Dive-Monster Rhoody

The small Island of Diwaran next to Coron, Palawan, is supposed to be transformed in a new Luxury-Beach-Resort until 2012. As this would support the local-tourism industry it’s still a question how that will end.. The whole Island should compete or stand aside Phuket in Thailand.

I don’t know if that is the way the Philippines want to go in the future. On the other hand 12.000 jobs is a lot. Below the article I found in a local newspaper. Lets see how all will develop…

CORON, PALAWAN—Stand aside, Phuket. Here comes Diwaran.

By 2012, the 55-hectare Diwaran Island, part of Coron Reefs in northern Palawan, will be transformed into the “single largest integrated island resort in all Asia.”

This is the hope of Ho Kwon Ping, the Singaporean executive chair of Banyan Tree Holdings, a big developer of resorts, hotels, spas and residential homes in the Asia Pacific.

He spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony of the planned resort on the largely uninhabited island Wednesday attended by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Dressed in casual attire, Ms Arroyo came with Tourism Secretary Ace Durano and Trade Secretary Peter Favila.

Challenge to Phuket

Ms Arroyo said that the project, which is estimated to cost $240 million, would be the next Phuket, the popular resort in Thailand. Ho’s company pioneered the development in that area.

“What he had been able to do there, he can certainly do here,” she said.

Ho showed the master plan of the Isla Diwaran project to Ms Arroyo under the shade of tents.

The island’s map shows that the beach with only fine white sand and few indigenous trees will have three hotels with villas, a marina with facilities for arrival by boat or by seaplane, and a town center where there will be recreational facilities and retail outlets.

“All together, if fully developed, these (hotels) will have 600 rooms … At its full occupancy, we will have more than 1,500 tourists on this island alone,” Ho said.

About 20 minutes by speedboat from Coron, the island will be a sure attraction for tourists. On the way, overhanging limestone cliffs are seen. Coron Reefs, a favorite site for divers, is also known for its diverse marine life.

12,000 jobs

As soon as the resort is completed, 3,000 people will be hired to work on the island, Ho said.

“We are expecting at least 12,000 people to acquire jobs directly and indirectly from this project,” he said.

Ms Arroyo told a fisherman in the crowd, Joel Saclet, that on nearby Amanpulo, residents no longer fished but worked in the high-end resort.

“Is that what you are also expecting?” she asked.

Saclet replied “yes, ma’am.”

“It’s not only in the operation but as well as in the construction and a lot of the people around … are expecting that as this island resort is being built, roads will be constructed from the airport to the Marcella port,” Ms Arroyo said.

2012 opening

Ho said the resort would open probably by 2012.

Based on Banyan’s statistics, Palawan will benefit from the total tourists’ spending of $200 million per year.

“This is generally a big help for Coron,” he said.

The company already has hotels in some of the world’s most exclusive and popular holiday spots such as the Seychelles and Maldives.

It will develop the project, its first in the Philippines, together with Filipino businessman Salvador Zamora of Tranzen Group.

Banyan Tree was founded by Ho, a former journalist, and his wife in 1994 and was one of the first resort chains to offer guests the seclusion of their own villa equipped with a private pool and a tropical spa.

Lets see how all will develop…

cheers

Rhoody

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I know that I don’t tell you anything new. I just wanted to make that statement after some breath-taking experience with the female gender in Dumaguete driving cars. A global study over a long term just proved  that women have only 23 % of the accident-rate of men.

I think that tells enough. To underline the statement I copied the final video-documentation in the frame below… no questions shall be asked…

… the study also said, that women drive only 9% of the kilometers/miles men do.
So if you look at the statistic for “numbers of accidents per 100.000 km/miles” the result looks “slightly” different.

drive with a smile

Rhoody

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We leave Dumaguete at 12 midnight March Friday the 13th, my daughter is so excited to see her brother in Tacloban,,, our plan is to surprise him  that we are there on his birthday March 17..

we arrived at Cebu 7am March 14th and we  move to another boat going to Ormoc, its 2 hours travel, then Ormoc to Tacloban 1 hour in the bus…

I’m not very much excited that I’m already in my home town where i grow up…even i have change to meet my school mates my old friends, my cousins, aunties and more relatives,… because i know they just expect a lot of pasalubong or help i can give to them, its nothing bad at all.., to be honest i love to help and to have anything for them to help and to share  some of my blessings.. but i don’t have something to give for them,for sure if i have, there is no problem to share… but then i just have my budget and plans for something good for my son, the only reason why me and my daughter are visiting Tacloban City.…  When we’re already at the barangay Anibong the place where i grow up, i can’t stop my self not to cry.. a silent cry but its so deep to my heart and my mind.,and its bring some of my memories how i grow up and learn  how to fight for life .. Actually my grandma took care of me and 3 more younger brothers of mine,..since I’m in 4th grade school,   up to 2nd year high school, I’m with my grandma, (mother side…) I don’t grow up with my own  Family,, its already broken family since i born… my brothers are all half brother only (mother side)…  its make me more sad when i saw the old house of my grandma,its really broken no walls, no roof and no floor…. the only thing was left there are mess and old clothes that nobody can used..

I stay with my uncle, older brother of my dad, i stay there for 4 days….

i don’t waste any single days of my visit to my son in Tacloban that i don’t play and  go out somewhere that i can make my kids happy.. I bring them to Family park, Tower park,Santo Niño church..and to new Gaisano Central a shopping mall in Tacloban.i bought so much present for him.. toys and the most important is his school supplies…  i miss my son so much… I’ve missed a lot of days with out him….  how i wish i can go swimming with him like my daughter and me doing each summer…  i wish that he understand why i have to leave him in Tacloban together with his grandma and not with me  each  time he needs me… to guide him, to teach him if he has home work, play with.. and sleep with… that he feels how much i love him… i just hug my daughter double tight coz of missing him, my son…. I feel and see my daughter miss him too…

maldita

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“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

I came over that quote while reading a book on my Off-Sunday laying at the beach. I couldn’t stop thinking about it as it brings quite some truth with it. Somehow It could have been be said on a TV-show just yesterday or 10 years ago.

It made me thinking a couple of years back when I left Germany. At that time people were demonstrating for the 35 hour week and retire with 60… I never had that. I was working in the music-business 14 – 18 hours daily since I was 19 and spend all weekends, Christmas, new years-eve, birthday’s somewhere in a crowd or a dark backstage area. I still loved my job and still don’t wanna miss a second.

Since I am 12 I write diary. As a typical German I also wrote down my working hours, places where I have been and a lot of statistical stuff. For example in 2000 I had 21 off-days the whole year and spend some of them in the outskirts of Bari, probably on of the ugliest towns in lovely Italy…

I quit my job and company early in the 30 to move to the Philippine. When I went to my tax-officer in my hometown I could not resist to tell him that I have already more working hours than he will have in his entire life with his 8am to 4pm job (37 hrs-week, and I know in English it’s a 9to5-job) in case he will live that long and can retire one day with 62.

His face expression was that of a deer standing frozen on a lonely road in pitch-black night, facing the fast closer coming bright headlights of a 40-ton-truck.
(Btw, you can get the same face-expression asking a local beauty if the moon or Berlin is closer to the Philippines… hmmm I can see the moon, but Berlin ? anyway what is that…)

When I went to the Philippines I reduced my time on Job to about 12 hours a day with 1 or two off-days a month and 10 days vacation (of course unpaid). Even now I easy beat the 40 hours a week on job.

So lets put my taxman in numbers for a year (365 days, 5 working days or 37 hours a week)

104 days weekend
30 days vacation
7 days sick (average in 2006, when I left Germany it was 9.5 days sick a year)
10 public holiday (normally 17 but some are on Sundays or fall depending on a year on a sunday)
3 other (days like Christmas eve where people work only half day and other stuff like socialising trips of the company and celebrations where nobody works)

That means there are 211 working days left, or a total amount of 1,561 working hours in the whole year. I reached this number in 2000 in less than 100 days.

There is obviously a reason why I can read a book at a beach surrounded by lovely people and pretty girls, great diving and cold beer. For my part, I won’t accept if my tax-officer whining around that he need to pay more money for his medicine and other stuff.

oops, sorry I almost forgot about it.

The quote above is more than 2000 years old and from

Marcus Tullius Cicero – 55 bC

Deja Vu

Rhoody

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Here I lay again, in my wonderful hammock in my veranda in lovely Dumaguete. It’s about 6 pm and I need too get my high blood down. High blood, why ? … cause I am flrnucking pissed off with some persons at the Globe Office in Dumaguete and the great job of the “service”hotline…

Since 1:16 pm I am offline. Hey no problem, I know I am in a 3rd word – oh pardon, I mean of course developing country, so internet is not a given thing. I had more or less something like a connection since I moved here and was able to do my work most of the time (never with even close to the speed that liar selling and charging). What pisses me off is when Globeline office clerks, branch managers and “hotline”-employees just lying into my face to get rid of THEIR clients… So what happened …

I went to the fancy office of the Globe branch in Dumaguete which is notoriously understaffed and only 2 out of 4 desks are occupied. After an hour or so I went to the cashier and ask them for a discount as I only get about 30 – 40 % of the speed I am supposed to pay for. The answer I got was what I expected anyway…

“Sir, you need to write a complaint, I can’t do anything, I am only the cashier…” Funny that the same girl was the other day sitting on the information-chair and responsible for the complaints.

“Ok miss,I wont write anything, please bring me a responsible person I can talk to…”

“Sorry Sir, our Manager is out of the house”… poor little girl does not know that I know the manager…

“ermm, Miss, please don’t bola me (local term for bullshit me), Mrs XXX walked in 30 Minutes ago and sits exactly on the chair behind that wall….”

… after some surprised big eyes and a quick blush cause of getting caught plain lying, that office Clerk of Globelines stood up and talked to the Manager who appeared another 5 Minutes later.

“Hello Mrs XXX, nice to see you …. Blablabla” so here I told my story again.

I got a ridiculous discount of 15%… It simply means, I need to pay 85% but that Internet Service provider Globe in Dumaguete only delivers 30 – 40 % .

WOW, that’s great, next time I got an open water course I give 10% discount throw my student once in the Banica River and course done….
Totally ridiculous for running professional business !!!

But hey, at least they have enough money to put some posters up if somebody in Silliman makes an anniversary – fart…. “Globlines… taste of the world-stay connected”

To my total excitement Mrs XXX told me that the upgrade of their Globe internet Service in Dumaguete is done since last week and since then they had no complaints…
Another big lie as at the same time on the desk next to me a customer demanded (with a very red head) a refund cause of a non-existing high-speed-internet connection….

That’s a kind of the end of part one. So let’s make a summary of the “customer-care” of Globe Internet Service provider in Dumaguete:

• Keep your office understaffed (more than one hour waiting makes complainers that they just wanna go out)
• Pass on responsibilities (no sir not my department, you need to write a complaint)
• Lie to your guests (no sir not in the house yet…)
• Charge 85% but only deliver 30-40% (not even counting the 5 days offline after the flooding)
• Lie again… (net has been upgraded and working fine since last week…)
• And lie again (Sir, we have no complaints… while a customer next desk demands a refund due to NO Internet-service from Globe)

Bollocks … people spend thousands of dollars when moving to a place partially based of the lies of this ridiculous Globe office clerks and their in Dumaguete Branch with empty promises that there is Internet service available…
I still wouldn’t have high blood if that would all… part two will follow soon and includes the Globe Hotline and more lies from Globe Internet Service Provider in Dumaguete (including more hot Air and lame excuses in the email communication)

gone diving

Rhoody

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The demand for a nice hotel when coming to Dumaguete is getting bigger almost each month here. During high season it’s hard to find something up to date and most places are fully booked. Since a couple of weeks is a new Hotel quite central in Dumageute City.

Obdulias Business Inn is located next to BDO-bank and the Cathedral. It has a modern design and rooms starting around 700 peso. The rooms are spacious and well designed and with the elevator also accessible for elder guests without any problems. A restaurant in the same building offers international dishes including Thai and Indian cuisine.

Another edition to the Dumaguete Hotel scene is soon to open. Hotel Nicanor will open for guests in a few weeks and is about 2 minutes walking distance to Lee Plaza and the Boulevard. With 44 rooms Hotel Nicanor is one of the biggest Hotels in Dumaguete and can accommodate more than 100 guests. Hotel Nicanor is related somehow to the same Family which runs Hotel Palwa and that puts quite some weights on the shoulders of Katrina, the manager of Nicanor. Why?

Hotel Palwa is top of my “favorite-hotel-list” in Dumaguete because of the friendly staff and the lovely Frontdeskangels. Some of Nicanor’s future FD-staff is at the moment in training there and I must admit the staff-recruiter has a good taste… hehe

My Friend Kim has always a pleasant stay at Palwa and it will be hard to convince him to try something else… But as he puts me in charge for his booking he also might have no chance. The only problem would be if he is not happy he will drown me in SMB.

I am pretty sure the future will bring some more Hotels to Dumaguete, I’ll keep you informed … and there is always www.dumagueteinfo.com

cheers

Rhoody

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A week ago or so I was writing about depression or something… It all happened in the middle of a cold or fever I caught. Being sick and feeling dizzy all the time just turned out to go into the second week now. I already feel way better than before and made my first short trips into Dumaguete for some hours.
I can’t explain how I feel being trapped at home. I need to be out and roaming around, meeting people and having fun.

During all that time at home I tried to be a bit healthy and did not drink any SMB. I finally  bought a scale for my bathroom (after 1.5 years) just to find out what I knew anyway… Fmucking hell, I am getting way too fat. … I still can see “my little Rhoody” while taking a wee without bending forward but it’s time to start the Project UHU.

UHU means simply “Under HUndret” and is in direct relationship to my weight…  so what is involved in that project?

First is no SMB for a while, water and coke light will do.
Plenty of vegetables and fruit, to get my daily Vitamins and all that crap… (I hate taking vitamin-pills and stuff in a country where there are fresh Mango, Banana,Pinapple,Coconut  and much more.)
Eating small portions… I am normally a plate licker… no matter how full my plate is, I will finish it completely. I won’t leave one rice corn on it (normally no need to wash my dishes…)
I’ll do some workout to get my boobs in better shape again, my shoulders even wider (six pack won’t work out with me)
and I’ll do some more stuff to get back on gwapo-track

UHU is about halftime of what I plan to reach in the next 2 month.  I may have some days in between, where I am going out and eat all I can just satisfy my brain. No Rhoody can life on that healthy stuff over a period of 2 month.

A funny sidenote. I was drinking way too much when I was going out, I am pretty aware of that. I was suspecting some kind of problems with stopping SMB. I did not go out each evening, but about 3-4 times a week, so I count myself as a kind of alcoholic. But guess what, I don’t feel  any difference or any demand that I need a beer now. I was with good friends at Mikes place yesterday and stuck to Coke-light without problems.

Guess I am just a stubborn german fat fart, hehe. It’s about 250 hours without SMB and the only problem I had were the complaints of some local places that they can’t pay the salaries due to lacking income. I’ll keep you posted how Rhoody’s project UHU will continue.
Cheers
Rhoody

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