drank it on what felt like their living room table. About 10 minutes later, a lady tells us the plane is boarding soon. We walked pass security—no check this time—to a waiting area. The plane we boarded was a small twin prop plane that seats about 150 people. The flight was easy and comfortable lasting no more than an hour.

Scenic islands around Palawan.

After landing at Manila airport and getting our bags, we all had plenty of time before our next flights out. Sara’s flight to the Netherlands was scheduled to leave around the same time as mine—around 3:30 PM. Erich’s flight to Austria wasn’t scheduled until early the next morning so he planned on spending the night in Manila. We were all hungry and decided to eat lunch at a cafeteria type place serving expensive Chinese food. For some reason, we had to pass our luggage through security which was a pain for me because I have two large bags, a heavy day pack, and my laptop bag. Additionally, we had to leave a passport to get a visitor pass.

Traveling heavy—60 kilos: 1 full set of dive gear, 1 hiking bag of clothes and misc, 1 day pack with camera equipment, batteries, and chargers, and 1 Macbook Pro.

I ate too much; the Chinese food was good and tasty and my eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach. We hung around the cafeteria a little bit but felt the urge for some coffee. By around 1 PM, we went out of the building and hung around outside drinking coffee while sitting on our bags. Sara and I needed to get cash to pay for any silly airport fees and other things so we found an ATM nearby.

Last moment before Sara leaves for the Netherlands. =(

By 2:45 PM, I said my goodbyes to Erich and Sara; it was sad to see them go. I’ve gotten to know both really well traveling around Palawan and living in Alona Beach. It’s nice to meet so many different people from around the world but the only problem is that they’re traveling so you only get to know them for a relatively short amount of time. Hopefully I can save enough money and have some time to visit them in Europe.

Your standard issued flight.

My flight to Tagbilaran was uneventful. I drank coffee and had a overly sweet chocolate mocha cupcake in the plane. After I landed in Tagbilaran, I hired a tricycle for 250 pesos to Doljo. After the driver dropped me off, he wanted more money because the house was farther than he thought. I refused to give him more money because he agreed on a rate and I usually pay too much because I’m horrible at bargaining.

My landlord opened the gate to her complex with her helper Cheryl and her two dogs Bella and Rambo. It was good to see familiar faces. The dogs didn’t bark or attack me which I guess meant they still remembered me. I was afraid to see how dirty my house was but also excited to see what has changed. My house was cleaner than when I first moved into it; my landlord and her helper cleaned it before I came. After sitting down and relaxing a little bit, I finally realized that the house I’m in is my home; it’s a place that’s familiarly comfortable to me that gave me that sense of being “home sick” when I was away. It was good to be home.

I unpacked a little bit to let my dive gear dry and to let my bags air out. I watched some TV and had a relaxing lazy evening. Wilhe, my landlord, was unusually nice to me and gave me a loaf of bread, some instant noodles, eggs, and butter. She even cleaned some of my clothes that I left behind before because she said it started smelling bad. I ate the instant noodles for dinner. I wanted to visit Alona Beach to see my friends there and see what’s changed but I didn’t have my motorbike and was lazy to find a driver. Enough for a day I guess. Sleep.

- jason

African Animals in Philippines?

Two and a half hours on the dirt road hurt.

I woke up at 5 AM today to leave by 5:45 AM for a visit to the Caluit Game Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary. Erich, Sara, Nina, and I decided to visit it because it sounded interesting and different. Several decades ago, the president of the Philippines made a deal with Kenya to deliver zebras, giraffes, and several other African animals to the Philippines. In Caluit, they live in an open field which tries to resemble the native scenery of Africa. The preserve is controversial though because it was thought to have been used by the president of Philippines as a hunting ground.

All I knew about how we were getting to Caluit was that we were going to take a truck then a boat to the island. I thought the drive to the boat was only going to be for an hour so I agreed to sit in the back of a truck with Erich. It was uncomfortable, especially when we started driving off-road. About 90% of the drive was on a bumpy dirt road and the drive turned out to be two and a half hours long. The driver dropped us off on the side of a dirt road and hired a boat for us to take to Caluit Island.

Pier to the banca.

The boat was a small banca that basically took us across a lake. We docked on the game preserve’s dock right in front of the entrance. We talked with a man in the front gate that said that the car that would drive us around the park was unavailable. We paid an entrance fee which I tried to get a discount on but I couldn’t convince the man I was Filipino which I’m not. Instead of waiting for the car to take us around which had a chance of never arriving, we decided to walk the park.

Franek and Nina on the banca.

None of us really knew what to expect and if we could even walk the park on our own. Not far into our walk, we saw some native Filipino deer walking around. Franek went out to take pictures of them. The next animal we saw was a giraffe eating some tree leaves. Pretty cool, I don’t think I’ve seen a giraffe in a “natural” environment. Not much farther along we saw a group of zebras in the distance. The whole experience was a strange feeling of being on an African type terrain in the Philippines.

Zebras take shade at Caluit.

A curious giraffe investigates me.

What side of the cage are you on?

Posing for Erich's and Nina's cameras.

A man approached us and had us sit down in a waiting area. It didn’t take much time for Franek and then me to venture out of the waiting area to take pictures of a giraffe in a holding area. Along the way to the holding area I took pictures of zebras I tried approaching. My zoom lens wasn’t long enough so I had to get fairly close to them. When I got near the giraffe’s cage it approached me curiously. I thought it was funny we both were curious of each other trying to figure each out. After a few shots, Sara, Nina, and Erich joined me along with our tour guide.

Caged bearcat.

The tour guide walked us to different parts of the preserve and showed us various caged animals. The animals we saw didn’t seem happy in their cages which devalued the preserve in my mind from an “eco-friendly” sanctuary to just a big zoo. Some of the caged animals were a bearcat, alligator, a couple porcupines and monkeys. The tour guide harassed the alligator to show it to us with a bamboo stick to the point of cruelty which no one in our group appreciated much. He said they feed it a chicken and a chopped up dog once a month. For some reason, he emphasized chopping up the dog.

Time to eat. Someone in our group entices a giraffe.

My branch was was sadly scarce on leaves.

Walking back towards the entrance we were able to feed the giraffes tree leaves. This was probably one of the highlights of my time at the park. Once we started feeding one of the giraffes, several more walked over to be fed. It was my first time really interacting with a giraffe which was fun.

That's not a giraffe... Erich, save some for the giraffes.`

By late morning we all left the park and headed back to Coron. I didn’t want to sit in the back seat again in the truck and so was upgraded to sitting in the front seat with Sara. I didn’t mind sitting with Sara but I wasn’t sure how we were short a seat because we didn’t have two people sit in the front before. We were back in Coron by 2 PM.

For lunch, Erich, Sara, Nina, Franek, and I walked to our favorite bistro. I had a very tasty mango shake and pork tenderloin with herbs and butter sauce. The bistro is foreign owned so the food was quite good and cheap. Afterwards, I went with Sara and Erich to the local travel agent to book our flights out from Basuanga, Coron to Manila. We then hung out at the Sea Dive restaurant to go on the Internet using my laptop.

For dinner, we went back to the bistro and all shared a couple pizzas and salads. I drank a rum and mango drink which was delicious. Its great how you can mix rum with so many good things. After dinner Nina really wanted to try a halo halo dessert drink before she left. We found a small family owned restaurant where she had her halo halo. I have no idea if it was good there. Next we went to Helldivers bar to have a few drinks and shoot some pool.

Back to our rooms, there was no water pressure which was really annoying. I can work around not having electricity for a while but not having water to shower, brush teeth, and clean up with was inconvenient. I had to fetch some free bottled water at the Sea Dive restaurant just so we could brush our teeth.

- jason

Wrecks Underwater Circus

Erich and Sara pose, in what looks like a Coke ad in Australia.

Today Erich, Sara, and I planned on doing three dives—two wrecks and one dive in an unusual fresh and saltwater lake called Barracuda Lake. We left for diving at 8:30 AM and I didn’t have time for breakfast. The first dive we were scheduled to dive was at the Irako wreck and the second dive was to the Tangat wreck. It was the same wreck we first dived where Erich was lost then found. I was a little concerned because I didn’t enjoy the strong head current last time.

A haunting hatch in the wreck.

Our dive guide for the day was a British guy named Kevin. He was a good guide that was nice and thorough. In our dive group, I dived with Nina, Erich, and Sara; Franek was grouped with another group. The Irako wreck was a great dive especially compared to when I went on it the first time. As usual, the visibility was bad at about 7 meters. The Kevin was pleasantly surprised that all of our air consumption was good; not sure if he knew we were two Divemasters and one instructor. My underwater camera housing is designed to function up to 40 meters depth but my shutter button got stuck at 33 meters. I couldn’t take pictures and was only able to take video.

Outside the wreck, a dense school of fish.

A relatively large nudibranch on the wreck.

A jellyfish and a small filefish wait with me at my deco-stop.

The second dive at 12:10 PM to the Tangat wreck was good also. We explored more around the wreck but saw a good amount inside. There was a slight current but it really wasn’t an issue. Around the wreck, I saw more sea life than the other wrecks—scorpionfish, and a large white nudibranch. For the dive, I went down to 30 meters for 48 minutes. At the end of the dive I had to do a required decompression stop at 3 meters for 6 minutes. There, Franek was waiting for his buddy to complete his 25 minute deco-stop at the same depth! A huge difference in dive computer algorithms based on similar dive profiles. Franek was bored so he decided to play tic-tak-toe on his dive slate.

The sharp and slightly scary rocks we had to climb over to get to Barracuda Lake.

The last dive of the day was at Barracuda Lake. This dive, by far, was the most unusual dive I’ve ever dived. To get to the lake, you have to swim to then hike over sharp rocks with all your scuba gear. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wear wet suits for the dive because it gets to be over 100 degrees F / 39 degrees C. The lake consists of layers of freshwater and saltwater varying in temperature from 102 F (39 C) down to 84 F (29 C). The top layer is cool freshwater but as you descend down you feel the warm then hot saltwater. The hot saltwater is easy to see in the water

At the bottom, there is a soft, thick layer of silt that you can dig your hand deeply into. The best though was when a Divemaster rammed his head into the silt and layed there vertically head first. It was a hilarious sight to see. Several others in the group including me tried it out. It’s weird burying your head in the silt, upside down, and still being able to breath. I tried blindly taking a picture of myself but just shot my pressure gauge. Too bad.

Erich takes his BCD off to cool off?

Walking around with a tree underwater. Really strange.

Diving with only a tank and regulator...Strange!

Reflecting rocks at the surface.

The silt part of the dive was just the beginning. While we swam along, the temperature of the water got to a point where it was suffocatingly hot—similar to being stuck in a hot sauna with a mask on and breathing through a regulator. For some reason, Sara and Erich were taking off their BCDs then putting them back on. I noticed the Divemaster that stuck his head in the silt before was only diving with a tank and regulator—no BCD—and was walking around carrying a tree? Erich stole Sara’s fin off her foot and swam away. The whole dive felt like an underwater circus. Was everyone having a case of nitrogen narcosis? Everything was so surreal and unlike a dive I almost lost forgot to keep track of my dive time and profile. All good things come to an end and so did the dive at Barracuda Lake. Once we got out of the water, we hiked back over the rocks, and swam back to our boat.

Tranquil evening waters in Coron bay.

After cleaning up, I and several others hung out at the Sea Dive Resort where we went on the Internet with my laptop. Despite having free wireless Internet conveniently close, I didn’t get a chance to get much journaling done. It wasn’t like I had several hours a day to write and update my journal. We were all busy doing other things plus whenever I had my laptop out, others wanted to use it to. It was fine, I was on vacation. Maybe I should get away from the computer anyway.

Franek writing notes for his journal.

After everyone was bored using the computer, Erich, Sara, Nina and I went to downtown to get some food supplies for the next day at Caluit—SkyFlake crackers in various flavors and a few other things. Later in the night, we stopped over to Helldivers Bar for some drinks and pool. Back at our rooms, there was no running water—which wasn’t a first at our rooms and is very annoying. So, I had to go to the Sea Dive restaurant to get some fresh water. Additionally, we frequently lose electricity and have cockroaches in our room. Well, at least it was only 280 pesos/night total with two persons per room.

- jason